In 1860, three brothers from the Norfolk village of East Winch joined the drapery business of Buntings (a fellow department store lost by the bombing in the Second World War - now the site of Marks & Spencer).
[2] Between the World Wars, Curls was bought by Ipswich department store business Footman, Pretty & Company, which was controlled by the Drapery Trust.
[3][4][5] By 1929, the store had grown to 51,000 square feet in size and included a restaurant which offered a six course lunch for two shillings and sixpence, and dominated Orford Place and Brigg Street.
The Buntings and Woolworths store suffered the same fate that night, as well as the RG Pilch sport shop, whose building was in the same block as Curl Brothers.
[2] Initially Jarrolds, another department store in the city allowed Curl Brothers to use their first floor [6] before they transferred to a smaller property on Westlegate handed over by Norwich Union for use by burnt out businesses.