The pair of elephants was standing on Brunswick Place in 1931; they had come to say goodbye to Arthur Fenwick, a director of the nearby Fenwick’s department store. The second photo shows the same scene today for comparison.
Arthur was the son of John James Fenwick, founder of the store, but had shown no inclination to join the family business when he left school. At the age of nineteen, he took to the road in a green caravan and befriended lots of people involved with circuses and fairgrounds on his travels. He returned to the family fold after six years, but his love of showfolk and their way of life lasted until his death in 1957 at the age of 79.
He put his experience and contacts to good use when he established the Fenwick’s Children Circus in the store, around the time the first photo was taken. In 1947 he took a thousand employees of Fenwick’s to the Town Moor to see the Bertram Mills Circus, and when poor health prevented him leaving the house in later life, the circuses came to see him. A maid at his house in Brandling Park once opened the door to see an elephant holding a bunch of flowers for Arthur.
The pair of elephants was standing on Brunswick Place in 1931; they had come to say goodbye to Arthur Fenwick, a director of the nearby Fenwick’s department store. The second photo shows the same scene today for comparison.
Arthur Fenwick was made an honorary member of the Showmen’s Guild but his life wasn’t all sawdust and muck. He was an expert on women’s fashion and developed Fenwick’s famous French Salon, and he married into another department store dynasty. His wife was Annie Beavan, whose family’s business was on Shields Road in Byker.