Shopping In Old London
Tickets are available for THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOUR OF SPITALFIELDS on January 1st
Butchers, Hoxton St c.1910
Are you short of cash and weary of Christmas shopping? Why not consider visiting the shops of old London instead? There are no supermarkets or malls but plenty of other diversions to captivate the eager shopper.
These glass slides once used for magic lantern shows by the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society at the Bishopsgate Institute offer the ideal consumer experience for a reluctant browser such as myself since, as this crowd outside a butcher in Hoxton a century ago illustrates, shopping in London has always been a fiercely competitive sport.
We can enjoy window shopping in old London safe from the temptation to pop inside and buy anything – because most of these shops do not exist anymore.
Towering over the shopping landscape of a century ago were monumental department stores, beloved destinations for the passionate shopper just as the City churches were once spiritual landmarks to pilgrims and the devout. Of particular interest to me are the two huge posters for Yardley that you can see in the Strand and on Shaftesbury Avenue, incorporating the Lavender Seller from Francis Wheatley’s Cries of London, originally painted in the seventeen-nineties. There is an intriguing paradox in this romanticised image of a street seller of two centuries earlier, used to promote a brand of twentieth century cosmetics that were manufactured in a factory in Stratford and sold through a sleek modernist flagship store, Yardley House, in the West End.
Wych St, lined with medieval shambles that predated the Fire of London and famous for its dusty old bookshops and printsellers is my kind of shopping street, demolished in 1901 to construct the Aldwych. Equally, I am fascinated by the notion of cramming commerce into church porches, such as the C. Burrell, the Dealer in Pickled Tongues & Sweetbreads who used to operate from the gatehouse of St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield and E.H. Robinson, the optician, through whose premises you once entered St Ethelburga’s in Bishopsgate. Note that a toilet saloon was conveniently placed next door for those were nervous at the prospect of getting their eyes tested.
So let us set out together to explore the shops of old London. We do not need a shopping basket. We do not need a list. We do not even need to pay. We are shopping for wonders and delights. And we shall not have to carry anything home. This is my kind of shopping.
Optician built into St Ethelburga’s, Bishopsgate, c.1910
Decorators and Pencil Works, Great Queen St, c.1910
Newsagent and Hairdresser at 152 Strand, c.1930
Dairy and ‘Sacks, bags, ropes, twines, tents, canvas, etc.’ Shop, c. 1940
Liberty of London, c.1910
Regent St, c.1920.
Harrods of Knightsbridge, c.1910
The Fashion Shoe Shop, c.1920 “Repetiton is the soul of advertising”
Evsns Tabacconist, Haymarket, c.1910
F. W. Woolworth & Co. Ltd. 3d and 6d store, c.1910
Finnigan’s of New Bond St, gold- & silversmiths, c.1910
Achille Serre,Cleaner & Dyers, c. 1920
Old Bond St. c. 1910
W.H.Daniel, Cow Keeper, White Hart Yard, c.1910
John Barker & Co. Ltd., High St Kensington, c.1910
Tobacconist, Glovers and Shoe Shop, c.1910
Ford Showroom, c.1925
Civil Service Supply Association, c. 1930
Swears & Wells Ltd, Ladies Modes, c. 1925
Glave’s Hosiery, c 1920
Shopping in Wych St, c. 1910 – note the sign of the crescent moon.
Horne Brothers Ltd, c. 1920
Tobacconist, High Holborn, c. 1910
Yardley House, c. 1930
Peter Robinson, Oxford St, c. 1920
Confectionery Shop, corner of Greek St and Shaftesbury Ave, c. 1930
Bookseller, Wych St, c. 1890
Pawnbroker, 201 Seven Sisters Rd, Finsbury Park, c. 1910
Bookseller & Tobacconist and Dealer in Pickled Tongues at the entrance to St Bartholomew’s, Smithfield, c. 1910
Oxford Circus, c. 1920
Glass slides copyright © Bishopsgate Institute
Sorry! But I for one will not be visiting the Sweeney Todd Barbershop in the Strand, thank you very much!
Wonderful photos, GA! Thank you for sharing. I especially like the one of 152, Strand; it seems to encapsulate the whole era in one set of advertising hoardings.
The look of so many streets are echoed in Mark Gatiss’ Bookish TV series series, actually filmed in Belgium (and currently filming series 2) and set in 1946; which shows how late some of the changes in London streets actually was.
Interesting to also note that a Swears and Wells store – very high class furriers – was also in Leicester. Which may seem a strange venue until taken into consideration that the city was at the heart of the foxhunting Shires (Quorn, Fernie, Pytchley, Atherstone etc) where old and new money, and monied foreign visitors from royalty down made their holiday homes, a city and county where Society with a capital ‘S’ met…..where Edward met Mrs Simpson, where the creators of the real Chitty Chitty Bang Bang lived and worked, where Malcolm Sargeant attracted huge audiences to his organ recitals, where even Gordon Bennett stayed during ‘the season. And where WW1 secret agents were trained.
On another note… have a very happy and peaceful Christmas, GA, with many thanks for another year of education, enlightenment and entertainment. Your 365 day a year devotion to your subject, and the sheer variety of what you unfold every single day, is as amazing as it is breathtaking. Thank you so much.
And here is to a happy and rewarding 2026.
I do recognise a few of these. Beautiful Liberty of London remains unchanged. The Staples Inn building was famously on tins of Old Holborn tobacco, of which I have a couple of my father’s, now rattling with nails and screws inside. I believe that the building was painstakingly rebuilt to be a faithful restoration of the original.
I am not sure what a toilet saloon is – it seems to offer haircutting also . Mind you, I am always nervous visiting the optician, to learn how my eyesight is not ageing well but can be partially corrected, but only at eye-watering expense!
You had me at —— LIBERTY. It is so far beyond a “retail environment”……..more like a fantasy-version of a Shop. Every window, every beam, every rail, every drawer evokes a gentler age when societal aesthetics were broadening. Thus, the delightful imports, and the interest in hand-crafted wares and artistic accessories and home goods. Ladies, put aside those bustles and frills — and perhaps slip into a kimono-like gown? Or wrap yourself in a Morris-designed shawl. I did, and I still have it. It will outlast me, for sure.
In my collection of art books, I have a couple volumes about Liberty. I will enjoy looking through those again this weekend, as I imagine the lucky shoppers who still enjoy the holiday ambiance at Liberty. Thank you, GA — Happy holidays to all.
Although “Swears & Wells” is vastly entertaining, I still want to rename the furriers’ “Swells & Wears”.