Northampton’s Charlie the Chimp has retired and is to be placed in Watford Museum

Charlie the Chimp, who brought joy and happiness to many a youthful shoe shopper in the Gordon Scott store in Abington Street during the 80s and 90s, has resided in the Harlequin shopping centre in Watford for the past seven years.

But a spokesman for Gordon Scott said Charlie the Chimp had now become “very dizzy” from swinging round and round and “needed a rest.”

Charlie, who is going to be put on display in Watford Museum, is set to be replaced by one of his younger siblings.

The new monkey will be on display at the Gordon Scott store in the Harlequin on Saturday and there will be a chance for people to put forward their suggestions for what he should be called.

Charlie the Chimp took over from his older brother Alfie the Ape, who sat in the window swinging in the Northampton Gordon Scott store in the 1960s.

The shoe store in Northampton closed down in 2003 and it is believed Charlie moved to Gordon Scott in Watford a few years later.

Following the news that Charlie had moved to the Watford store in 2007, an online petition was started on Facebook demanding Charlie be returned to Northampton.

The Facebook page attracted almost 2,000 members and provoked a counter campaign by the Watford Observer.