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{{Use British English|date=September 2015}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society
The '''Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society''' (RACS) was a [[consumer co-operative]] based in south east London taking its name from the royal munitions works ([[Royal Arsenal]]) in [[Woolwich]].▼
| image = Royal Arsenal Cooperative Society Ltd (cropped).jpg
| image_caption = {{small|Detail of Central Stores in [[Powis Street]], [[Woolwich]], with the RACS motto and a statue of Alexander McLeod}}
| type = [[Consumers' co-operative]]
| foundation = 1872
| predecessor = Royal Arsenal Supply Association (1868)
| fate = Merged with [[Co-operative Wholesale Society]] (1985)
| location_country = [[Woolwich]], [[London]], [[United Kingdom]]
| key_people = William Rose, Alexander McLeod (founders)
| area_served = [[South London]], [[Hampshire]], [[Berkshire]], [[Kent]], [[Surrey]], [[Sussex]]
| industry = Grocer, Wholesale, Pharmacy, Optician, Funeral Services, Travel Agent, Real Estate, Finance, Social Enterprise, Education
| products =
| revenue = over £60m (1970s)
| operating_income =
| net_income =
| members = ca. 500,000
| num_employees =
| homepage =
}}
▲The '''Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society''' (RACS) was a large [[consumer co-operative]] based in south east [[London]], [[England]]. The co-operative
== Establishment and growth ==
Co-operative trading had been rooted in Woolwich and the Royal Arsenal since the mid 18th century.<ref>{{aut|Saint, A., Guillery, P. (ed.)}}, ''Survey of London, Volume 48: Woolwich'', pages 413-414. Yale Books, London, 2012. {{ISBN|978 0 300 18722 9}}</ref> In 1868 the Royal Arsenal Supply Association was established by William Rose (1843-1909?) and [[Alexander McLeod (1832–1902)|Alexander McLeod]] (1832–1902), comprising of 20 workers from the Royal Arsenal. The first base and store was at Rose's house at 11 Eleanor Road (now Barnard Close). In 1869 Rose was laid off at the Arsenal and emigrated to Canada (where his son [[William Oliver Rose]] became a well-known politician). McLead took over as secretary and moved the store to Parry Place (Spray Street Quarter). The society adopted the [[Rochdale Principles]] of profit-sharing and renamed itself Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society in 1872.
[[File:London, Woolwich, Co-op buildings Powis Street, 1884 (GHC).jpg|thumb|left|190px|Various RACS stores in [[Powis Street]], Woolwich, 1884]]
== Activities ==▼
[[File:
At first, the store was only open four evenings a week and on Saturday afternoon, but this improved after 1873, when the store moved to larger premises in [[Powis Street]], next but one to the house in which the [[Woolwich Equitable Building Society]] had been established in 1842. Membership grew from 232 in 1873 to 1,597 in 1879 and 6,721 in 1889. By that time it was the largest co-operative society in London and the 21st largest (of more than 1500) in the country. According to the social reformer [[Charles Booth (social reformer)|Charles Booth]], there was "nothing at all like it within the boundaries of London".<ref>Saint & Guillery (2012), pages 213-214.</ref>
In the century that followed, the society's activities expanded from food retail into a huge range of commercial, social and political activities. In 1902 it had over 20,000 members. Shops opened up in areas beyond Woolwich and house-building took place beyond the parish boundaries in [[Abbey Wood]] and [[Eltham]].<ref>Saint & Guillery (2012), pages 15-16.</ref> In 1924 membership had surpassed 100,000 and in 1938 this number had quadrupled. At its height (circa 1975), membership had reached 500,000 and sales exceeded £60 million. The society had outlets across most of [[South London]] and parts of [[Hampshire]], [[Berkshire]], [[Kent]], [[Surrey]] and [[Sussex]].
===Retail & services===▼
The RACS ran not just food shops (a founding aim of the [[United Kingdom|UK]] consumer [[history of the cooperative movement|co-operative movement]] being the provision of cheap unadulterated food) but also milk, bread & fuel deliveries, department stores, a bookshop, jewellery department, shoe shops and chemists. Other services included removals, catering, undertakers (customers included [[Herbert Morrison]]), hairdressers, laundry, a travel agency, insurance & savings clubs. As was usual for such co-operative societies, members were paid a [[dividend]] in proportion to their spending with the society – at one point in embossed tin tokens, later by the quoting of a "Divi Number", towards the end by stamps.▼
▲== Activities ==
===Production & distribution===▼
▲=== Retail & services ===
To support its retail activities the RACS established bakeries, bought farms & piggeries and built food processing factories. It owned stables & railway wagons, an abbatoir, dairy, a frozen food plant, a fleet of coaches and two hotels on the [[Isle of Wight]].▼
[[File:London-Plumstead, Plumstead Common Rd, former RACS store.jpg|thumb|Former RACS store in [[Plumstead]], partly used by a Co-op supermarket]]
[[File:London, Woolwich Dockyard, Cooperative Funeralcare.jpg|thumb|Funeral home (formerly RACS, now Co-op) in [[Woolwich Dockyard]]]]
▲The RACS ran not just food shops (a founding aim of the [[United Kingdom|UK]] consumer [[history of the cooperative movement|co-operative movement]] being the provision of cheap unadulterated food) but also milk, bread
▲=== Production & distribution ===
▲To support its retail activities the RACS established bakeries, bought farms
From 1878 onwards 2.5% of the society's profits were spent on education. The RACS had an Education Department, ran classes and sports days, opened reading rooms, supported the [[Woodcraft Folk]] & the [[Women's Co-operative Guild|Co-operative Women's Guild]], youth clubs at [[Falconwood]] and Coldharbour, a cricket club, orchestras and at one point two choirs conducted by (Sir) [[Michael Tippett]]. The society opened its first library in [[Woolwich]] in 1879 some 20 years before the local authority provided such a facility.▼
===
▲From 1878 onwards 2.5% of the society's profits were spent on education. The RACS had an Education Department, ran classes and sports days, opened reading rooms, supported the [[Woodcraft Folk]]
Perhaps surprisingly, in 1900 the RACS became a large-scale housing developer by building the Bostall Estate on its farmland in [[Abbey Wood]] – Robert Mackay (chairman of the RACS) and its Works Department led by architect Frank Bethell constructing over a thousand homes. The streets still bear co-operative-theme names, such as Owenite (after [[Robert Owen]]), Commonwealth, Rochdale (after the '[[Rochdale Principles|Rochdale Pioneers]]'), McLeod and WillRose (after founder-members Alexander McCloud and William Rose). In 1925 the RACS bought the 1250-home Royal Arsenal workers estate at Well Hall in [[Eltham, London|Eltham]] from the Government, which it then renamed the Progress Estate.▼
===
[[File:Downman Road, SE9 - geograph.org.uk - 228350.jpg|thumb|View of [[Progress Estate]], [[Eltham]]]]
▲
=== Political ===
The RACS was always one of the more political co-operative societies. Its motto was "Each for All and All for Each", it employed a Political Secretary, published magazines and newspapers (such as ''Comradeship'' and ''The Wheatsheaf'')<ref>{{cite web|title=Periodicals|url=http://www.archive.coop/collections/periodicals|website=Cooperative Heritage Trust|publisher=National Cooperative Archives|accessdate=15 April 2015}}</ref> and housed [[Basque people|Basque]] refugees from the [[Spanish Civil War]] (see also [[Milk for Spain]]). The RACS supported the campaign for working-class political representation (see [[British Labour Party#Labour Representation Committee|Labour Representation Committee]]) and the election of [[Will Crooks]] as [[Member of Parliament|MP]] for Woolwich. It chose to affiliate directly to the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] rather than to the [[Co-operative Party]] as was more usual for such societies. As well as the usual co-op dividend to its customer-members, the RACS also paid a "bonus to labour" – for instance paying the tradesmen building the Bostall Estate a halfpenny an hour above the [[Trade Union]] rate. Overall control of the RACS rested with a full-time Management Committee elected by society members under [[proportional representation]].
== Decline and fall ==
By the late 1970s the RACS was in trouble. Greater customer affluence and competition from [[supermarket]] chains such as [[Sainsbury's]] were changing the society's market – its size
▲By the late 1970s the RACS was in trouble. Greater customer affluence and competition from [[supermarket]] chains such as [[Sainsbury's]] were changing the society's market – its size & [[democracy|democratic]] [[Common ownership|ownership]] structure made it slow to adapt{{Citation needed|date=June 2007}}. Membership numbers declined, weakening the society's democratic basis{{Citation needed|date=June 2007}}. Reserves dwindled and dividend payments – for many, the Co-op's [[unique selling point]] – all but ceased.{{Citation needed|date=June 2007}} In 1985, after a century of expansion in size & scope the RACS avoided collapse by 'transferring its engagements' to the national [[The Co-operative Group|Co-operative Wholesale Society]]. Many of the former RACS supermarkets and funeral homes remain as Co-op outlets.
== Legacy ==
== Other London-area consumer co-operative societies ==▼
[[File:London, Woolwich, Powis St, Co-op building 03.jpg|thumb|Three former RACS buildings in [[Powis Street]], Woolwich, in 2015. Left: the [[art deco]] department store, now an apartment building. Centre and right: funeral home, chemist's and optician's, to be converted into a pub]]
* [[South Suburban Co-operative Society]]▼
Some of the former RACS buildings and farms have survived and are protected as cultural heritage. [[Woodlands Farm Trust]] in [[Shooters Hill]] is a former RACS farm that was threatened by redevelopment in the 1990s and is now run by a community trust.
* [[London Co-operative Society]]▼
* [[Enfield Highway Co-operative Society]]▼
The two large landmark buildings at the west end of [[Powis Street]] in Woolwich are evocative of the co-operative movement that was such a major force in this town. The Neo-Victorian RACS Central Stores (125-153 Powis Street) has a 82 m long red brick and [[terracotta]] façade with a 32 m high copper-domed clock tower. It was designed by the Society's architect, Frank Bethell, and built in three phases: 1902-03, 1912 and 1926. Above the main entrance is a statue of the founder, Alexander McLeod, by [[Alfred Drury]], and the society's motto. In 2011-13 it was converted into a hotel with 120 rooms and shop units.<ref>Saint & Guillery (2012), pp. 214-217.</ref>
The RACS department store (138-152, Powis Street) was built in 1938-40 in a streamlined [[Art Deco]] style. The large, metal-framed windows emphasise the horizontal lines in the faience-tiled gable, set between two end towers. The elegant east tower contains an open stairwell with wrought-iron railings with the letters 'co op' integrated in the design. The west tower is less pronounced and stands over an access road to Mortgramit Square. In 2013-16 it was converted into apartments ("The Emporium"), adding three recessed storeys on top of the restored building.<ref>Saint & Guillery (2012), pp. 217-220.</ref>
The Bostall Estate in [[Abbey Wood]] consists of over one thousand late-Victorian houses. The streets still bear co-operative-themed names, such as Owenite (after [[Robert Owen]]), Commonwealth, Rochdale (after the '[[Rochdale Principles|Rochdale Pioneers]]'), McLeod and Will Rose (after founder-members Alexander McCloud and William Rose). The [[Progress Estate]] in [[Well Hall]], [[Eltham]], is a [[housing estate]] partly developed by [[Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich|Woolwich Borough]], partly by RACS. The area was conceived as a [[garden city movement|garden city]] and is a [[conservation area]] since 1975.
<gallery widths="150" heights="150">
File:2016 Woolwich, Powis St, former RACS Central Stores.jpg|Former RACS Central Stores, Woolwich
File:London-Woolwich, Powis St 03.jpg|Former RACS department store, Woolwich
File:RACS.jpg|Commemorative stone Bostall Estate, Abbey Wood
File:Eltham houses 4.jpg|Progress Estate, Eltham
</gallery>
== See also ==
* [[Royal Arsenal]]
* [[Woodlands Farm Trust]]
* [[Progress Estate]]
▲** [[South Suburban Co-operative Society]]
▲** [[London Co-operative Society]]
== Further reading ==
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* Ron Roffey, ''The Co-operative Way'', Membership Services of South East Co-op, 40 Orchard Street, Dartford, Kent, DA1 2DG, {{ISBN|0-85195-256-9}}
* John Attfield, ''With Light of Knowledge: Hundred Years of Education in the Royal Arsenal Cooperative Society, 1877–1977'', Journeyman, 1981, {{ISBN|0-904526-67-4}}
== References ==▼
{{Reflist}}▼
* Bert A. French [http://unseen.nlb-online.co.uk/textpages/eltham.txt Boyhood memories of Eltham]
* Rod Le Gear/Kent Archaeological Society [http://www.kentarchaeology.ac/authors/rflegear.html The Building of the Bostall Estate]
Line 52 ⟶ 92:
* E.F.E. Jefferson, ''The Woolwich Story'', Woolwich & District Archeological Society, Jan 1970
* [http://archiveshub.ac.uk/search/record.html?recid=gb1499sec South East Retail Group (CWS) at Archives Hub]
== External link ==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0REBSo7ftJM Amateur film of activities of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society, 1938 - Film 36093] (on YouTube)
▲== References ==
{{Commonscat|Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (RACS)}}
▲{{Reflist}}
{{Defunct UK grocers}}
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[[Category:Companies established in 1868]]
[[Category:Shops in London]]
[[Category:Woolwich]]
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