Back to the future with London’s Lost Department Stores

Our higher streets are even now littered with the remains of former office merchants which includes the shells of as soon as stunning outlets of Debenhams, Property of Fraser and BHS that have been a short while ago joined by numerous John Lewis & Associates properties.

Amid the carnage right now it is extraordinary to believe that that London (and its suburbs) by itself supported over 100 division shops in the 1900s. But it’s correct and proof of this incredible time period is chronicled in the lately released ebook ‘London’s Shed Section Stores’ from Secure Haven Textbooks.

It gives an effortless-examining snapshot of an array of these now regrettably departed grand retailers which include many common names to me: Dickens & Jones, Waring & Gillow, Barkers, Massive Biba, Whiteleys and Allders. There’s also several that experienced extensive ceased investing before I moved down to the capital which includes Stagg & Mantle, Pratts, Gorringes and the terrifically named Bodgers.

The anecdote-pushed accounts of these several merchants really significantly gives a social record of purchasing from the Victorian interval onwards. It is improved by chapters on linked themes this kind of as revolutionary females in the sector and section merchants for the duration of war.

As properly as becoming created in an accessible style by author Tessa Boase the reserve is additional introduced to everyday living by the great variety of photographs that include drastically to the publication. The photograph-abundant structure with specific office store profiles assures this is a e-book that can be easily dipped into any time the reader fancies a little bit of nostalgia and desires to be be transported to a period of time when retail actually was providing an remarkable amount of theatre to customers.

We now are living in a period of time when suppliers are focusing ever a lot more on injecting larger experiences into their physical retailers and this ebook will not only get them back in time but it might also position them in the way in which they have to have to go with their enterprises in the potential.

London’s Lost Section Merchants is readily available from Harmless Haven Publications priced £16.99.

Glynn Davis, editor, Retail Insider