London‘s Lost Department Stores

Best-selling social historian Tessa Boase takes us behind the scenes of London‘s lost department stores, bringing back to life a vanished era of confidence and style. Today‘s consumer has little idea of the sheer dazzle of these ‘Halls of Temptation‘ during the golden age of shopping – of their sheer theatrical spectacle, the overwhelming assault on the senses, the astonishing architectural élan. From the fabulous Art Deco of Derry & Toms, to the Moderne lines of Simpsons Piccadilly, department stores led the way in fashion and . As new social hubs for the independent Victorian woman, they engineered social progress. They became legendary for their publicity stunts, their Christmas shop windows, their exotic pet departments, their furs: as places where you could buy anything. Full of immersive period detail and vivid human anecdote, London‘s Lost Department Stores unpacks the secret stories behind fifty once-great stores.