From Billy Howe’s Archives – edited and presented by Daniel Howe
Here We Are on Old Snow Hill
Here we are again on old Snow Hill, and it’s good to see that someone, somewhere, had the foresight to save these beautiful old buildings instead of knocking the lot down, as so often happened in Wolverhampton.
Well, most of them anyway.
Sadly, the Old Pied Bull didn’t survive the times.
Still, it’s heartening that this part of Snow Hill has kept a little of its character — you can still imagine the days when tradespeople, market-goers and clockmakers bustled about their business here.
Caption: Snow Hill in its heyday — buses, cars and busy shopfronts before redevelopment changed the face of the street.
The Lost Block That Time Forgot
Just a few doors down, towards Cleveland Street, stood another row that wasn’t so lucky.
Suppose you’d walked that stretch a few generations ago.
In that case, you’d have seen a proud line of local shops — Hill’s Newsagents, Higgs the Fishmonger, Whitehead’s Printers, Fenwick’s Radio Spares, and of course Hewitt Clarkson, the famous clockmaker and jeweller.
It’s hard to believe now, but this small block was once one of Wolverhampton’s best-known shopping corners.
Hewitt Clarkson set up his clockmaking business here around 1780, and his successors kept the shop going on the same site for almost two hundred years.
Many such places have disappeared across the city, remembered now only in photographs and memory.
Caption: The lost block on Snow Hill — home to Hill’s Newsagents, Higgs the Fishmonger, Whitehead’s Printers and Clarkson’s the clockmaker. A stretch that Wolverhampton should have never let go.
By the 1970s, the name above the door had changed — Rackham’s Department Store had taken over, marking the end of an era for the local merchants who’d kept the street ticking for generations.
Later still, even that gave way to a Netto supermarket — a modern echo of the same corner where Clarkson once crafted fine clocks by hand.
Across the Street: A Chapel Turned Shop
If you crossed Snow Hill in those days, you’d have seen a second Clarkson’s shop facing the first.
What makes this one special is that it began life not as a shop at all, but as a Unitarian Chapel, opened back in 1831.
The chapel served its congregation until 1898, when it closed its doors and later became part of the Clarkson business.
Early photographs still reveal the chapel’s tall arched windows and elegant frontage.
Caption: The second Clarkson’s shop — once the old Unitarian Chapel of 1831, later converted into Clarkson’s Furniture Warehouse.
Snow Hill in Transition
By the 1960s, Snow Hill was changing fast.
Jay’s Furnishers stood opposite the Gaumont Picture House, scaffolding marked the site where the new Clarkson’s would soon rise, and familiar names like Ruddler’s Leather Goods and T. J. Robinson’s Butchers lined the street.
Caption: Snow Hill looking towards Cleveland Street, c.1960s — the Coach and Horses at the top of Bell Street, Jay’s Furnishers opposite the Gaumont, and scaffolding where the new Clarkson’s store was soon to appear.
The New Clarkson’s Store
Clarkson’s had come a long way from its days as a clockmaker’s shopfront.
When the new department store opened, this artist’s impression captured Wolverhampton’s leap into the modern retail age — all clean lines and optimism.
Caption: Artist’s impression of the new Clarkson’s Department Store — the modern face of a business that began nearly two centuries earlier.
Architectural Note: A Modernist Landmark (1966)
When the new Clarkson’s Department Store opened on Snow Hill in 1966, it even earned a Civic Trust Commendation for architectural design.
The judges praised it as “simple, straightforward and dignified… an excellent contribution to the street scene both by day and night.”
Designed by C.H. Elsom & Partners and built by Higgs and Hill (Coventry) Ltd.
The building featured a curtain wall of pre-cast concrete panels and horizontal strip windows – hallmarks of the era’s modernist optimism.
Though not universally loved, it was a thoughtful piece of work that tried to balance function and form: the upper floors had little need for windows, so the concrete patterning became decoration in itself.
For a time, this was Wolverhampton’s proud example of forward-looking design — even if its charm lay more in confidence than beauty.
The Passing of Time
There’s something rather poetic about a clockmaker being at the centre of Snow Hill’s story.
Hewitt Clarkson’s business measured the minutes and hours of Wolverhampton life — and in doing so, became a quiet witness to the city’s own passage through time.
For many people, Snow Hill wasn’t just a place of shops and buildings, but a street full of characters and everyday stories.
From chapel to clock shop, from department store to discount supermarket, this single corner of Snow Hill tells a story of change — the kind that happens slowly, until one day you look up and realise how much has gone.
It’s one of those moments that forms a real link to the past.
Caption: Snow Hill in 2011 — the old Clarkson’s building still standing long after Netto’s closure. On the right, the former Jay’s Furnishers site remains a furniture store. Time moves on, yet some corners never quite lose their purpose.
And now, even that has changed again.
Caption: Snow Hill, as it was in August 2025 — the site where Clarkson’s and Jay’s Furnishers once stood is now part of the open-air market and car park. Wolverhampton’s streets keep changing, but the memories live on.
About This Story
This piece comes from Billy Howe’s original notes and slideshow talks, lovingly restored and adapted by Daniel Howe for Lost Wolverhampton.
From Billy Howe’s Archives
Continuing Billy’s lifelong mission to keep Wolverhampton’s history alive — one story, one street, one memory at a time.
Related Reading
“HOWE’S LIFE” – Part One – Memories of a Forties Child
I am 77 and on reading this the memories came back thank you very much.