Museum displays models of landmark department store

The models will remain on display at Reading Museum until late March

Former staff of a department store have come together to remember the former landmark at an exhibition.

Three miniature models of Jacksons in Reading, Berkshire, as it would have looked in 1904 have gone on display together for the first time at Reading Museum.

The models of Jacksons Corner, which sold clothing; the Duke Street store, which sold household items; and the boot and shoe department on the High Street were commissioned in 2020 by former employee Thomas Macey, who started working in their school uniform department at 16.

Jacksons was founded in 1875 and its flagship store in the town closed its doors for the last time on Christmas Eve 2013.

Mr Macey became a key holder and personal assistant to one of the directors and when the last store closed he was given the archives by the Jackson family.

He said Jacksons is "an incredibly important part of Reading's heritage".

And added: "I'm an old-fashioned kind of person. [Working there] just suited me, it was a department store but also a piece of living history."

The museum exhibit was opened by the Reading's mayor Alice Mpofu-Coles on Monday, with Brian Carter, the great-grandson of the founder Edward Jackson, and the store's last managing director.

"My great-grandfather founded it and I closed it down," he said.

"I'm really astounded that people are still interested in it. I thought when we closed down that would be it but here we are."

Mr Carter shut the store after the roof began to fail and they could not afford to repair it.

Joining him was Sue Jacobs, who spent 40 years managing the Jacksons' window displays.

"We were one happy family. We weren't employees, we were part of the place," she said.

The models will remain on display at the museum until 28 March 2026.