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Name: Neil Osborne.
Comment: The old Co-op Department Store at Congress House in Orsett Road had a really good record section; I think it was on the top floor of the building, now long gone - flattened in the late 1970s along with the Queen's Hotel to make way for the truly awful Queensgate Centre which has never taken off. With the passing of this type of shop the whole character of the town over the last 40 years has been destroyed. I suppose this goes for many old towns - this is progress, I suppose.

Name: Tony Orwell
Comment: As far as I can remember it was not in the building pictured, it was in the building behind that ended up being p'Zaz. I bought Blondie's Autoamerican there for £5.29 in 1980ish, my first and only visit.

Name: Alan
Comment: I worked at Congress House and the record department was great. Sadly I have no pictures from those early sixties days. And yes, Grays has changed for the worse. I have many fond memories of dear old Grays.
(19 September 2014)

Name: Brian Wylde
Comment: I worked around the corner in Mallets the butchers in 1965, good old days. Bastiana's ice cream shop - who remembers Payne’s the pawn shop on the corner opposite the Queen's Hotel. I could go on for ages.
(2019)

Name: Robert Blake
Comment: I worked in Congress House in gents outfitters on the first floor, my very first job, 1965. I was there for 6 years. I am very sure it's where they got the idea for the TV series Are You Being Served?. The layout and staff are so similar.
​(2022)

Name: Philip Collins
Comment: Just a quick correction: It’s not been flattened, just the interior rebuilt, and the back extended closer to Clarence Road, which contains the Queen's pub.
​(2022)

Name: Jim Hampton
Comment: I used to go to the Co-op, which is now Primark. I brought Rocket Man by Elton John in a picture cover.


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Location

Congress House, Orsett Road RM16 Grays / Essex
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