First Ever GAMES WORKSHOP Store Is Being Demolished

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**reds8n**

http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2344-First-Ever-GAMES-WORKSHOP-Store-Is-Being-Demolished#.VNzJXeasVD0

The first ever Games Workshop store is to be demolished. Located in Hammersmith, in west London, the store was opened in April 1978. It's not currently a Games Workshop store; the building is occupied by a translation business. When it was opened, nearly 40 years ago, people lined up in the street. Games Workshop was created in 1975 in Nottingham by John Peake, Ian Livingstone, and Steve Jackson, all of whom had left the company by the 1990s. It ios the publisher of games like Warhammer, and Warhammer 40K. No word yet on whether it's being demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass.
Actually, the current tenants of the building indicate that it is being demolished to make way for residential flats.

Opening Day 1978

Building today

.. Guess a Blue Plaque for that building would be pushing it eh ?

**creeping-deth87**

Wow, thank you for posting this! Very cool to see where it all began.

**Azreal13**

Huh, Hammersmith is one of the few parts of London I'm fairly well acquainted with, I wonder how often I walked past this place and had no idea.

**Pacific**

Isn't that near some of the old live music places and whatnot that are also being demolished? Might be part of the same development, read about in NME a while ago.

A shame in any case. I always thought the Cheltenham store was one of the oldest, when I was there was still some Mickey Mouse wallpaper in the loo that had been there from when the store was a Disney Store, back in the early 80s!

**Reavsie**

Ah yes, 1 Dalling Road. I remember it, well a bit vaguely actually. As a teenager I used to take the train into London then tube to Hammersmith. It was Dungeons & Dragons in those days and White Dwarf a black and white affair.

**KTG17**

Man, people really stood close together in line in those days. I would be like, "Back the f up and give me some space". Sheesh.

**Necros**

KTG17 wrote:
Man, people really stood close together in line in those days. I would be like, "Back the f up and give me some space". Sheesh.

Try waiting in line for the dealer hall to open at GenCon

**oadie**

'Queueing' is the British national sport, KTG17. And their country is smaller than ours. Densely packed lines are both a matter of pride and necessity, for the Brits.

**EmperorsChampion**

Sad to see. I will mumble a silent prayer to the Emperor to give it a clean and just death.

**angelofvengeance**

We Brits exceed at waiting in queues KTG17 lol

**KTG17**

That would have been a cool store to visit. I think most early 80s minis are terrible in general, but I know the techniques and skills were just forming. But they do have character. I still remember the two rogue trader era metal marines I ever bought. Hideous by today's standards.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

angelofvengeance wrote:
We Brits exceed at waiting in queues KTG17 lol

Okay but you don't have to breathe on each other.

**stanman**

Talk about a throw back to an ancient time, where they actually had fully stocked shelves and the employees gave a crap about the customers.

**Lord of Misrule**

I never realised it, but that's about ten minutes' walk from my girlfriend's house; I shall endeavour to take a walk past at the weekend.

**Kilkrazy**

I often went there because in the early days -- until mid1980s -- Games Workshop was a good general RPG and tabletop games shop.

**Peregrine**

stanman wrote:
Talk about a throw back to an ancient time, where they actually had fully stocked shelves and the employees gave a crap about the customers.

Yeah, those shelves are a real contrast with the current stores where a few boxes are spread out as much as possible to hide the fact that the inventory is so tiny.

**Platuan4th**

KTG17 wrote:
That would have been a cool store to visit. I think most early 80s minis are terrible in general, but I know the techniques and skills were just forming. But they do have character. I still remember the two rogue trader era metal marines I ever bought. Hideous by today's standards.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

angelofvengeance wrote:
We Brits exceed at waiting in queues KTG17 lol

Okay but you don't have to breathe on each other.

Seriously, never go to GenCon.

**Vermis**

I'm gonna take this as an omen, anyway.

(Can we send the bulldozers over by Lenton next?)

**e.earnshaw**

Ah well its not a gw now. That would be sacralige!

**Haight**

You know you work in construction when the first thing you think when looking at these pics is "Damn, they did a nice job repointing that brickwork!".

Very cool pics, thanks for sharing. Sad they are tearing it down though!