Why do UK supermarkets have clock towers?

What's up with them? Who put them there? What do they want? Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/chrisspargo Camera: @henryhopkin Thanks to John Frankland at the South Woodham Ferrers Local History Society https://southwoodhamhistory.org/ And thanks to the Sainsbury Archive, who were extremely helpful even though it turns out Sainsbury's bucked the trend and avoided clock towers entirely. https://www.sainsburyarchive.org.uk/ Sources: Kirby, Audrey. (2008). The Architectural Design of UK Supermarkets: 1950 - 2006. [PhD Thesis]. Available at: https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/5091/1/Architectural_Design_of_UK_Supermarkets_506107.pdf Morrison, Kathryn. (2007). English Shops and Shopping: An Architectural History. New Haven, Conn. ; London: Yale University Press. Wright, Lance. (1973). Shopping the Environment. Architectural Review, (March 1973). ITV Cymru - Carrefour - Wales' first Hypermarket 1972 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO-MilzhJ-k "High St." Under Cover (1964) licenced from British Pathé https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/87005/ South Woodham Ferrers Advert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzkbZCOXUoQ Historic England blog https://heritagecalling.com/2023/01/12/how-englands-first-self-service-store-heralded-the-birth-of-the-modern-supermarket/ Hall of the Mountain King by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1200072 Artist: http://incompetech.com/