THINK (^) | HISTORY
O
nce the proud focus of the
high street, department
stores are having a hard time
of things, with each week
seemingly bringing new woe
for the likes of House of
Fraser and Debenhams. It’s especially sad when
you remember their heyday, when they were
considered shops, yes, but a lso places of
entertainment, delivering wonder and delights
as well as goods.
But what was the first department store?
“There’s a lot of debate”, says Jon Stobart,
professor of history at Manchester Metropolitan
University. “Bon Marché in Paris was the most
famous but both Kendal Milne & Faulkner of
Manchester and Bainbridge of Newcastle can
claim to be established earlier. A lot depends on
precisely how you define department stores. It
wasn’t a term that English shops often used to
describe themselves before the 1930s.” The likes
of Harding, Howell & Co’s Grand Fashionable
Magazine, opened in London in 1796, with four
‘departments’: furs and fans, haberdashery,
jewellery and clocks, and millinery. The
popula r it y of such stores exploded in t he second“In their heyday, stores
delivered wonder, as
well as goods”ahalf of the 19th century, growing along with the
increasing purses of the expanding middle class.THE NEW SHOPPERS
For women, these stores were liberating.
Previously mostly restricted to the home, those
who could afford it could shop and socialise in
them safely. Increased public transportation,
such as the opening of the London Underground
in 1863, meant greater mobility. This didn’t go
uncriticised: the female customers were
satirised as insatiable shoppers, bringing their
husbands to ruin. This new breed of store was
also unpopular with other shopkeepers who
accused them of putting them out of business.
You can understand why, given what was now
being sold under one roof. In 1870, Debenham &
Freebody’s boasted 27 departments, including
parasols, India outfits, ribbons, trimmings and
fancy goods – just one of the new stores that
sprang up in London over that period, along with
Whiteley’s, Liberty and Harrods.LUXURY FOR ALL
It became apparent that British ‘pile ’em high’
techniques could use some of Le Bon Marché’s
French f lair. By the end of the 19th century,
stores were being purpose built, with large
windows for displays, rich wooden shop fittings,
luscious carpets and innovations, such as
Britain’s first known lift, installed in Glasgow’s
Wylie & Lochhead store in 1855. When Harrods
introduced the first escalator in 1898, an
assistant doled out smelling salts and cognac to
shaken customers. The stores introduced selling
innovations, too, such as clearly visible price tags
and the open display of goods. And Stobart
describes how Fenwick in Newcastle pioneered
what they called ‘the silent assistant’ – shop
assistants who only spoke to customers when
asked questions, rather than ‘pushing’ goods »(^1) The leaning tower of
ketchup at Harrods’
food counter.
(^2) With ‘modern’
department stores
came greater
mobility for women.
(^3) Portrait-worthy Le
Bon Marché in Paris
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