Havelock House, Sunderland.

[finta]

Hello

I have a postcard from my grandfather to my grandmother dated 1912 before they married.  The address is simply her name, Havelock House, Sunderland.

A little googling has led me to believe Havelock House was a Drapery Store on MacKies Corner (Fawcett St and High Street West?), which burnt down in 1898 and was rebuilt as a huge department store.  My grandmother did indeed work as a Draper's Assistant and lived in Sunderland in 1911, according to the census. 

My querie is, even if she did indeed work there, why would my grandfather have written it as her address?  Is is possible there were living quarters on the top floors?

All suggestions welcome

[stanmapstone]

There was also Havelock Hospital, which was the Sunderland Borough Infectious Diseases
Hospital.

Stan

[stanmapstone]

Hello

A little googling has led me to believe Havelock House was a Drapery Store on MacKies Corner (Fawcett St and High Street West?), which burnt down in 1898 and was rebuilt as a huge department store. 

It was George Henry Robinson's, Draper, the Havelock Cinema, which opened in 1915, was later built on the site of Havelock House.

Stan

[stanmapstone]

In the 1902 Directory Havelock House was at 1,2,3, 4,5, & 6 Fawcett Street and 224,225,226, & 228 High Street West i.e. at the junction of the two streets. There are no occupants at these addresses in the census. If she worked there then for some reason he has sent the card to her work place instead of to her home address, which he may have not known. When did they get married?
If you go to http://www.east-durham.co.uk/ then under Sunderland in the left hand list select Town Centre there is a photo of Havelock House at SDTC 007
 
Stan

[finta]

Thanks for the info and link, Stan. Most helpful.  I think Havelock House was a Draper's before the fire too.

Late on Jul. 18, 1898, a Saturday, fire broke out at 'Havelock House', the name by which George H. (Henry) Havelock's (that's George Havelock at left below) drapery store in Sunderland, was known. A noted store indeed, located at the major business intersection known as MacKie's Corners - where Fawcett & Bridge Streets cross High Street....fromhttp://www.searlecanada.org/sunderland/sunderland018.html#1898fire   

My grandparents married in 1913 a year later than the postcard date, and she moved from Sunderland to Devon.  It seems that she changed address a few times in Sunderland and South Shields before her marriage, so my grandfather, as you say, quite possibly didn't know her current address.

Thanks again for your help.

finta

[Sousanna]

I have reason to believe that young women who were employed at Havelock House did live there. My grandmother started work there when she was 17 in 1909. Below is an excerpt from an interview with my grandmother's daughter (my Aunt) where she says that the employees "lived in":

"She [my grandmother] lived In Collingwood Terrace, Southwick, Sunderland, that's where the family home was. She worked at a place called Havelock House, in Sunderland. She had to work one year for nothing and they lived in, and the shop didn't shut until midnight on Saturday night and when there were no customers, they had to pretend they were working, they'd pull a whole fixture out and reset it all up again. She used to talk about that a lot. They had a good time with all the girls together, and they used to go to all the shows, there was always live shows on in those days."