tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27519241317639826232024-03-14T06:18:18.390+00:00London's Historic Shops and MarketsLondon / Retail / Buildings / HistoryUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-11485047862046481562015-04-06T12:00:00.000+01:002015-04-06T12:00:02.870+01:00Old Billingsgate Fish Market, EC3RThink of the City, the 1980s and Tory politicians, and there doesn't seem much worth celebrating. But Old Billingsgate is an exception – if it were not for Michael Heseltine's listing of the building in 1980, the Corporation of London would have torn it down and buried it beneath steel and glass.<br />
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Although the present building dates from 1877, its removal would have meant the loss of a major part of London retail history, as a market had stood on this spot since at least 1000. As it was, only the lorry park suffered that fate, with the erection of the sinister-looking Northern & Shell Building, occupied by porn baron/media mogul Richard Desmond's company. It looks like a mountain of stacked-up TV screens. <br />
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According to whoever you believe, the market site was either originally the Gate of Belinus, built in the 5th century by the son of an ancient British king; a wharf owned by a Mr Biling; or Blynesgate to Saxon customs men. Anyway, it had been a market for a long time when Henry IV gave London citizens permission to collect tolls and customs in 1400.<br />
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A simple arcaded market building was eventually built, recorded in a 1598 drawing. This burnt down in the Great Fire, and its replacement was frequently repaired and renovated until George the Younger designed a new structure in 1800, which I'm assuming is that seen here (from the <i>Illustrated London News</i>, Nov 10, 1849):<br />
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Demands to expand or move the market seem to be almost as old as the market itself, as costermongers and their fishy wares blocked off nearby streets. There was also the smell. Visitors were told to find their way to The Monument and then follow their nose. An edition of the <i>London Spy </i>in 1703 says Billingsgate was renowned as "stinking of stale sprats". One wag suggested the odour was "the best means of defence against foreign invasion".<br />
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In 1850, the 1800 structure was replaced with a new building designed by John Jay, of red brick in an Italianate style, seen here:<br />
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It wasn't big enough - the market spilled out into the surrounding streets and the stink continued to offend City gents. Angry letters were written to <i>The Times</i> demanding the market's relocation. Some proposed a site just south of Blackfriars Bridge, where if a wharf were built fish could arrive by both boat and train. Shadwell was suggested and a market set up there, but it failed. (Even after the new market was built, there were still efforts to usurp Billingsgate - a Central Fish Market opened at Smithfield in Farringdon in May 1883, but again failed - after all, it wasn't even on the waterside.)<br />
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It was decided to go ahead with a redevelopment, and so the current building, designed by City architect Sir Horace Jones, was commissioned. When digging its foundations, 1,000 tonnes of oak, believed to be the foundations of the old dockside, was lifted out of the subsoil. The completed building, which cost £271,407, opened in 1877.<br />
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Described by Pevsner as in a French style, it is made from Portland stone with polished grey granite plinths and yellow brick facings between the upper windows. The glass roofs sit on lattice girders spanning 60ft.<br />
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The groined and vaulted 24ft-high basement was intended to be used as a shellfish market, the main floor for wet fish - Billingsgate salesmen used to say they could sell "Every fish that swims, except the whale and goldfish" - and an upstairs gallery for the sale of dried fish. This is the basement:<br />
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Outside, Britannia sits on the apex of a three-bay central pediment. The pavilions with dolphins on were meant to house pubs for the market workers. Jones used wood and brick mostly, as steel and glass had been found to be prone to overheating in the days before air conditioning. Shops and warehouses lined the east and west walls.<br />
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It was extended around 1919 with the building of a mezzanine floor between the ground and basement. An ice-making plant was also installed. This is the market in 1910 (pic from Billingsgate Institute):<br />
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And so for the next few decades Billingsgate continued as before, selling fish to London, choking the streets with vans and other vehicles, costermongers and their barrels, being complained about and called on to be moved "lock, stock and fishy barrel" out of the City. Here's the scene on Lower Thames Street in 1937 (picture from AP Photo):<br />
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And finally, that's what happened. Plans were made in the early 1970s to redevelop Billingsgate as part of the widening of Lower Thames Street - as in many postwar cities, town planners' ambitions for the motor car bulldozed through the urban landscape. MPs were told the market's days were numbered and it should be moved to a new £5m site in Docklands.<br />
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The Corporation of London planned to demolish it and sell the site to a developer, but didn't count on environment secretary Heseltine's listing of it. Save Britain's Heritage and Heseltine have to be thanked for the building's survival, and also for insisting that the riverside be opened up to the public, leaving us with the walkway out front.<br />
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But before it could be renovated, it was feared the building could demolish itself - structural engineers said the brickwork in the cellar, buried beneath a build-up of ice feet thick, could crumble away in the thaw, causing Billingsgate to fall in on itself. But after a painstaking melting process, said to have taken up to two years, it survived in tact.<br />
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The building was sold in 1982 for £22m, to the London & Edinburgh Trust and W Berisford, and the site (mostly the lorry park next door) was archaeologically excavated before being redeveloped.<br />
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Here's the Lower Thames Street side of the building:<br />
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Today it is a popular events space - I've attended a couple of awards dos there, but at dinner I wasn't served fish...<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-36510498161238051162015-01-25T17:59:00.001+00:002015-01-25T17:59:58.062+00:00WHSmith, Broadbent Street, W1KWandering through Mayfair the other day, I snapped a quick couple of pictures showing the location of the first WHSmith store, back in 1792. This is looking north from the bottom of the street:<br />
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The street – today Broadbent Street – was called Little Grosvenor Street when Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna opened their news vendor business. </div>
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There's no evidence of its existence, and almost all of the buildings are new. The street also used to run further south before it was abbreviated by the construction of Grosvenor Hill Court.<br />
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But it's interesting to see how such a big retailer started out in such a small street, and this was 56 years before the company opened a news stand at Euston station, kicking off a rapid expansion on the back of the growth of the railways.<br />
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Here's a pic standing on Grosvenor Street, looking south to the top of what was Little Grosvenor Street: </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-82507964211507020312014-11-23T13:59:00.001+00:002014-11-30T12:25:28.246+00:00Fox Umbrellas, 118 London Wall, EC2Good late-1920s and 1930s shop fronts are few and far between in London. It's not that there weren't many of them - the big shopfitting firms were kept busy installing modern frontages that were all about a clean, uncluttered look with straight lines that simply framed the stock on display. But until the later 20th century there was little respect for these shop fronts - it was easy come, easy go, as they were ripped out and replaced in the post-Second World War decades.<br />
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Which is why 118 London Wall, constructed on the ground floor of an early 19th-century terraced house for Fox Umbrellas in 1937 by shopfitting firm E Pollard & Co, is such a rare survivor and has a <a href="http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1252059" target="_blank">Grade II listing</a>. This exquisite shop front was the height of modernity at the time, with a Vitrolite front and curved, non-reflective glass, an American invention for which Pollard held the English patent. It looks like a shop from an Edward Hopper painting, dropped into London.<br />
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This 'invisible' glass, which was was very expensive, allowed passers-by to see much further into the shop and made the stock on display more visible at a time when interior lighting was duller and less sharp than today. It works, according to <a href="http://www.british-history.ac.uk/image.aspx?compid=119418&filename=fig282.jpg&pubid=1286" target="_blank">British History Online</a>, by using a steeply curved concave glass to deflect light towards matt black 'baffles'. E Pollard & Co installed the same type of glass at Simpsons of Piccadilly, where it is still in place today (the store is now Waterstones).<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitreous_marble" target="_blank">Vitrolite</a>, a coloured glass, was manufactured by Pilkington Brothers in the UK. Black Vitrolite was commonly used on facades between the 1920s and 1950s, but being glass it's a fragile material, prone to cracks and chips, and was costly to replace.<br />
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Stainless steel surrounds frame the fascia, windows and panels, and a band describing Fox's business is positioned above the window, below four Vitrolite panels. The fascia's centrepiece is the stainless steel and red 'FOX' sign, fronted with red neon lighting to set it aglow, with reliefs of foxes running towards it from each side.<br />
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As the shop isn't currently in use, I couldn't get any pictures of the interior, but English Heritage says it retains its polished wood and glass fittings. There's some very nice pictures of the interior <a href="http://quintinlake.photoshelter.com/gallery/Foxs-Umbrella-Shop-118-London-Wall/G0000h7.Sq_GgDxc/" target="_blank">here</a> by photographer Quintin Lake, as well as a couple taken in the twilight, with the red neon sign switched on.<br />
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Fox Umbrellas started life in 1868, when Thomas Fox began making and selling umbrellas from a premises in Fore Street - which was later renamed London Wall following the post-World War Two reconstruction of the area.<br />
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Brollies used to be made at 118 London Wall, in the upstairs and basement workshops. The company is responsible for British City gent classics such as the GT9 Whangee, as wielded by John Steed in <i>The Avengers</i>.<br />
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Other famous customers included Winston Churchill and John F Kennedy.<br />
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The company is still trading, producing own label brollies and also supplying upmarket brands such as Alfred Dunhill and Ralph Lauren. Its factory is in Shirley, near Croydon - see the <a href="http://www.oncewasengland.com/2011/05/16/crafty-old-fox/" target="_blank">Once Was England</a> blog for pictures of a factory visit.<br />
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However, 118 London Wall was closed in 2011 due to poor trading. Footwear retailer Author since moved in, but went into liquidation in April 2014 The shop front's listed status means it could not be changed, although the outline of a small 'Author' sign is visible on one of the four glass Vitrolite strips. The whole building, which dates from the 19th century (the first floor was originally a barber's shop), is currently <a href="http://pickthorn.co.uk/images/content/pdfs/4212.pdf" target="_blank">up for rent</a> at about £70,000 per annum.<br />
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As for the original shopfitter, E Pollard & Co, the company was founded in 1895 in Shoreditch and grew rapidly until it had a number of showrooms, two factories, and branches in Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow and Dublin. The business still exists today in Enfield, north London, as Pollards Fyrespan. The City showrooms that were built for it in Clerkenwell in 1919-20 are still standing, at number 29 Clerkenwell Road.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-63450164174136082392014-08-04T07:06:00.002+01:002014-08-04T07:06:52.352+01:00UpdateMarriage plans have taken over my life these last few weeks.... I will start posting again soon!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-82228539237131326162014-06-20T14:42:00.003+01:002014-06-20T14:42:23.783+01:00Burberry's, 18-22 Haymarket, SW1The Burberry building at 18-22 Haymarket is, like so many grandiose stores of the Victorian era, a testament to one man's commercial success.<br />
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After founding his company in Basingtoke in 1856, aged just 21, and inventing the weather-proof gabardine fabric, Thomas Burberry arrived on London's Haymarket in 1891, and in 1912 constructed this grand premises.<br />
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Designed in a Beaux Arts style by architect <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Cave" target="_blank">Walter Cave</a>, the three-storey, stone-faced building stands on the corner with Orange Street. The entablature, supported by Doric columns, runs all around the building and still bears the traces of its former occupant.<br />
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The large unaltered display windows on the ground floor also turn the corner to Orange Street. These must have turned plenty of heads in their day. Upstairs, huge arches support the first floor windows and also the second floor windows, which are curved into the arches. A narrow staircase – I imagine a staff one – sits at the lefthand side of the building (behind the lamp-post in the picture below). <br />
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Signalling the store's presence to those approaching along the street is an ornate clock, which juts out bearing the Burberry name.<br />
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Round the corner on Orange Street is the trade entrance.<br />
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As well as a shop, Burberry made this its head office. It traded from here throughout the rest of the 20th century. This is a pic of the store from 1913:<br />
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The Haymarket address became a familiar sight on its advertising. This ad is from the Daily Express on 21 September, 1959, with the address bottom right.<br />
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When Cherie Blair and her lifestyle guru Carole Caplin brought Lyudmila Putin shopping here in 2003, Burberry had shaken off its chavvy image of the 1990s and was on the brink of expansion. Hence the company moved out in 2008, just a few years after spending millions on a revamp of the building's interior. Its HQ is now at Horseferry House in Millbank, although it is strictly offices, with no shop.<br />
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And 18-22 Haymarket has stood empty since, apart from being pressed into action as a party venue now and then, most recently during the London Olympics. It was bought by a mystery Russian businessman for £20m in 2011 - and there was some talk about TK Maxx moving in - but it changed hands again and is now owned by <i>The Apprentice</i> star and Mrs Tiggy Winkle lookalike Lord Alan Sugar's Amsprop Group. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-62332966758730927822014-05-12T22:56:00.000+01:002014-05-12T22:57:06.549+01:00364-368 Kingsland Road, E8While in <a href="http://londonhistoricshops.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/2-pearson-street-e2.html">Hoxton</a>, I walked up Kingsland Road to see if some other shops were worth getting excited about. A Grade-II terrace of early 19th-century houses, from numbers 362 to 368, has three shops at 364, 366 and 368.<br />
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English Heritage lists 364 as having an altered 19th-century shop front, "with pilasters and console brackets to mutuled fascia cornice", and also mentions its six-panel door, which either doesn't exist any more (the door to the upstairs accommodation certainly wasn't it), or was hidden behind the shutters when I visited. The shop is now Shangri-La tattoo parlour, based in the basement, but retail space is also advertised on temporary store lettings website <a href="http://bit.ly/J8nvTF">www.appearhere.co.uk</a><br />
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However, 366 and 368 haven't retained their 19th-century shop fronts, although there is some older ones hidden behind the modern fascias. Number 366, now occupied by vintage designer fashion retailer Storm in a Teacup, does still have a mutule cornice that dates from the 19th century though. Pictures of the store interior can be <a href="http://www.storminateacuplondon.com/#!store/c1g1u">seen here</a>.<br />
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As for their history, I've not had chance to research back into the early 19th century, but the 1882 Post Office Directory says number 364 was occupied by Alexander Towne, a junior surgeon - not an obvious shop tenant, but no one more obvious is listed. At 366 there was James Brown, who ran a library, no doubt as a commercial interest charging a fee for book lending.<br />
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William Catt, grocer and tea dealer, is at 368. Interestingly, an obituary in <i>The Standard</i> of November 6, 1884, records the death of Elizabeth, wife of William Catt, at the age of 43. It turns out Elizabeth was the fourth daughter of Alexander Towne, the junior surgeon at 364.<br />
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In 1895, James Brown and William Catt are still there, but lithographer Jani T Maffuniades is at 364.<br />
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And finally, the 1910 Directory has no record for number 364, but at 366 is a tobacconist, Jas Tomlinson Jr, and at 368 is Bernard George Hyatt, umbrella maker. A&W Hyatt, a manufacturer of trimmings, girdles and tassels, was a family business based in Hackney. It expanded into umbrellas in the early 20th century, opening four stores, including the one at 368 Kingsland Road.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-60307020862884879432014-04-20T16:20:00.000+01:002014-04-20T16:20:39.047+01:002 Pearson Street, E2While wandering around Hoxton recently, I nipped to Pearson Street, where there is an early mid-19th century Grade II-listed terrace, including a shop at number 2.<br />
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The shop isn't in a good way, and as I haven't had time to do more than research the address on Google, I'm not sure when it was last a shop. However, it's <a href="http://www.movehut.co.uk/property/132964-2-pearson-street-hoxton-london/" target="_blank">available to let</a> at the moment, should anyone be interested, and willing to refurbish it! <br />
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The shop dates from the period the terrace was built, and although the shop front has since been altered, according to <a href="http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1235237" target="_blank">English Heritage</a>, it is a standard, simple Victorian design.<br />
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However, it's difficult to see what is original and what isn't. It's ramshackle to say the least, with the pilasters sat unevenly on rough plinths, battered stall boards, and everything is heavily painted in battleship grey (apart from the console brackets and door).<br />
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There are lots of these types of Victorian shop fronts around, as their simple, inoffensive designs have proved less likely to offend the changing tastes of developers than the gaudier efforts also produced by the Victorians. What makes 2 Pearson Street interesting is its survival within the terrace as a whole, rather than the shop on its own merit.<br />
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In 1876 a furniture salesman, George Rolfe, was <a href="http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/LONDON/2004-11/1099867586" target="_blank">listed</a> at number 2. The Post Office Directory in 1895 and 1899 records Edwin Merrill, a marble mason, at the address.<br />
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An advertisement in the Hackney Express & Shoreditch Observer of October 21, 1905, shows that "brake proprietor" and "cartage contractor" Thomas Cook was based here.<br />
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Thomas Cook's signage can still be seen on the side of the building.<br />
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The 1915 and 1921 directories list Lavington Bros, carmen, as the occupiers. Carmen were drivers of carts who were hired to transport goods around the city, so it seems to have been a continuation of Thomas Cook's business, but under a different name/ownership. Clearly these businesses would have all had use of the yard behind, with the entrance next to the shop.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-8751172431742636942014-03-21T17:37:00.001+00:002014-03-26T17:59:24.225+00:0056-58 Artillery Lane, E1In the 18th century, rising prosperity and social mobility meant shopping began to change from something done almost entirely out of necessity, to a leisure pursuit whereby luxury items and fripperies became objects of desire. As a consequence shop fronts around the mid-century became increasingly elaborate as they competed to turn shoppers' heads.<br />
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Surviving shop fronts from this mid-Georgian period are rare, which makes 56 Artillery Lane, London's best example, all the more remarkable. Its neighbour, number 58, is also noteworthy. This is number 56:<br />
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The building dates from 1690, but in the 1750s Huguenot silk merchants Nicholas Jourdain and Francis Rybot inserted two shop fronts on the ground floor, in a spectacular rococo style. Number 56 still dates from this time, but 58 was updated with a plain Regency-style front in 1827.<br />
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The shop front at 56 has five Doric columns (the one on the left smaller than the others) set on plain stone pedestals. These divide the frontage into four bays, occupied by two bow-fronted windows, the shop door and house door. The windows have architraves and triglyphs along the top, and stallboard gratings below. A rococo cartouche flanked by palm branches is fixed above the shop door.<br />
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Classical design is big on symmetry, but as is usually the case with shop fronts their efforts are compromised by the need for a door leading to upstairs accommodation. However, the moulding above the house door is even more spectacular than the cartouche above the shop, in my opinion, with drapery hung around an Aurora mask surrounded by rays and scrolls below.<br />
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Before 1895 the street was called Raven Row, and 56 and 58 were numbers 3 and 4. Originally a mercer's shop run by Francis Rybot, 56 remained in the Rybot family until around 1782, by when Thomas Blinkhorn, a silk weaver, was here. Blinkhorn stayed till 1799. Grocer Edward Jones moved in around 1813, staying till 1858. In 1859 it was occupied by another grocer, Cornelius Barham, and remained a grocer's until 1935. After that the building went into a decline, although at one point was an insurance office.<br />
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Number 58's original occupier Nicholas Jourdain left around 1772, when it was taken over by grocer and tea dealer Andrew Fowler. The area's dominant silk trade soon returned to the shop though, as from 1817 to 1836 silk and satin dressers Perry & Co (or Perry & Archer) were here. Following the collapse of the Spitalfields silk trade around the 1830s it became a glass warehouse until 1857, then from 1858 to 1935 was occupied by cigar maker IS Wilks & Co – although the 1910 Post Office Directory has a sign writer, Joseph Leopold Wolfson, also sharing the building.<br />
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The whole building was damaged by a fire caused by paraffin lamps in 1972.<br />
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For a comprehensive history of the two buildings up until the early 20th century, see <a href="http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50173" target="_blank">British History Online</a>.<br />
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Art collector Robert Sainsbury, using architects Dezeen, restored the building between 2005-09, turning it into a not-for-profit art gallery, named after the street's old name, Raven Row. Here's a picture from inside number 58, taken by David Grandorge (as are the two further down).<br />
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Parts of an 18th-century room from number 58 were shipped to the US in 1927 and stored at the Art Institute of Chicago - they were originally used in an exhibition on English interiors. In the 1980s they came back to England (<a href="http://www.6a.co.uk/downloads/2/091007_aafiles59_01.pdf" target="_blank">minus about 25% of it)</a>, where they sat in an Essex warehouse for a couple of decades before they were discovered by the architects and reinstalled. <br />
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The pale stone colour of the exterior <a href="http://patrickbaty.co.uk/2010/11/26/artillery-lane/" target="_blank">paintwork</a> on the restoration is in keeping with that used until the 1870s, after which some dark reds appear to have been used, and then later, following the fire, dark greens.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-9664265770022775052014-03-04T23:04:00.001+00:002014-03-04T23:04:50.979+00:00Leadenhall Market, EC3VAt one time England's most important meat market, Leadenhall Market is today a monument to Victorian retail, with some great places to eat and drink, one remaining butcher, some good shops and some tepid, unremarkable ones – Cards Galore, Pizza Express etc, I'm looking at you.<br />
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However, they all strive to blend in with the Victorian scheme, and the building is a thing of beauty, all iron, glass and timber, hemmed in by red brick and Portland stone, sitting snugly in the City of London.<br />
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The site has a retail history stretching far beyond Leadenhall, as a Roman basilica and forum were built here in AD70. The forum contained shops, banks and offices, around a market place. The basilica housed the town hall and law courts.<br />
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Leadenhall Market – Ledenehalle originally, as it was conducted in the courtyard of a lead-roofed mansion – was first recorded in 1309, and in 1345 Edward III designated it as a place where non-Londoners could sell poultry (the market in the street called Poultry was for Londoners only), which he hoped would weaken the black market for the meat. It came under the control of City authorities in 1411 and was rebuilt between 1439 and 1455.<br />
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By the 17th century it was famous for its meat. An oft-quoted story tells how Charles II took the Spanish ambassador, Don Petro de Rouquillo, to visit. The ambassador was impressed: "There's more meat sold daily in your market than in all the kingdom of Spain," he said.<br />
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Samuel Pepys recorded a visit in his diary. It was a rare sojourn, as it was usually the job of a maidservant to shop in the markets, and not the done thing for gentlefolk. But Pepys was without a maidservant at the time and, to avoid embarrassment, went after dark. "Thence to my wife, and calling at both Exchanges, buying stockings for her and myself, and also at Leadenhall, there she and I, it being candlelight, bought meat for tomorrow, having never a mayde to do it, and I myself bought, while my wife was gone to another shop, a leg of beef, a good one, for six pense, and my wife says it worth my money. So walked home with a woman carrying our things."<br />
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The below image of the old market is from the <i>The</i> <i>Illustrated London News</i> of December 27, 1845.<br />
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The market in Pepys' time had three courts: one for beef, one for veal, mutton and lamb, and the middle taken up by fishmongers, which also took up the south and west sides. More fishmongers, poultry and cheese shops filled the passages penetrating outwards into the City. <br />
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Although damaged during the Great Fire in 1666, the market survived and was rebuilt as a covered structure split into the Beef Market, the Green Yard and the Herb Market.<br />
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This map of the market shows the area in 1772 – there is a Flesh Market, Fish Market and a Herb Market on the eastern side – and also an illustration of the front of the old market:<br />
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And so the market continued, through the 18th and most of the 19th century. Newspaper archives recount thefts of meat, selling of meat unfit for human consumption, retailers breaking The Game Act of 1831 by selling out of season (<i>The Times</i> of March 3, 1855 reported that 10 of the market's biggest traders were summoned to court for this), but otherwise business boomed, with vast varieties of poultry. In 1809 a new breed of duck was discovered on sale – named the ring-necked duck, a live one wasn't recorded in the UK until 1955, after it had been discovered to be native to North America.<br />
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By the late 19th century, the Victorian vigour for sweeping away the clutter and dirt of history meant the old market's days were numbered. In 1880-81 the current structure was built, designed by Sir Horace Jones (also responsible for Billingsgate Fish Market, and the Central Meat Market and General Market in Smithfield). It was influenced by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galleria_Vittorio_Emanuele_II" target="_blank">Galleria Vittoria Emanuele II</a> in Milan, although somewhat smaller. It opened in December 1881, just in time for Christmas trading. Here's a picture from the <i>The</i> <i>Illustrated London News</i> of December 24, 1881, of the newly opened market:<br />
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The ornate cast-iron and glass structure has a classical look, with ionic columns and a timber and glass dome as the centrepiece where the footways meet. The cruciform plan isn't straight, due to the need to preserve ancient rights of way – it's always open to wandering Londoners through day and night.<br />
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Higher rents kept some of the old market's traders out of the redeveloped building, meaning the class of trader went up, although it was still primarily a wholesale market. Not that the poor didn't shop there too: "Just over London Bridge there was Leadenhall Market. Go over there in the afternoons, cos there was no fridges then so the fish that was left – you could get a bagful for 3d – we'd get the best of the fish, where they [artisans]'d be the buying the cheapest." <i>(from Loaves and Fishes, History Workshop Journal, no 41, spring 1996)</i><br />
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The success of the redevelopment meant the market continued through the 20th century. A restoration in 1990-91 accentuated the internal colour scheme, and shop tenants have since been encouraged by the City of London Corporation to base their shop fronts on Sir Horace Jones's original tripartite pattern, including the decorative cast-iron ventilation grilles. Some shops still have wrought-iron hooks outside, which were used to display poultry.</div>
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There are offices above the shops, and today it is mostly City workers who bring money to Leadenhall. Looking at them in their expensive suits and crisp shirts, it all seems a long way from the blood and stink of the meat market.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi-9JFkpBvb5SdpI9gJUHrFU7MyIifIVrRmXfc1yvRSyjOHzgBzb5ICqp7Ol7xFi8e8ukBDysuJRBL81VVNCEmHt6oZCurs-ZntOHyBFOoRrwSNXw5Z8oYPhSKKjdXORIgurWxxgq9Iot2/s1600/Leadenhall+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi-9JFkpBvb5SdpI9gJUHrFU7MyIifIVrRmXfc1yvRSyjOHzgBzb5ICqp7Ol7xFi8e8ukBDysuJRBL81VVNCEmHt6oZCurs-ZntOHyBFOoRrwSNXw5Z8oYPhSKKjdXORIgurWxxgq9Iot2/s1600/Leadenhall+7.jpg" height="640" width="408" /></a></div>
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As with any high street or market, the relentless tide of clone stores and decline of independent retailers have impacted on Leadenhall, meaning many of its <a href="http://217.154.230.196/NR/rdonlyres/39BA6A0B-49F6-4C8C-BA77-E32203CD7C81/0/DP_PL_City_of_London_Retail_Leadenhall_Market_2011.pdf" target="_blank">101 retail units</a> are occupied by chain stores or restaurants. But it's had to diversify to survive, and its survival should be celebrated.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-64905129552489844712014-02-06T22:55:00.001+00:002014-02-06T22:56:32.987+00:0016-20 Barter Street, WC1Tucked away behind High Holborn is Barter Street. The street name has only existed since 1937 – before then this was Silver Street, built as part of the Bloomsbury Square development in the 17th century. The street has a terrace of three early 19th-century shops.<br />
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All have neat, identical wooden shopfronts, with pilasters, unremarkable entablatures and bracketed cornices. <br />
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The fact that the street is hidden away means many of the past shop tenants seem not to be of the type that relied on passing trade. In 1882's Post Office Directory, only one of the shops is listed – number 16, occupied by blind maker Edward Jinks.<br />
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But by 1894 number 16 is occupied by John Hawley, tailor, who has been joined at 18 by bootmaker James Claridge. Number 20 is shared by Charles James Evans, a mathematical instrument maker, and wine merchant WJ Hollebone & Sons.<br />
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Leap forward to 1919 and confectioner Jane Owen has taken over number 16. At 18 is chimney sweep James Christopher Catlin, while at 20 is a printer, Jules Petit, and still WJ Hollebone & Sons.<br />
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In the 1951 Post Office Directory, Marine & Overseas Services Ltd's mail order office is the only shop listed, at number 16. This is the only business I've been able to find any significant remains of amid the depths of the internet. The exact nature of the company is unclear, but it did sell all sorts of bits and bobs such as watches and mathematical instruments, usually by mail order through adverts in newspapers and magazines. This one is from 1950 and was in <i>Model Engineer</i> magazine (from <a href="http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Marine_and_Overseas_Services_(1939)" target="_blank">Grace's Guide</a>):<br />
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I don't know about being the "ideal gift", but slide rules seem to have been a major part of its business for some time – it called itself The British Slide Rule Co at some time, judging by a classified ad in <i>The Times</i> (April 25, 1942). This is one of the company's slide rules (found <a href="http://www.tinajuliecordon.webspace.virginmedia.com/Slide%20Rules/BritishSlideRules.html" target="_blank">here</a>):<br />
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Perhaps a better gift idea was this "unique bed table", as advertised in Picture Post (November 5, 1949):<br />
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Another ad in <i>The Times</i> (December 1, 1949) offers "Swiss ex-RAF" watches for sale:<br />
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Perhaps this, from <a href="http://www.thewatchforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=13049&st=15" target="_blank">The Watch Forum</a>, is one of them? Look closely and you can see Marine & Overseas Services Ltd written on the face:<br />
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Collage has a <a href="http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collage/app?service=external/Item&sp=Zlondon&sp=71573&sp=X" target="_blank">pic</a> of the shops from 1956, but there doesn't appear to be much going on...<br />
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Today, numbers 16 and 18 are one business – London City Print. Number 20 is occupied by a solicitor, Brion & Co, which specialises in immigration law.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-35298004317935980422014-01-20T23:08:00.003+00:002014-01-24T23:53:47.666+00:00207 High Holborn, WC1I set out last Sunday to take pics of Staple Inn on High Holborn, only to find it under scaffolding. So instead I walked a short way up the street to number 207, an early 19th-century Grade II-listed shop and terraced house clinging to the corner of Newton Street.<br />
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What stands out most about the shop, which has a wooden frontage, is the wrought iron cresting above the entablature. This was commonly used in the late 19th-century, so was most likely added around that time. According to Alan Powers in <i>Shop Fronts</i>, iron cresting was intended to catch the eye as shop fascias became weighed down with an accumulation of intricate details. <br />
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For most of its life the shop was a pawnbroker or antiques shop, under different owners but most famously under the name Shapland.<br />
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Back in 1834 it was a <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=074-sun_2-70&cid=-1&Gsm=2012-06-18#-1" target="_blank">tobacconist</a>, but the <i>Lloyd's Weekly</i> on September 16, 1849 has a court report involving pawnbroker G Webb of 207 High Holborn, who accused 40-year-old Jane Sinclair of trying to defraud him of 12 shillings by "tendering a spurious ring".<br />
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In <i>Reynold's Newspaper </i>on November 10, 1861, the shop was still a pawnbroker but now seemingly under the name Joshua Harding. The paper reported a case at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in which a young man named Henry Lewingstone stole a silver watch from Harding. A post office carrier, Thomas Bentley, told the court: "I was coming out of West Central District Office, at the the corner of Southampton Street and Holborn, when I heard a smash of glass in Holborn. I ran across the road, and saw the prisoner at the window of 207, with his hand through a hole in a pane [of] glass into the window. He had a watch in his hand. At that moment the assistant came out of the shop and seized him."<br />
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The shop crops up in a number of court reports down the years, due to its jewellery trade. In <i>The Standard</i> of May 5, 1879, the pawnbroker was now Mr John Allan, but this time it's the pawnbroker who is the defendant, with Allan accused of unlawfully detaining a gold watch. Allan was cleared but ordered to share the cost of the loss of the watch with the complainant.<br />
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At some point very soon after, diamond merchant Charles Shapland must have taken over the shop, at some stage also working jointly with someone called Cloud, as there are early advertisements (eg <i>The Times, </i>February 25, 1891) naming the business as Cloud & Shapland.<br />
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Shapland ran the shop as a pawnbroker specialising in old jewels and also as a clockmaker. A clock of 1880 (the 1833 visible is the clock number) is engraved with Shapland's address:<br />
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But Shapland eventually took sole control, and the shop traded under the Shapland name until the 1980s, specialising in antique silver. Here's an ad from The Daily Express in 1921, which sat on the front page beside the masthead:<br />
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Shapland was clearly a jeweller of some repute – the store had its own <a href="http://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Makers/London-SS-SZ.html#Shapland" target="_blank">silver makers' mark</a>.<br />
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The renowned <i>Times</i> wine correspondent Pamela Vandyke Price (who <a href="http://www.decanter.com/news/wine-news/584733/obituary-wine-world-remembers-pamela-vandyke-price" target="_blank">died</a> just last week, aged 90) was clearly a fan, recommending the shop for silver tasting cups, brandy saucepans, toddy ladles and fine coasters in a few of her columns.<br />
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The City of London's Collage picture library has a great picture of the store, taken in 1974 – <a href="http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collage/app?service=external/FullScreenImage&sp=Z%22207+High+Holborn%22&sp=74948&sp=X&sp=2" target="_blank">click here</a>.<br />
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After Shadland closed in the 1980s, for some time it remained a jeweller, run by the Goldsmiths chain. When Goldsmiths moved out, its long association with jewellery ended, and instead of fine silver it now peddles distinctly non-precious greetings cards, One Direction face masks and 'Keep Calm and Carry On' tat as a branch of Cards Galore.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-19167603635338159872014-01-05T22:04:00.002+00:002014-01-05T22:04:46.133+00:0013 Rugby Street, WC1The best known address on Rugby Street is number 18, where Ted Hughes was living when he wooed Sylvia Plath. But across the road, the shop at number 13 is more stimulating than the memory of dead poets.<br />
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Its mid-19th century wooden shop front has a covering of attractive blue tiles, with dentil entablature and a pair of lion mask consoles, atop flat pilasters. There is just the one, large window – still with pin holes above for wooden shutters – which has an odd post, maybe for structural support, just inside to the right.<br />
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The terraced house was built around 1721, and when the shop was added in the 19th century it wouldn't have stretched back so far. Hidden beneath the wooden floor of the newer part of the shop at the rear is a medieval conduit head, made from white marble and scribbled with 16th-century graffiti. It originally supplied water to Greyfriars Monastery in Newgate Street.<br />
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Now a jeweller's, number 13 was for many years a dairy shop – hence the 'Dairy' lettering on the tiled stallriser – run since 1887 by the Davies family. The shop name was French's Dairy – why I don't know – and the fascia was only recently changed by the current occupier, Maggie Owen.<br />
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The Davies's name suggests it was a Welsh dairy. During the Victorian period many Welsh-owned dairies sprung up close to the Marylebone and Euston Roads, which offered easy access from Paddington Station, the terminus for trains from South Wales. Demand for milk brought by rail rocketed in the late 1860s, following an outbreak of rinderpest among the cows stabled in London, from where most supplies previously came. Hence the influx of Welsh dairy families, and the growth of dairy shops selling products that were previously sold from dairy stables in the city (see <i>An Economic History of London 1800-1914</i>, Professor Michael Ball & David T Sunderland).<br />
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I did have a quick look to see if I could find out whether the shop had a pre-dairy life, but couldn't find Rugby Street in the Post Office Directory. However, I've since realised Rugby Street was until 1936 or 1937 called Chapel Street (after the Chapel of St John, which was demolished in the mid-19th century), and when renamed the street numbering system was changed too, so no wonder I couldn't find it. The name Rugby Street comes from Rugby School, which owned this area of Bloomsbury. Here's a map of the area in 1752, from the British Library (it spells Chapel Street with a double l):<br />
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Post-dairy, by the 1980s number 13 was a general store, still run by the Davies family, then in the 1990s was taken over by Rennies, a gallery-cum-shop specialising in original posters and graphic design. Interviewed by <i>The Observer </i>in 2003, Rennies owners Paul and Karen Rennie said the cellar of number 13 was still stacked with milk bottles.<br />
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Eight years ago Maggie Owen moved in. Her range of contemporary jewellery and accessories from various designers is well worth a look if you're passing by.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-61567748621920514312013-12-18T10:13:00.001+00:002013-12-18T10:19:09.976+00:0049 Gough Street, WC1Number 49 Gough Street is a small shop with a big history. Situated behind Gray's Inn Road, it seems to have thrived for a number of years within the furniture industry, particularly as an outpost of larger furniture firms.<br />
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The house and shop, built in the early 19th century, were previously part of a terrace. Although altered at some point, the wooden shop front is original – English Heritage describes it as "exceptionally fine", with its dentil architrave, cornice and entablature atop fluted quarter columns.<br />
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It's no longer a shop. A Google search brings it up as the company address of the director of the British Parking Association, so perhaps it's an office, though there didn't look much happening when I visited on a Tuesday afternoon, and it looks more residential.<br />
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I don't know who the first retail tenant was, but in 1891 it was cabinet maker Baldassare Viscardini & Sons. Born in Como, Italy in 1831, Viscardini was living in the East End by 1841, working with his brother and father – the 1851 census shows all three were looking glass frame makers.<br />
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In 1857, Viscardini married 19-year-old Rose Martin, daughter of a carpenter. However, Rose must have met an unfortunate end – in 1867 Viscardini, now a widower, married again, this time to Eliza Sheppard, daughter of a boot maker. The wedding was in Holborn, and then the 1871 census has the family at Mount Pleasant, a stone's throw from Gough Street. In 1881 they're at 54 Gough Street, and by 1891 at 49.<br />
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Viscardini seems to have had two addresses at this time, the other being 15 West View in Islington, which must've been the family home. The census listing shows the whole of the family firm:<br />
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<i>Baldassare Viscardini, 60, cabinet maker</i><br />
<i>Eliza Viscardini, 40</i><br />
<i>Amelia E Viscardini, 20</i><br />
<i>Carlotta B Viscardini, 18, jewel case liner</i><br />
<i>Baldassare G Viscardini, 17, cabinet maker</i><br />
<i>Giacomo Viscardini, 15, cabinet maker</i><br />
<i>John W Viscardini, 13</i><br />
<i>Beatrice C Viscardini, 10</i><br />
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However, life for Viscardini wasn't just about furniture making. He was clearly a patriotic Italian, as back in 1859 he went back to his homeland to fight alongside general and politician Guiseppe Garibaldi in the Army of the Red Shirts during the Second Italian War of Independence, helping Garibaldi form a united Italy. The <a href="http://www.anglo-italianfhs.org.uk/photos/viscardini/" target="_blank">Anglo-Italian Family History Society</a> website actually has a picture of Viscardini from his time with the Red Shirts:<br />
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Clearly a remarkable man, Viscardini died in 1896 at West View, and is buried in New Southgate Cemetery.<br />
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Viscardini's business is still listed as occupying 49 Gough Street in the 1898 Post Office Directory – along with Frederick Nutt, an architectural modeller – but next to move in was possibly E Kahn & Co, listed as an artistic furniture maker in the 1906 directory. <br />
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E Kahn was a prestigious French furniture manufacturer, renowned for its copies of 18th-century French furniture, such as this E Kahn commode, which sold at Sotheby's in April 2012 for 37,500 US dollars:<br />
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However, there's no suggestion furniture this opulent was made at 49 Gough Street, as this was a smaller branch said to have produced pieces in an English Edwardian style. The company also had premises in St Andrew Street and Charlotte Street (the Shoreditch one) in London, and in about 1884 opened a New York office.<br />
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I've no idea what happened to the business, but here's an ad found on <a href="http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Main_Page" target="_blank">Grace's Guide</a>, which lists E Kahn as still at number 49 in 1922 (this ad appeared in the British Industries Fair brochure): <br />
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The next Post Office Directory I checked was for 1951, and by this time shopfitters Frederick Sage & Co had installed themselves in number 49. Founded in 1860, the business was based around the corner on Gray's Inn Road until the Blitz in 1941, when its premises were destroyed. Whether it shifted some of its operations to Gough Street after that or was already there before then, this can't have been more than a small limb of a much bigger operation. A picture of the shop in 1947 can be seen <a href="http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collage/app?service=external/Item&sp=Zlondon&sp=110424&sp=X" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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It may not look much in that picture, but Frederick Sage was a major shopfitting firm – it was responsible for the original shopfit in Harrods, and for many historic shop fronts on Regent Street, Oxford Street and Bond Street, such as Dickins & Jones, Selfridges and DH Evans on Oxford Street (now House of Fraser).<br />
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Remarkably, during each World War the company switched to manufacturing wooden airplanes, before picking up where it left off with shopfitting in peace time.<br />
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The business was global, with offices throughout Europe – Printemps in Paris was one job – the US and South America, as well as a factory in Cape Town, South Africa. It wasn't just shopfitting either – interiors were constructed for hotels, restaurants, and P&O and Cunard cruise ships. After the Second World War, Frederick Sage worked on the reconstruction of the bombed House of Commons.<br />
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The company struggled through the 1960s, and in 1968 was swallowed up by British Electric Traction. No doubt plenty of its work is still around today – in fact, I found these haberdashery shop drawers for sale on eBay...<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-50478577789652797612013-12-09T21:28:00.001+00:002013-12-09T22:37:04.791+00:00Selfridges - Provisions and Groceries openingAs I didn't have time to post a new shop over the weekend, I dug out this ad from the Daily Express of November 25, 1914, announcing the opening of Selfridges' Groceries and Provisions departments, more than five years after the store opening.<br />
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Does the business still stick to "London's Lowest Prices - Always", a claim that was often used in Selfridges' early ads? I doubt it. </div>
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Note it's Selfridge's with an apostrophe – the apostrophe was dropped in 1940, 19 years after Harrods did it.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-35665104953744681112013-12-03T22:26:00.002+00:002013-12-03T22:30:16.099+00:0093-101 Judd Street, WC1Turning off gridlocked Euston Road, Judd Street doesn't look like it promises much. Between 1808 and 1816, 84 houses were built on the street, but few survive. There aren't any on the eastern side, but on the street's western side a stretch of original buildings erected in 1816 survives, from numbers 85 to 103. Of these, 93 to 101 have shops.<br />
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The Grade II-listed block is made from multicoloured stock brick. Here's a pic looking north in 1954, from the Royal Institute of British Architects' picture library:<br />
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Starting at the southern end, number 93 has an early to mid-19th century shop front with a slightly projecting window with four pretty, arched frames, and one console on the right of the fascia. Consoles, which are used on some of the other shop fronts in the row, are typical of mid-19th century shop design – they first became popular in the 1830s as a new way of marking off separate fascias in rows of shops.<br />
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For a random snapshot of number 93's history I looked in the 1898 Post Office Directory, and at that time number 93 was a linen draper run by Maria Barnard. Today it's a travel agency.<br />
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Next door, number 95 has a fine early 19th-century shop front, again in a style synonymous with the period – the Greek Revival, widespread from 1810. The four Corinthian columns support an inswept entablature and a dentil cornice.<br />
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British History Online has what looks to be an original plan for number 95, although it has consoles on either end of the fascia and no inswept entablature.<br />
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In 1898, number 95 was a butcher's, William Vardy. In 1950 it was also a butcher, but now under the name E Price. To see a pic of E Price in 1950, click <a href="http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collage/app?service=external/Item&sp=ZJudd+Street&sp=112986&sp=X" target="_blank">here</a>. As far as I can tell from the RIBA pic from 1954, it was a butcher's then too, but this time under the name CW Bettiss – lots of chopping and changing in the butchery trade, it seems. At present it looks to be some sort of office, but is definitely the scruffiest shop on the row.<br />
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Number 97 looks similar to 93, but the shop front is early 20th-century. There was no listing for 97 in the 1898 Directory, so I'm not sure it was ever a shop before the current shop front was built.<br />
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Another 20th-century shop front, albeit a dainty imitation of a mid-19th century one, sits alongside at number 99. Since, I think, 1997 it's been Photo Books International, which specialises in – you guessed it – photography books. However, when I visited it had 'closing down' signs in the windows. Again, there's no listing for this address in the 1898 Directory.<br />
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Fortunately there is one more early 19th-century shop front, number 101. It's different to the rest of the row, with two simple, broad flat pilasters, inswept entablature and protruding cornice. The projecting window has pleasingly big panes. In 1898 it was occupied by the London & Provincial Window & House Cleaning Co. Unlike the other shops, it only makes do with one door, rather than two (one for the shop, one for the upstairs accommodation). Today it's split into three residential flats.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-40264040454767856172013-11-24T18:55:00.002+00:002013-11-24T18:55:33.511+00:00St James's Bazaar, 10 St James's Street, SW1Just yards away from <a href="http://londonhistoricshops.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/berry-bros-rudd-3-st-jamess-street-sw1a.html" target="_blank">Berry Bros & Rudd</a>, which has thrived for over 300 years, is 10 St James's Street, site of a rather less successful retail venture but which is a notable example of the bazaar – a popular new retail development in early Victorian Britain (London's first was the Soho Bazaar, opened in 1816).<br />
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This stuccoed building stretching round onto King Street, where it has an impressive wide porch with Tuscan columns, was once St James's Bazaar, a gallery of individual shops set across two 150ft-long floors. It was constructed in 1830-32 at a cost of £20,000. <br />
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Opened in April 1832, it was an opulent development – an issue of <i>The Morning Post </i>that same month noted its palace-like interior, although was amused that this was devoted only "to the display of bijouterie, toys and minute elegancies and trifles of every description".<br />
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Shoppers wandered among stalls "tastefully distributed in curves, lines and circles". Gas lighting illuminated the bazaar in the evening. There was also a magnificent display of looking-glass arranged among the shops, according to <i>The Morning Post</i>. Here's a small ad from the time, mentioning one of the retailers in the bazaar – Howe, a glover.<br />
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However, about one year after opening, the bazaar closed. By 1839 it had apparently stood empty for six years. Owner William Crockford blamed the "change of fashion [which] has affected not only this property but all property of a similar description in the Metropolis".<br />
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In the early 1840s the building hosted a couple of notable exhibitions. In 1841, a diorama of the funeral of Napoleon proved popular, and in 1844 the decorative works for the New Houses of Parliament were exhibited, including designs for doors and stained glass windows. This was less popular – <i>The Standard</i> of May 28, 1844 reported that the exhibition "although better attended yesterday than on any other day since its opening gratuitously to the public, was nearly deserted, the number of persons visiting it not reaching to more than 200 or 300 during the day". The picture below is from The London Illustrated News at the time of the decorative works exhibition.<br />
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In 1847, Crockford's widow converted the building into chambers. It has subsequently been used as offices, apart from when it was the Junior Army and Navy Club from about 1881 to 1904, and a two-year stint as a confectioner's run by Paris firm Rumpelmayer from 1907. <br />
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The building has been altered over time by its various owners – the current St James's Street entrance was constructed in the early 20th century, and the exterior was heightened in 1897 and 1914.<br />
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Go <a href="http://ragpickinghistory.co.uk/2011/05/11/victorian-bazaars/" target="_blank">here</a> for more on the history of the Victorian bazaar.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-8788110101961737332013-11-17T14:24:00.002+00:002013-11-17T22:32:23.430+00:00Berry Bros & Rudd, 3 St James's Street, SW1After the Great Fire destroyed the City of London, shopping moved westwards, to Covent Garden, Strand and Holborn. And when the Palace of Whitehall burnt down in 1697/8, the court of William III moved to St James's Palace, and St James's Street quickly became a fashionable locale.<br />
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Businesses serving this wealthy clientele sprung up, particularly on the street's eastern side, and thanks to its coffee/chocolate houses and clubs it became the epicentre of masculine aristocratic society.<br />
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The firm now known as Berry Bros & Rudd was set up as a grocer's in 1698 by Widow Bourne. Her daughter married William Pickering and this family business supplied the area's coffee houses - the sign of the coffee mill still hangs over the shop.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8Czm-Mxjdhk4OWQ_6KrE4DWOqD5KinjODq3rkhyphenhyphenRsxfczxKJ-gA9Ngn2wSfuDcJEsWwMhjJSr44MSPWkO28t227Y6zJ555wYEHS6BHkm4w6-qYwKu4_nR_dZ4vW3_P5wdXfXfS24bEAV/s1600/Coffee+Mill+Sign+EDIT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="461" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8Czm-Mxjdhk4OWQ_6KrE4DWOqD5KinjODq3rkhyphenhyphenRsxfczxKJ-gA9Ngn2wSfuDcJEsWwMhjJSr44MSPWkO28t227Y6zJ555wYEHS6BHkm4w6-qYwKu4_nR_dZ4vW3_P5wdXfXfS24bEAV/s640/Coffee+Mill+Sign+EDIT.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The store remained in the same family, although the names of the family heads changed from Pickering to Clarke and then, in 1810, to Berry. It was around this time, when the company was led by George Berry, that wine became the principal focus. In 1920, Hugh Rudd, previously a wine merchant in Norwich, became a partner and in the 1940s his name was added to the fascia.<br />
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Although non-family directors began to be appointed after the Second World War, Berry Bros & Rudd is still run by members of the Berry and Rudd families, over 300 years since its creation. It remains a retailer to the aristocracy, currently holding royal warrants for HM The Queen and the HRH The Prince of Wales.<br />
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The three-storey building was originally two terraced houses with one shop, built circa 1731-2 by the Pickerings to replace their original structure. In 1800 it was altered to become a single property.<br />
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The oldest (the right-hand side as you look at it) part of the wooden shopfront, which has an interesting quasi-gothic design, dates from 1800; the left-hand part is a convincing 1930s imitation. There are vast wine cellars below, which stretch out 150ft to the centre of St James's Street.<br />
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The store retained its wooden shutters long after the introduction of roller shutters (the first London shop to use rollers shutters was Swan & Edgar of Piccadilly in the 1830s). These cumbersome wooden panels were carried in and out each day by the apprentices. They slotted into a groove and were pinned into the ledge above the stallboard. To see a pic of the store in 1980 with its shutters up, go to <a href="http://www.paulbarkshire.com/">www.paulbarkshire.com</a> and check out the London Shops & Pubs section.<br />
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The wooden shutters helped prevent serious damage to the shop front during the Second World War. They're now kept in the side alley leading to Pickering Place (pictured), but were pressed into action in 2011 during the London riots. <br />
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Stepping inside is like entering the 18th century, as the interior has changed little over the years, with wood-panelled walls, plenty of original fittings and shelving, and rickety, uneven wooden floors leading into small, separate rooms.<br />
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The scales that were used to weigh tea, sugar and spices began in 1765 to be used to record the weights of aristocratic customers - "people of fascination", according to Henry Fielding. Six generations of English and French royalty had their body sizes recorded for posterity; it was a sign of social status to have your name written into the books. The scales are still inside the shop today.<br />
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But Berry Bros & Rudd isn't a business relic. It has constantly moved with the times - after all, the family motto is 'Don't stop changing'. More recently it was the first wine merchant to launch a website, <a href="http://www.bbr.com/">www.bbr.com</a>, way back in 1994, and set up the Berry's Broking Exchange, in which customers buy and sell wines that are stored in the company's temperature-controlled Basingstoke warehouse. <br />
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I paid a visit on a bright winter's day, with the sunlight reflecting off the handsome shop front's blistered black paintwork. Although I enjoyed visiting <a href="http://londonhistoricshops.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/r-twinings-co-216-strand-wc2r.html" target="_blank">Twining's</a> the other week, my enthusiasm for wine easily beats that for tea, so I was looking forward to picking up a nice bottle.<br />
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When a shop assistant approached, I asked to see the port wines. Apart from two bottles, the whole lot were in the cellar, so after a brief chat in which he displayed his extensive wisdom but didn't patronise my very limited knowledge, I came away with a nice bottle of 2006 crusted port that was uncorked later that evening. He said when I returned, we could explore my tastes further...<br />
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<i>Some of the pics (the first and third, ie the good ones) were sent to me by Berry Bros & Rudd's press office, and were taken by Joakim Blockstrom in 2011.</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-80144503861462895652013-11-07T22:47:00.001+00:002013-11-07T22:47:14.800+00:0035 Swinton Street, WC1The shop's not much to look at, but along with the corner house this dates from circa 1835-44 and is Grade-II listed.<br />
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The Post Office Directory of 1898 lists it as a chandler's shop run by a Mrs Amelia Bowerbank. I had a look through some earlier directories, but as the listings weren't by street I couldn't find anything for it ... so that's pretty much all I know.<br />
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Architecturally, it's a wooden shopfront with pilasters, entablature (although with some rectangular panels attached) and bracketed cornice, but there's nothing fancy.<br />
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Swinton Street's first houses were built in 1776, and it was originally a small cul-de-sac. The first occupant was able to gaze across the meadows to Fleet Brook. The western end of the street dates from that period, but the later houses that extended eastwards, including number 35, were begun in the late 1830s and completed by 1844.<br />
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And the street has pretty much remained the same since, despite major developments in the nearby area, notably the building of the railways and King's Cross station. I had a look around to see if I could find any old images of Swinton Street and the best I could do was this from a London Illustrated News of 1862, which shows the construction of the first section of the Metropolitan tube line, between Paddington and Farringdon. A small section of Swinton Street can be seen jutting out to the left behind the front-facing building just left of centre. The few houses furthest away are Britannia Street. <br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-43611824411979945072013-10-27T23:03:00.003+00:002013-11-07T23:00:03.716+00:00173-179 King's Cross Road, WC1I'd walked past 173-179 King's Cross Road a couple of times before, and each time lots of cars were parked outside. I was hoping to get lucky and find no cars there, but it wasn't to be...<br />
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Anyway, this terrace of four shops with housing above was built around 1796-99. It was previously called Field Place, but was changed following the building of King's Cross, when the road leading to the station, Bagnigge Wells Road, and the rows and places along it were all renamed King's Cross Road and renumbered accordingly.<br />
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It's not the most salubrious area, but that's often why old shops like these have survived. If these were on a busy high street, chances are the shop fronts would have been replaced by a wall of glass a long time ago.<br />
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The wooden shopfronts have pilasters carrying entablatures with projecting cornices. The buildings are all made from yellow stock brick.<br />
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Number 173 is still in commercial use, as an architects. Although no longer a shop, it's the only one of the four to have lettering on the entablature. In the Post Office Directory of 1898, it's listed as Caxton Printing Co.<br />
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Number 175 is now a four-bedroomed house, with no commercial use. The wooden shop front has been well maintained but is a little scruffier than its neighbours, despite the pot plants. In 1898 it was occupied by Never-Rust Metal Plate Co.<br />
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Number 177 has previously been a tobacconists, a foundry and a chandler (John Hurst, according to the 1898 PO Directory) at various points in its existence, but like 175 is now a four-bedroomed house - the shop area is now the kitchen. It was a foundry for most of the 20th century, run by the Brimson family, but this closed down in 1985. Apparently much of the machinery from the foundry was acquired by the Museum of London. There is still a working pulley inside the house, which was used to move molten metal. The shop front style is the same as at 175, although looks better preserved - particularly the wood-panelled stall riser below the windows. <br />
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Finally, number 179 was restored in 1989. It still seems to be in commercial use, with a few different random company names coming up in Google searches (including a photography firm for fetish websites), but it's not clear who is currently there from the outside. The 1898 directory names a corn dealer, Bushnell & Sons, as the occupier - the company also had number 181. Of all the shop fronts it's the most ornate, with some nice curved arching in the window corners.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-45651816007546225812013-10-20T21:54:00.002+01:002013-10-20T21:54:56.812+01:00R Twinings & Co, 216 Strand, WC2Londoners have been buying tea from Twinings on the Strand since 1706, when Thomas Twining took over what was originally called Tom's Coffee House at Devereux Court, where 216 Strand now sits.<br />
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The location was ideal as the area had recently seen an influx of the aristocracy, who had been forced out of the City by the Great Fire of London.<br />
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The shop, which Twining renamed Ye Golden Lyon, began selling cups of wet tea (as well as coffee and drinking chocolate), but dry tea soon became the main focus as domestic tea drinking grew increasingly fashionable.<br />
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Twining wasn't the first tea merchant - London grocer Daniel Rawlinson was selling tea (then known as "the new China herb") 60 years before Twining - but the business flourished, helped no doubt by the marketing clout of its appointment in 1711 as "purveyor of teas" to Queen Anne. Sir Christopher Wren and "hardened and shameless tea drinker" Dr Johnson were just some of the famous patrons of the tea house.<br />
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The shop staff - all male - originally wore swallowtail coats, snow white shirts and white ties. It's said their uniforms often became covered in tea dust, yet Twining insisted they could only serve customers if their outfit was spotless.<br />
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According to English Heritage, the stucco shopfront with elegant portico leading inside dates from the early 19th century, although some people claim it was constructed in 1787. It's a narrow shop, with just the door opening onto the Strand, and is only one storey. Steps inside lead to a basement, which I assume houses the stockroom.<br />
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The Grecian columns either side of the doorway support an entablature, atop which are perched a pair of Chinamen with their backs resting against a British lion.<br />
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Part of the shop and all the back premises were destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, although the store reopened within a few hours, trading from a temporary desk. <br />
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The Twinings logo - the company obviously didn't care about apostrophes - is the world's oldest continually used logo, created in 1787. The business is also London's longest-running rate payer.<br />
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The interior has recently been updated, including a new sampling counter where I supped a few varieties - I recommend the rooibos flavoured with orange and cinnamon. There's also a museum at the back of the store.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-67794948236996938962013-10-08T21:15:00.000+01:002013-10-08T21:19:30.673+01:0043 Eastcheap, EC3The first thing you notice when appoaching 43 Eastcheap, on a corner beside St Margaret Pattens, is its pillarbox red paint job. Get closer though, beyond the tree out front, and the full effect of its stuccoed timber shop front becomes clear.<br />
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The building is early 18th century, but the shop front was added in the early 19th century. To the front, one large flattened bow window is framed by matching double doors with Corinthian columns.<br />
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Topping off the whole arrangement is an elegant cornice.<br />
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Number 45 next door is a 1966 replica of the house that originally stood there, which was built at the same time as 43.<br />
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The shop's longest-standing occupant was Joseph Long, mathematical, optical and hydrometer instrument maker, from 1885 to 1936 (after moving here from Little Tower Street, where the business was based from 1821-84). Here's the kind of thing the business manufactured and sold - an alcohol slide rule, used to measure the alcoholic strength and excise duty of spirits.<br />
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I also managed to find a bill of sale from 1918, which I've scanned in. Unfortunately a hole makes it impossible to see what was purchased.<br />
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It seems even back then the business was proud of its handsome shop, judging by the illustration.<br />
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A picture from 1934 (watermarked, as it's courtesy of Architectural Press Archive/RIBA Library) shows Joseph Long towards the end of its stay at 43 Eastcheap.<br />
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A news piece from The Times of October 7, 1936, reported that the London County Council listed the shop front along with the Royal Exchange and Mansion House, among others, as worthy of preservation. <br />
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A picture from the mid-1960s, which I can't reproduce, shows a later occupant, wine merchant John Martin.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-73002867119689248472013-09-23T22:59:00.001+01:002013-09-23T23:02:07.465+01:009 Laurence Pountney Lane, EC4Hemmed in by modern office buildings in the midst of the City, the narrow Laurence Pountney Lane, first recorded in 1248, cuts through from Cannon Street down to Upper Thames Street.<br />
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There used to be a church on the street, but it was burnt down in the Great Fire and never rebuilt. The churchyard is still here though, and directly south of it on the same side of the street is number 9, a red brick house dating from about 1670 - it was built on the site of a wine merchant's shop and house that also perished in the fire. It was partly reconstructed in the early 18th century, and a late 18th-century shop front has survived.<br />
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When it ceased to be a shop I don't know, but it was turned into offices at some point and only converted back into domestic use in 2004. The one-window wooden shop front, with a fairly large fascia and flat pilasters, is in great condition. There's also still a pulley and a trapdoor for lifting port and sack into the cellar. <br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-23625998530423663162013-09-03T21:40:00.000+01:002013-09-03T21:52:27.460+01:0091-101 Worship Street, EC2On the borders of the City and Shoreditch, the terrace at 91-101 Worship Street looks somewhat unloved. Yet as the steel and glass of the City flows ever onward, it has probably survived thanks to its architect, Philip Webb.<br />
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Of the shops with National Heritage listing, almost all will be Grade II - but this tatty block is Grade II* (a category only 5.5% of listed buildings have). This is because of Webb, friend of William Morris and at the vanguard of Arts and Crafts architecture - most famous for The Red House in Bexley.<br />
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Details on 91-101 Worship Street such as the pointed window arches and steep roofs are typical of Arts and Crafts architecture.<br />
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Webb usually stuck to domestic buildings, but accepted a commisson to design 91-101 Worship Street, a terrace of workshops, shops and housing for artisans. Originally the craftsmen would have lived and worked here, displaying their wares in the windows of the shops that project outwards on the ground floor. Windows let light into the basements so work could be done down there. A gothic drinking fountain on the southeast corner provided a final dash of Victorian philanthropism.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwyaY77nzz7iXFQeo-EB6hwn04RSD1KSTl2sOuXSFHQ5Uz-PF5jOmk7IxXlN81dIRb0hsTgwD_eLOSQj9DXSsNrcZLtSoOGIGx-ggSkDvzar3VP4PqEDXjlUk4kIrdSJfDkCz96XQ8a8fy/s1600/Worship+Street+full+length.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwyaY77nzz7iXFQeo-EB6hwn04RSD1KSTl2sOuXSFHQ5Uz-PF5jOmk7IxXlN81dIRb0hsTgwD_eLOSQj9DXSsNrcZLtSoOGIGx-ggSkDvzar3VP4PqEDXjlUk4kIrdSJfDkCz96XQ8a8fy/s640/Worship+Street+full+length.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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As standalone shops, there's not much to describe. The shop fronts have no ornamentation, the shop windows are basic, and the doorways with wide porches more residential than retail. <i>The Builder</i> magazine praised the use of "sound real materials" in the terrace's construction but complained that the finishings inside had a "degree of rudeness" that it predicted would deter those tenants able to afford the rent, meaning take-up of the properties may be slow. This pic is from <i>The Builder'</i>s review of Webb's work.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj79NuMY8cqLE_9MSbBjdB4UUr-mXRiyp01s3hE0m9eBx7o9lfuUTn52oHUSJqMaYslvgObBd9nHKU-rQH8T_LpjrX4xXYuHSf_ilNRW4uVBj8u6g_voMHRaJ8nuXUyXCqpIEUrJIanTYMN/s1600/Worship+Street+from+Builder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj79NuMY8cqLE_9MSbBjdB4UUr-mXRiyp01s3hE0m9eBx7o9lfuUTn52oHUSJqMaYslvgObBd9nHKU-rQH8T_LpjrX4xXYuHSf_ilNRW4uVBj8u6g_voMHRaJ8nuXUyXCqpIEUrJIanTYMN/s640/Worship+Street+from+Builder.jpg" width="568" /></a></div>
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When I visited, the gate had been left open so I nipped in to get a pic of the rear, although as regards the shops there's not much to see.<br />
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Today, all of the block has been split up into single floors with various uses such as a sandwich shop and offices, so Webb's original intention of artisans living above and working below has been lost.<br />
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However, in a retail sense it's a fine example of Victorian social ideals and the Arts and Crafts movement's focus on artisan traditions.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-16523404054672163752013-08-26T19:30:00.001+01:002013-08-26T19:31:19.092+01:005 and 7 Tower Court, WC2At the back of Ambassador's Theatre in Covent Garden sits Tower Court, a small terrace of former shops.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLwi3-xkFaWsilYbRWva5s_XR4u-cLX4ZPQXVNnK9ItNM0Za0IHpHmMA0SsaC9kUUe7YcEL7sQeghwYcBs2nLMflYTE_otujHsSExQHPWGMly0yjgP2t6iwEmefgyGWuPDvY5N0CMNf2d5/s1600/Tower+Court+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLwi3-xkFaWsilYbRWva5s_XR4u-cLX4ZPQXVNnK9ItNM0Za0IHpHmMA0SsaC9kUUe7YcEL7sQeghwYcBs2nLMflYTE_otujHsSExQHPWGMly0yjgP2t6iwEmefgyGWuPDvY5N0CMNf2d5/s640/Tower+Court+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The buildings date from the late 18th century but today are all houses. However, the original wooden shop fronts have survived on numbers 5 and 7. Here's number 5:<br />
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And here's number 7 (should've moved the beercan):<br />
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Number 8, which was under scaffolding when I visited, also has a wooden shop front but it's a 20th-century reproduction. Number 10 also used to be a shop, but lost its shop front sometime after 1973.<br />
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English Heritage says all the windows have been altered for domestic use. I wonder how different they are to the originals? Based on my limited knowledge, the shop front styles on 5 and 7 are pretty much in keeping with the late 18th-century date of the buildings.<br />
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Neither are elaborate, just bracketed entablature and cornices (the best on number 7, below). Despite these shops' ages, I can't imagine they get much attention - there was only a council road sweeper having a fag break in Tower Court when I took a look.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2751924131763982623.post-50969285587765894942013-08-22T09:00:00.000+01:002013-11-07T22:59:04.174+00:001-8 Goodwin's Court, WC2 Strolling down St Martin's Lane in Covent Garden, it's easy to miss the narrow opening into Goodwin's Court. But duck down it into this gas-light lit alley and you'll find one of London's most-intact rows of 18th-century shops.<br />
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The houses were erected in 1690, but the wooden bowed shopfronts from numbers 1 to 8 were added in the late 18th century. They're typical late 18th century, when window displays were becoming more eye-catching yet the shopfronts still had little architectural elaboration.<br />
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The London Building Act of 1774 restricted protruding bows to ten inches or less - these ones look well in keeping with that...<br />
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Look closely at some of the shopfronts and there are holes at the bottom of some of the frames, which often on old shopfronts is evidence of the wooden shutters that were used before the introduction of iron roller shutters in the 1840s. Pins holding the bottom of the shutters were inserted into the holes.<br />
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The original gas lights are 19th century.<br />
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The shops are offices now - the street has a more recent history of being home to theatre and entertainment agents (Dawn Sedgwick at number 3 represents Simon Pegg and Catherine Tate, among others). The Post Office Directory of 1855 lists numbers 2, 4 and 7 as occupied by piece brokers, who bought off-cuts or shreds of cloth and other materials to sell on, so it was clearly not a lucrative street. The long-gone shopkeepers, such as a tailor and piece broker at number 2 called Frederick Bartens, who was in court for insolvency in January 1855, were probably left to rue the St Martin's Lane shoppers who strolled on by...<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0