The Story of the Car Park

50 years and more of the Sainsbury's supermarket car park

In the Sainsbury Archive we have quite a lot of material relating to car parks! There are huge numbers of photos of Sainsbury’s car parks, designs for car parks, reports and surveys about car parks and even a film about car parks. In fact if you searched our catalogue you’d find over 8000 items. We'll tell you here a bit of the story of how the car park developed over time.

 

Before the supermarket car park 

Until the 1960s car parking was not really a consideration for food retailers in the UK. Few households had a car (14% in 1951). Even in households with a car, in the typical nuclear family of the time it was common for the husband to take the car to work and the wife to do the shopping on foot or by public transport.

A few people were beginning to use cars for shopping though as can be seen in an advert for the new Kentish Town store in 1955 which mentioned that “If you use your car for shopping a car park adjoins the new premises” – it was however just a small point on this advert.

Over in the USA things were very different however. Mr J. Woods of Sainsbury’s reported in the company’s staff magazine ‘JS Journal’ in 1956 about what it was like there. Food shopping by car was a normal thing and there were large supermarkets often in ‘out of town’ locations with extensive, well-used car parks.

 

The beginning of the 'Motor Age'

By the 1960s, concern had started to grow among UK retailers about car parking. Car ownership had been increasing rapidly, with about half of British households having a car by 1970. Lord Alan Sainsbury read a paper at the International Association of Chain Stores conference in 1964 on the likely impact of the car on retailers and the changes he thought would need to be made. The paper was also published in ‘JS Journal’. He thought that Britain would probably develop a mixed system of shopping with town and city centres remaining as the main business and shopping centres (in contrast to the USA, where many centres had become ‘ghost towns’) but with a limited number of out-of-town shopping centres. Wherever the store was located he thought “the provision of a car park…may become a necessity to attract customers”. He also noted the impact the car was already having – “all our towns…are becoming hopelessly congested because of the lack of modern highways and parking facilities”. He considered that “when designing new stores for the Motor Age it will be vital for retailers to integrate their own plans into the overall development scheme of the surrounding areas”.

Sainsbury's did just this and as part of the development of new shopping centres and precincts opened a number of new stores in town, city and suburban centres during the 1960s and 1970s. These centres typically had their own car parks – either a multi-storey car park adjacent to or above the shops, or a basement car park. During the 1960s, the availability of nearby car parking began to become a key feature which was promoted when a new store opened. 

It was however noted that access to these car parks for customers with trolleys full of shopping was difficult at many of the centres. Lifts were small, insufficient in number and some banned the use of trolleys – like Eden Park, Kingston.

The company had photographs taken and even a film made to show shoppers struggling with getting shopping to their cars. This was shown at a seminar for representatives of planning authorities in 1972 to encourage them to think about the issue.

Few of the supermarkets of the 1950s and 1960s had parking directly outside on the same level, except perhaps some very limited street-side space by the pavement. One exception was in Welwyn Garden City which had a public car park directly in front of the store opened in 1961. Crawley (another New Town) had an even bigger car park right next to the Queensway store opened in 1969.

Such town centre and shopping centre car parks were generally run by either the local council or a private shopping centre operator and were shared with other shops rather than being operated directly by Sainsbury's. In the 1960s only a couple of very small store car parks may have been owned directly by the firm like at Rugby (opened 1961) which had a car park for about 15 or 16 cars at one side of the store (source). Forest Hill opened in 1964 also had a small car park at the back of the store.

This would change from the 1970s when it became normal for the company to operate its own car parks at its stores, like Stamford Hill opened in 1973 having a car park in its new store which was free and exclusive to its own customers and had room for 70 cars. This was undercover inside the store building.

 

The 'out-of-town' supermarket emerges

The growth in car ownership during the 1960s and 70s led to the introduction of the first 'out-of-town' supermarkets in the UK. These were similar to those in the USA, and which from the 1960s had also begun developing in France. They were located on large sites in the suburbs (including new suburban shopping centres) and the edges of towns and cities rather than historic town and city centres. These had extensive surface level car parks right next to the store so avoided the issues with the lifts and access that affected shoppers in many of the town centre stores.

The first in the UK was opened in 1964 by the American company Gem in West Bridgford just outside Nottingham. It was a slightly unusual store in that the different parts of it were run by different concessions including food which only took up about a third of the store. A few more out-of-town supermarkets and hypermarkets developed during the 1960s including a second Gem store opened in 1965, Asda (after taking over the Gem stores in 1966), and Woolco (part of Woolworths) hypermarkets (from 1967).

Sainsbury’s saw the opportunity and opened in 1972 its first out-of-town store at Bretton, Peterborough with surface car parking for 600 cars next to the supermarket. It is believed it was the largest dedicated food store at the time. It was developed as part of a new district centre for Peterborough which was greatly expanding as part of the New Towns programme.

Shopping by car had really taken off by this time. At Bretton over 10,000 cars made use of the car park during the first week of trading. In that year's annual report the company chairman John Sainsbury (later Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover) was disappointed in the lack of progress across the country in being able to meet the needs of the car shopper who now accounted for over half of Sainsbury's trade in their supermarkets. Like many other retailers Sainsbury's was very keen to develop stores like Bretton which had easy ground floor access by car. However the concerns of planners and the public meant that this development was slower than the retailers would have liked and planning permission was rejected for many proposed stores.

Bretton was followed by Coldhams Lane in Cambridge which opened in 1974 with a surface level car park for 376 cars. Unlike Bretton, this was a separate store rather than part of a district centre and the car park was used exclusively by Sainsbury’s rather than being shared with other amenities and shops. It also contained Sainsbury’s first petrol station – something which became a common feature of Sainsbury’s car parks.

Throughout the 1970s Sainsbury's had a big programme of expansion, with almost all of their new stores including their own car park, or at least a convenient public car park. Some of these were replacements for older stores (counter service stores and some of the earlier self-service stores) but they also expanded much at this time into new parts of the country such as Yorkshire and South Wales. In addition they set up a hypermarket chain Savacentre (jointly owned with British Home Stores until 1989 when Sainsbury's bought out BHS's stake) with very large stores built with the car shopper in mind. The first store Washington (near Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Sunderland) opened in 1977 had space for 1300 cars!

Of course many other supermarket chains also opened stores with extensive car parking and the supermarket car park was firmly established throughout most of the country by the end of the decade.

 

The age of the superstore car park

Going into the 1980s and 1990s this trend continued and accelerated with many more new supermarkets. As discussed by the company's chairman Sir John (later Lord) Sainsbury in a paper in 1981 it was considered essential that the parking must be adjacent to the store, or in a decked arrangement with no more than two levels and access available by ramps so that trolleys could be used easily. Multi-storey car parks with lifts and stairs only and the various other problems (like vandalism) typically suffered by such car parks were not acceptable. The availability of car parking by this time was one of the main features to be promoted for new stores.

Many of these supermarkets were on out-of-town sites and in newly developing suburbs. Sainsbury’s paid a lot of attention in trying to minimise the impact of the car parks with landscaping around the car parks.

The extensive amount of brownfield land (often the site of old factories) which was then available in many towns and cities however also enabled the development of supermarkets with large car parks on the edge of town centres and inner city areas. One example was Bath Green Park (opened in 1982) – a former railway station where Sainsbury’s developed a new supermarket with the car park partially under the station canopy.

Over the course of the 1980s and 1990s Sainsbury’s like many other supermarket chains replaced the majority of their older supermarkets built in the 1950s to 1970s in town centres and shopping precincts with such new stores designed with the car in mind.

 

Into the 21st century

By the time we entered the 2000s, almost every town had at least one supermarket with a large car park. Many cities and larger towns have several such stores.

There are now however relatively few large superstores with extensive parking being built on new sites in the UK compared with the 1980s and 1990s – though stores of previous decades are often modernised or completely rebuilt. Perhaps the era of the large supermarket car park has begun to end? Many towns and cities may not have the trade to support any additional large stores and there may not be as many suitable sites available.

However this also seems to be partially due to changes in shopping habits including online shopping and the growth of convenience stores. Sainsbury’s opened its first convenience store in Hammersmith, London in 1998 – a Sainsbury’s Local. Like many of the convenience stores built by supermarket chains across the UK it has no car park. Even those stores that do have one generally have relatively limited parking and rely mainly on customers going there on foot or by public transport.

That same year Sainsbury’s introduced its first online food shopping service ‘Orderline’. With the growth of online shopping many customers now do their main shop online and perhaps do some top-up shopping at a local store. Online shopping steadily grew to 6% of food retailer sales just before the Covid-19 pandemic and then jumped to 11% in 2020 (source).

The supermarket car park though still remains popular (as I write this in 2024), with the car still being by far the largest method for UK households to transport their food shopping home. 

 

But which was Sainsbury's first supermarket car park?

This is a question I suspect some want to ask but it's one we're struggling to answer, and depends how you define it. Do you include public car parks next to stores or not? Here are some possible candidates:

• circa 1960s: A small number of early supermarkets/self-service stores may possibly have had a bit of parking at the side or back of the store like Rugby opened in 1961 (a JS Journal article mentions that it had a car park for 15 or 16 cars, though we've found no other references to this car park). It's possible there may have been others, but if so they don't seem to have been a significant feature of the store which was promoted.
• circa 1960s: Some shopping centre and local council car parks were right next to, above or below a Sainsbury's store, and Sainsbury's customers may have been the main users of the car park in some of these. It doesn't look like these were operated directly by Sainsbury's though and customers of other stores could presumably use them. 12 Church Road, Welwyn Garden City (1961) is an example.
• 1964: Forest Hill had a small car park at the back of the store.
• 1969: Queensway, Crawley - a large car park right by the store. It seems though that it was part of the town centre car parking rather than specifically for Sainsbury's.
• October 1970: Walton-on-Thames had a car park on the roof of the store. A document in the branch file indicates it was run by the local council and so may have been available to non-Sainsbury's customers.
• 1971: North Cheam store had a fairly large car park (135 spaces) at the back of the store, with a direct entrance into the store from the car park. A development proposal document indicates this was a municipal (local council) car park however, rather than Sainsbury's own car park.
• April 1972: Bretton, Peterborough had a very large car park (600 spaces) right by the store. It was built as the first stage of a district centre which originally consisted of a Sainsbury's supermarket and a Boots store but was later joined by other amenities and shops. The car park was presumably used by customers of the other shops and amenities as well as Sainsbury's, and might not have been operated by Sainsbury's.
• August 1972: Newbury had a car park next to the store. We're unsure whether it was a Sainsbury's car park or public car park.
• October 1972: Stamford Hill had a car park below the store which was just for Sainsbury's customers and was directly operated by the firm. It had 70 spaces, so wasn't very large by modern standards.
• December 1974: Coldhams Lane, Cambridge seems to have been the first really substantial car park (it had 376 spaces) which was specifically for Sainsbury's customers only. It was also their first with a petrol station. It could perhaps be considered Sainsbury's first 'proper' supermarket car park!

 

Car parks in the archive

We have many resources in the archive collection. These include:

• A large number of photographs of car parks - mainly from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. 
• Branch development proposal reports and brochures, which often include information and plans of car parks.
• Architectural design and planning statements, relating to the development and planning of Sainsbury's stores in general many of which refer to provision of car parking.
• A wide range of other company documents about car parks (most of this material is not digitized - please contact the archive for further information or to book a research appointment).

 

Further reading and sources

• ‘Sainsbury’s: The Record Years’ by Giles Emerson 
• 'The Best Butter in the World: A History of Sainsbury's' by Bridget Williams
• JS Journal (Sainsbury's staff magazine)
• English Shops and Shopping by Kathryn A. Morrison
• (other sources used are linked or referred to in the text and images)