People are only just realising why so many supermarkets have a clock tower and it's blowing their minds

Scottish Sun

30-05-2025

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SUPERMARKETS across England have one feature that is often overlooked by shoppers.
Brits were floored to find out the reason why so many stores seem to have a clock tower.
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In 1991, 23 of the 28 Tescos that were built had clocktowers
Credit: Alamy
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Pictured is the clock on the Tesco Extra store in Swindon
Credit: Alamy
Filmmaker Chris Spargo took to YouTube to explain the history.
He also pointed out that many of the clocks don't actually show the correct time.
The trend dates back to the 1970s, when an Essex council was given a very strict design guide.
It wanted to put a supermarket next to the town square but the council was firmly told that the building had to have "specific Essex characteristics".
The YouTuber explained: "So Asda came up with an idea. 15 miles away in a town called Coggeshall, there is a 14th century barn and a Victorian clock tower."
From there, UK chains seemed to draw inspiration and replicas started popping up everywhere.
It went on to be known as the "Essex barn style".
In 1991, 23 of the 28 Tescos that were built had clocks.
Way into the 1990s, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons all built stores in this way.
However, new stores being built today are less likely to have the feature.
One comment by a dumbfounded Brit read: "This is something I've simultaneously noticed everywhere and yet never noticed."
Writing in a thesis on the history of supermarket designs, academic Audrey Kirby said: "Possibly the design provided the customers with a classless feeling of comfort, security, wholesomeness and prosperity."
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The Millennium Clocktower and Sainsbury's at the shopping centre on the High Street in Littlehampton, West Sussex
Credit: Alamy