London streets are lined with colourful shops clamouring for our attention. Many are of considerable age and have survived for our enjoyment only through careful maintenance by generations of shopkeepers.
These shopfronts can be appreciated by anyone strolling along the pavements of London and offer a glimpse into the city’s rich history as one of the world’s most exciting shopping centres.
1. Raven Row, 56 Artillery Lane, London
No. 56 Artillery Lane in Spitalfields will be unknown to many seasoned London shoppers.
It lies far from the West End, in a warren of small streets and passages that evoke Dickensian London despite the proximity of Liverpool Street Station.
Now an art exhibition centre, this building was probably erected in the 1720s for a Huguenot silk merchant. Around 1756, it was refronted and the present shopfront, one of the oldest in London, was installed. The flattened bow windows are characteristic of the period.
In the 1750s, this shop may have belonged to the silk mercer Francis Rybot (Ribault), who leased the property from another mercer of French extraction, Nicholas Jourdain.
Throughout the 18th century, the shop was known by ‘the sign of the cat’. It was a grocer’s shop from 1813 until 1935. Today, recognised as the finest mid-Georgian shopfront in the city, it is listed Grade I.
The shopfront next door, at No. 58 Artillery Lane, is also worth looking at: it dates from the early 19th century and is listed in Grade II.
2. Fribourg and Treyer (Fancy That of London), 34 Haymarket, London
This lovely late 18th-century shopfront, with its prominent bow windows, small panes and narrow glazing bars, can be found just south of Piccadilly Circus.
It is a remarkable and surprising survival in a street with extensive redevelopment over the centuries.
Until 1982, the tobacco and snuff dealer Fribourg and Treyer occupied the premises. One of their signs is still set into a window pane. Peter Fribourg, the founder, was at this address in 1751, but the shopfront seems slightly later in date.
It is worth popping inside to see the remaining Georgian fixtures and fittings, including an Adam-style screen. The shop is listed at Grade II*.
3. Berry Bros and Rudd, 3 St James’s Street, London
Under various guises, Bourne, Pickering and then Berry, the same firm has traded here, in the heart of London’s ‘Clubland’, since 1698.
It was originally a grocer’s shop and, until street numbering was introduced, the address was ‘at the sign of the coffee mill’. A modern version of the coffee mill sign still hangs outside the shop, but by the mid-19th century, Berry Bros and Rudd had become a specialist wine and spirit dealer, as it remains today.
The venerable arcaded shopfront was installed around 1800. Note the elegant glazing, with very slender bars, and the pleasingly battered panelling with its blistered paintwork.
The old wooden shutters still line the passage, Pickering Place, to the side of the shop. The premises are listed at Grade II*.
4. Asprey, 165 to 169 New Bond Street, London
This world-famous jeweller’s shop was founded by William Asprey in 1781 and moved to 166 New Bond Street in 1847.
Over the years, as the business grew, it spread into neighbouring buildings. Asprey’s is listed at Grade II.
Though modernised in recent years, No. 166 (the middle section of Asprey’s, now identified as ‘167’) is a rare example of a fashionable mid-Victorian shopfront. Unlike its modest Georgian predecessor, it reaches up to the sills of the second-floor windows, encompassing a mezzanine floor.
Barley-twist columns flank the central doorway and windows, and the huge panes of plate glass proclaim the wealth and status of the retailer. Compare them with the windows of Berry Bros & Rudd above.
The matching shopfronts to either side (numbers 165 and 167) date from around 1906 and have also been modernised. You have to look closely to notice differences in the design, for example, the use of fluted rather than spiral columns.
Although Asprey’s shopfront expanded over many decades, it is visually unified by the cresting along the top.
5. James Smith and Sons, 53 New Oxford Street, London
Lying close to the British Museum in Bloomsbury, this supreme example of mid-to-late Victorian shop lettering is listed at Grade II*.
Neighbouring business premises once had similarly brazen signage displays, but this is the only one to survive. You must raise your eyes above the shopfront to appreciate the full effect.
James Smith and Sons specialises in umbrellas and walking sticks, still made in the basement under the shop. It was established on Foubert Street in 1830, but this branch opened in 1867.
Hazelwood House was remodelled when Shaftesbury Avenue was created around 1880, and the shopfront probably dates from that time. It is typical of the age, using all available surfaces, some carefully restored for advertising purposes and topped by decorative Gothic-style iron cresting.
6. Cordings, Denman House, 19 to 20 Piccadilly, London
John Cording’s first shop, specialising in gentlemen’s outerwear, opened on the Strand in 1839 and moved to No. 19 Piccadilly in 1877.
The present building, including the shopfront, was designed by Harold Arthur Woodington and erected in 1903.
Step to the opposite side of the street, and you will see that this building rudely interrupts Norman Shaw’s heroic architectural scheme of the early 20th century, with the Piccadilly Hotel to the left and the former Swan and Edgar store to the right.
The only concession the owners of Denman House made to Shaw’s plans was to set back their façade, re-erecting it to align with the new hotel.
This architectural compromise was lamented at the time as ‘a hopeless blunder’. But it has preserved a wonderful shopfront of fine materials and exquisite detailing, perfectly fitting the building it occupies. The building is listed at Grade II.
7. F. Pinet, 47 to 48 New Bond Street, London
François Pinet was a successful French shoe manufacturer with a fashionable shop on the Boulevard de la Madeleine in Paris.
The firm probably occupied this shop as its London branch from its construction in 1906.
The architect of the building was William Flockhart, but a close inspection of the window sill reveals the name of the Parisian architect who designed Pinet’s shopfront: ‘Avg Waser’ (Auguste Waser).
An unusual and particularly ingenious aspect of this shopfront is the device of the picture frame. Ornate bronze frames are embedded in the plate-glass windows, beautifully showcasing displays of Pinet’s shoes. The shopfitters must have been highly skilled craftsmen.
This building is listed at Grade II. Another interesting example of Flockhart’s commercial work can be seen at 180 New Bond Street, which is also listed at Grade II.
8. Fox Fine Wines and Spirits (formerly T. Fox and Co), 118 London Wall, London
This former umbrella shop’s sleek, stylish shopfront survives, although the premises were converted into a wine bar in 2015.
Fox’s business, manufacturing and selling umbrellas, was established in 1868, and the shop was refurbished in 1937 by E. Pollard and Co., one of the main shopfitters of the day.
Fox’s stylistic approach was very different from rival umbrella manufacturers and retailers, James Smith & Sons (see above), who retained their traditional frontage for generations.
The combination of bright chrome trim, shiny black Vitrolite (opaque glass) and red neon lettering was the height of modernity in the 1930s and remains so today.
The concave, non-reflective glass in the display windows is worth a special look. Pollard designed these windows to eliminate reflections that might affect the visibility of displays.
They were expensive: very few were made, and a mere handful survive today. One other fine example can be seen at Waterstone’s (formerly Simpson) on Piccadilly. Fox’s is listed at Grade II.
Further reading
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I remember going past the umbrella shop in a No 38 bus, coming from Leyton and travelling to Swan and Edgars as a trainee manager – Going back some!
I bought an umbrella from Smith’s in the 1980’s – sadly no longer with me.
Mrs Perriman. Please see comment I just tweeted about knowing Swan and Edgar in the 1970s. Thanks.
Add w.sitch at 48 Berwick street to your list. The most amazing chandelier and antique brass lighting business with a shop unchanged for over 100 years
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Lovely!
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L. Cornelissen art supplies in Great Russell St. is beautiful, esp. inside. And of course the Twining shop in the Strand. And Selfridges in Oxford street is a wonderful example of the architecture of the early 20thc.
I was interested in Mrs Perriman’s comment about Swan and Edgar. I lived in London during the mid to late 1970s and went into that store. I bought a Brother 3600 electric typewriter in there using a shop credit card they issued. I had that typewriter into the late 1980s and have always regretted getting rid of it. Have bought a couple of secondhand ones on Ebay but would love to get hold of a new unused one still in its box. A pity that Swan and Edgar have gone now.