Bet not many of these #Cambridge students realised that Gardenia's shopfront was installed for Lennards (shoe shop) by Pollards in the late 1920s. A tad altered, but recognisable - hope it isn't now swept away!

Bit of Peckham Rye art deco. Former Holdron’s department store. Now a tremendous shop in its own right

What do we do with our former department stores? Well, Age Concern Southend has one answer that seems to be working. Heard some lovely stories tonight of the impact The Haven has had (4000 visitors a month!) & the wider benefit it's had on the high street. Inspirational stuff. @archhfund.org.uk

This week we are exploring the Electricity Showroom, which appeared in the nation's high streets in the 30s, often in an art deco or modernist finish and looking to sell new fangled electrical and gas appliances. Read more in Power to the People www.modernism-in-metroland.co.uk/blog/power-t...

Lovely historic shops in Grand Hotel Buildings, #Eastbourne.

Shopfront Friday - postcard of the Argenta Meat Company with a date of 1924

Dealbh-camara às an adhar de dh'Ospadal tùsail an Ràthaig Mhòir ann an Inbhir Nis. Cha robh anns an ospadal thùsail ach grunnan uàrdan air aon làr agus chaidh a' chiad euslainteach a thoirt a-steach air 5 An t-Sultain 1941 [neach-fiosrachaidh: Nurses League of Inverness Hospitals]

The C & A store at the corner of Sauchiehall and Cambridge Streets is brand new in this 1929 photograph. Designed by North, Robin & Wilsdon, and built in 1928, the successor firm of North Partners did the design work for the 1950s alterations. 📷 Glasgow City Archives #Glasgow

158-160 Argyle St, at Mitchell Lane, photographed in 1926. The fashion retailer Burton had been established in London in 1903, and by the time this was taken, had around 400 stores across the UK. Today you'd find slot machines rather than shirts at this location. 📷 City Archives #Glasgow

New post this morning 27/8. Review of @kathrynmorrison.bsky.social brilliant book Chain Stores in the Golden Age of the British High Street. stirlingretail.com/2025/08/27/c...

Former Debenhams/Bon Marché store, Gloucester: the early 1960s part of the building very like the Festival Hall's original 1951 elevations, especially the small windows to the left which echo those which originally illuminated the RFH's side fire escape stairs.

Selection of tiles from old shops in North Yorkshire

Have you seen this @kathrynmorrison.bsky.social ? Some #UrbanPrehistory for chain stores - The Lost Stones of ASDA…

The corner of Kenneth Street and Church Street, #Stornoway, 1930s, with the staff of Bruce Brothers' Coal Merchants and the Ladies Hairdessing Saloon stainding outside their premises [source: HLH Archives, D1751/2/1/18]

Some nice #geometric #mosaic #tiles in the entrance to two small shops in Rhyl. @kathrynmorrison.bsky.social

A long piece about 'Chain Stores' by Christopher Catling for the new edition of Current Archaeology - if you fancy a read! the-past.com/feature/cath...

A visit to a new place! Llanidloes, Powys, not far from Newtown. Very interesting as it seems so little changed architecturally. An amazing number of shops still trading - which was so wonderful to see!

If anyone has £1.75m then I've just the 1930s and 1960s west country department store for you. There's a 1938 Deco central bay on the frontage, with a subsequent major remodeling to fit with it in the 1960s. 1/3

For any old retail shop people on here, the ex Melias store in Cardigan West Wales last week of July 2025

‘London was in his veins’: Gillian Darley pays tribute to the erudition, wit and open-mindedness of the architectural historian Andrew Saint, who has died at the age of 78.

Sadly vacant but this early 20thC shopfront in St Andrews, Fife is still lovely with its delicate stained glass, decorative timber and mosaic entrance

Some of the wonderful medieval sculpture we enjoyed on the #BAA Conference (in and around Leicester) this week. Bet you can identify them all!

The saddest news. What a wonderful photograph of Andrew with Gavin.

It was wonderful to see friends, #HistoricEngland colleagues, stakeholders and so many others at the launch of our book on the Woolwich Rotunda earlier this week. For details, see: bsky.app/profile/livu...

Great examples of #WHSmith’s tile panels, advertising all kinds of books & stationery. Lovely to see them in situ. I’m more worried about the future of old signs that have WHS branding. Such fine lettering!

Well folks, NOW is the time to buy your copy of Chain Stores! And, indeed, Woolworth’s. Bargains galore!

A plea for #TGJones to respect and cherish the remnants of #WHSmith's early shopfitting - its wonderful tile panels, decorative leadwork, enamel hanging signs and olde-worlde shopfronts. New post, looking back at #WHSmith, here: buildingourpast.com?p=11422&prev...

Looking along Sauchiehall St at the back end of a Corpy bus in 1974. McLellan Galleries can be seen on the left, originally built in 1855 as a gallery and warehouse for coach builder Archibald McLellan. Trerons was a department store styling itself as "Paris in Glasgow". 📷 GCA

Former Stromness Soda Fountain, coffee saloon and ice-cream parlour, Victoria Street. 'Ice cream sold ... in any quantities, large or small. Made by an electric machine of new design.' Now the most fabulous shop selling woolly things and more. #shopfronts #Orkney #Stromness

Fish on Friday! Here's some light weekend reading - a new blog post on the shops of Mac Fisheries (not sure how many of you will remember them!) tinyurl.com/33zxm9zb

The 1929 Art Deco extension to the Watt Brothers Sauchiehall Street Department Store. It was designed by A. Graham Henderson (of Keppie Henderson), while the metalwork was cast by Walter MacFarlane and Co. #glasgow #architecture #sauchiehallstreet #wattbrothers #architecturephotography

New CRSBI entry for #Portsmouth Cathedral. A tricky one! www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=...

Another historic #Letchworth landmark bites the dust - Lloyds & Co. (mowers, agricultural implements etc) built a new factory on Birds Hill in 1915. Burnt down rather dramatically last night.😥

Brattishing! A lovely word for cresting, perhaps used mainly in Scotland?

Learn more about ‪Kathryn A. Morrison's new book Chain Stores in the Golden Age of the British High Street over on the LUP website: bit.ly/HEChain @kathrynmorrison.bsky.social #Heritage #HistoricEngland

Familiar chains such as Boots, Burton’s, Marks & Spencer, and Woolworth’s forged the character of Britain’s high streets in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Read our latest blog post from @kathrynmorrison.bsky.social introducing us to her new Historic England book on the topic: bit.ly/3G5sIO4

Uvedale monument (1615) #Wickham #Hants - wonderfully angry lion heads dismissed by VCH (admittedly long ago - in 1908) as 'clumsily treated'. Detail apparently 'not quite first rate'.

Walter J. West. Rather lovely butcher's stallriser spotted recently in #BishopsWaltham #Hants

Enjoyed giving my talk at #GreatYarmouth for the #NationalPiersSociety on Friday then yesterday I spoke to the Civic Society in The Place, new library and university centre in converted department store, really well done integrating elements of the old shop

On a much brighter note - here's a detail of #Southampton's Henry & Joyce Collins mural, from #Sainsbury's Lordshill, 1978. Taken down 1990. Restored and installed on Hamtun Street 2011.

Stopped in my tracks by this sad sight in #Southampton yesterday. The ongoing demolition of the once great Edwin Jones store (Healing & Overbury 1959) renamed #Debenhams in 1973.

Thank you Harriet! 🙂

Talking of Harris, stumbled across Mary Miers's lovely article about Rodel House (the former Rodel Hotel) in Country Life (9 April). Fascinating history - and who knew there was a link with Theobalds! #Isle0fHarris

Enjoying this new book about England's Suburbs. Strongly recommended!

Another wee taster for the 'Chain Stores' book. New post on the history of #Sainsburys stores. buildingourpast.com/2025/06/02/s...

Sad to see the end of Hudson’s Bay Company. Once upon a time recruited many men from the Western Isles. Latterly a huge department store group. End of an era!

Harris Tweed in photos. Never heard a weaving shed called an ‘atelier’ before. Very posh! #IsleofLewis