Kingsway: Takoradi store identified
Kingsway: Takoradi store identified
When I was scanning the images for the Kingsway Stores exhibition and recent article, I came across the Takoradi Kingsway in a colour slide. It wasn’t a building I was familiar with and hadn’t seen any other references to it within the wider UAC archive. The design is also different to the other branches – it doesn’t seem to fit with the earlier Millers (old Accra) or F&A Swanzy (Kumasi) stores – nor with the James Lomax-Simpson designs found at neighbouring Sekondi and Cape Coast. The branch at Sekondi complicates things further – why would there be a Kingsway at both Sekondi and Takoradi when they’re so physically close together? The Takoradi branch is also a substantial structure – far larger than might be expected for a town of this scale. Perhaps it was used as a warehouse or depot for the wider enterprise, receiving the imported goods from the neighbouring port that had opened in the 1920s, or was it used as a regional office and retail outlet for the UAC (or one of its predecessors) when the new town and port was set out? The archives include some replanning and refurbishment plans from the 1960s but nothing on the structure’s history and design. The neo-classical facade with ionic columns in antis is also unusual – contrasting with the more moderne 1930s turrets and cantilevered canopies.
I began to look at the maps of Takoradi to try to locate the structure, but couldn’t find anything on this scale – it was only when I reviewed my photos of the town that I found a contemporary image. The building is still standing and largely unaltered. It’s located amongst the other large European trading properties that were built around the customs house, train station and post office. There’s also shipping offices for Palm Line and Elder Dempster, along with a Barclays bank within this commercial cluster.
Transnational Architecture Group 
Good detective work and looks good albeit worse for wear
brilliant! I remember this place…. my dad used to buy Marmite here for us when we were kids, Eagle magazine for me. My younger brother Tim was born here in ’63. Dad worked for Unilever. I was born in Kano, Nigeria in ’58 – so cool to see this H
I remember it too. There were 2 Kingsway stores in Takoradi. I was last there in 1966. My father worked for F. Hills and son. We regularly visited the shops. I have tried to locate them on Google maps but haven’t been able to find them.
if you go to https://maps.app.goo.gl/xg9kDp1ABhm1hFWPA you can see it. It’s just up from the train station where all of the large banks , post office etc are….