London's Lost Department Stores: A Vanished World of Dazzle and Dreams

Not long ago every major high street in Greater London, from Ilford to Uxbridge, had its landmark department store, while the West End was full of them, from Debenham & Freebody on Wigmore Street to Swan and Edgar at Piccadilly Circus. But now, with only Selfridges and John Lewis left even on Oxford Street, department stores are suddenly an endangered species. They were more than architectural wonders, though the fabulous Art Deco of Derry & Toms with its Moorish roof garden and the Moderne lines of Holdrons of Peckham Rye were certainly that: department stores led the way in fashion and design and, as safe destinations for the independent woman, in social progress. They became legendary for their exotic pet departments, their publicity stunts, their Christmas decorations, their furs: as places where you could buy anything. Now, Tessa Boase’s book, illustrated with magnificent period photographs throughout, takes you back to that vanished era of confidence and style, celebrating such fabulous, much mourned emporia as the vast Whiteleys in Queensway with its sweeping staircase, Gamages of Holborn and its peerless toy department, and Grants of Croydon that kitted out the RAF. There is even a guided walking tour of lost stores in the West End.