Video: Inside Clerys department store in Dublin – in 1932

Check out this 1932 video of the legendary department store on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, including the bargain basement, the ‘gay and lively’ café – and a mechanical zoo…

11/01/12 5,145 Views 21 Comments

IT’S ONE OF the world’s first purpose-built department stores – and this video shows just what it was like 80 years ago.

Clery’s on Dublin’s O’Connell Street was first opened in 1853 but had to be completely rebuilt when it was destroyed by the 1916 Rising.

This amazing video is an advertisement for the shop from 1932. Check it out:

(Video via timminspj)

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Christine Bohan

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Darren McCormack 11/01/12 #

0 65

Love seeing videos like this.

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Mairéad Ní Lorcáin 11/01/12 #

1 88

Loved Clery’s in the 50s. Santy on Dec 8th. All those acres of fabric and wool on the ground floor. One secretely longed for skirts and jumpers which mother had not made or knitted. Ready made fashion. What bliss. Assistants wearing black with scissors slung across their chests. Brass tape measures fixed to counters. Whizzy things sending payments and change to and from a central office just like a model railway. The Bad Ass Cafe had a similar system more recently. The assistant pulled a cord to set the mechanism in motion. No cosmetics in sight. Now one has to negotiate a path through the make-up to get to the real shop.
Father parked outside the Gresham. At the end of the day we paid the annual visit to the elderly cousins -retired Christian Brothers in their 90s. Am I allowed to say that nowadays? They used to count the cabinet minsters they had taught (inc S. Lemass). I loved the string of lights visible from Killiney to Baldoyle.Then home to the country sleeping in the car.

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- Christine Bohan 11/01/12 #
  
  4 34
  
  Great comment Mairéad, that really brings it to life. Sounds amazing – so different to what it’s like today.
  
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- Anna Gallagher 12/01/12 #
  
  0 14
  
  Mairead, I thouroghly enjoyed reading your comment.
  
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- Niall Callan 14/01/12 #
  
  0 2
  
  Lovely comment Mairéad, my late aunt worked in the drapery section from the 1950s until she got married in 1970, she always seemed to have loved Clery’s a lot more than married life!
  
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Shane Brehony 11/01/12 #

0 36

Class to see .

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Leslie Alan Rock 11/01/12 #

2 43

Comment of the month from Mairead…

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Rodger O Waters 11/01/12 #

0 20

Some footage,and no credit card dept either.

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Matthew Fitzpatrick 11/01/12 #

0 16

“You couldn’t have your tea or lunch in more pleasant surroundings” – Just don’t look up.

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sluazcanal 11/01/12 #

1 23

Excellent.

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Anthony Cole 11/01/12 #

6 16

It’s nice to see they have maintained consistency. They are still selling the same styles today.

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Breda Westlake 12/01/12 #

1 5

I’m still using a Conneamara rug made by Providence Woolen Mills, Foxord that my mother bought in Clerys back back in 1978 and it’s still perfect!

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Sharon McCarthy 11/01/12 #

8 10

Lovely comment Mairéad,

Please excuse me if I am being totally innocent here, but if television didn’t come to our shores ’till the 1950’s how is this film labelled as an advertisement from 1932? Is it a misprint or was it broadcast elsewhere?

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- Paul 11/01/12 #
  
  1 18
  
  Cinema advert
  
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- Dec Rowe 11/01/12 #
  
  2 7
  
  We had odeons back then… Apparently ;)
  
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- Sharon McCarthy 12/01/12 #
  
  0 0
  
  Thanks guys, never thought about that.
  
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Pauline Lee 27/10/12 #

0 0

Wonderful, God be with the days. Thank you for sharing. XXXXX

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Deb Stephens 04/11/12 #

0 0

Pretty amazing old footage especially when you consider it is 80 years old!

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Sunniva O'Flynn 23/09/12 #

0 0

This is a time-coded copy of the 35mm original cinema advert which is preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive along with a wealth of public and private films dating from 1897 to the present day.

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Deb Stephens 04/11/12 #

0 0

Love this old footage & it’s amazing to think it is 80 years old!! Thanks for sharing

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Martin Matthews 11/01/12 #

20 6

Ye middle class

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Video: Inside Clerys department store in Dublin – in 1932