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Turning our eyes to what we now call the ‘West End’,
in 1848 there was a store called Marshall, Wilson and
Stinton. Mr Stinton retired and his place was taken by
a young shop manager named Mr John Snelgrove and
the shop was renamed as
Marshall and Snelgrove.
In 1851 their very grand new building was opened in
Oxford Street as the ‘Royal British Warehouse’ –
a name they not surprisingly dropped in favour of
Marshall & Snelgrove. They also opened branches
around the country, so that when customers were
on holiday or travelling they would always be near
a Marshall & Snelgrove store. The shop became part
of Debenhams and the old store was redeveloped
beyond recognition in 1973 – when the name of
Marshall & Snelgrove disappeared from our streets.
On Piccadilly, Mr Swan and Mr Edgar opened
Swan
& Edgar
way back in 1812. It closed in 1982, by
which time it too had become part of the Debenhams
Group.
Not all shop-keepers decided to expand into the
all-encompassing ‘department store’. Shops such as
that of Arthur
Liberty
on Regent Street continued
selling fabrics and drapery
, Peter Robinson
employed
2,000 people across 100 departments – but only ever
sold ladies clothes. In Tottenham Court Road,
Heals
and
Maples
continued selling furniture on a
grand scale. In 1884 Maples offered ‘ten thousand
bedsteads in 6000 styles for immediate delivery’.
Maples is no more but Heals is an elegant and select
survivor on a road that became a Mecca for surplus
radio and electronic equipment after the war.
charge and no question’ Whilst William Whiteley
called himself the ‘Universal Provider’ – Harrod took
the telegraph address ‘EVERYTHING LONDON’.
In 1898 Harrods installed the first ‘moving staircase’
– or escalator. It was considered so exciting that on
opening day staff were positioned at the top of the
escalator, ready with smelling salts and brandy.
And if this wasn’t enough, one of Whiteley’s young
managers, John Barker, was busy opening a ‘drapers
and general store’ – eventually becoming
Barkers of
Kensington.
John Barker had been a very successful
manager and had asked Whiteley to take him into
partnership. Whiteley offered him a salary of
£1,000pa – a huge amount of money at the time,
but refused to take him into partnership. When
Barker left to set up on his own, Whiteley, as a
brilliant publicist, let all of the newspapers know
why Barker had left. Disloyal to the benevolent
Mr Whiteley! Shortly afterwards, letters from
‘discerning lady shoppers’ began appearing in the
newspapers, all commenting on the superiority of
Whiteley’s over Barkers store. Each letter, of course,
written by William Whiteley!
In the 1920s,Barkers was the first store to set out
sample ‘room settings’ to give customers
‘inspiration’ – now beloved by IKEA shoppers
all over the world. Barkers was soon to be joined
on High Street Kensington by
Derry & Toms
(with the amazing roof garden) and the slightly
more ‘downmarket’
Pontings
.