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Category Archives: Spotter’s Guides
Spotting Historic Shopfronts: Cambridge
21 Market Street Cambridge is rich in historic shopfronts. Here are a few interesting examples to look out for on shopping trips in town! Two Art Nouveau Shopfronts from the 1920s Surprisingly, the elegant art nouveau shopfront at 21 Market … Continue reading
Posted in Chemists' Shops, Spotter's Guides, Streetscape
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A Spotter’s Guide to Traditional Chemists’ Shops
The Mortar and Pestle The mortar and pestle has been used by apothecaries, chemists and druggists for centuries to grind medicinal powders. It remains one of the chemist’s favourite symbols, depicted on shop signs to proclaim the nature of the … Continue reading
Posted in Chemists' Shops, Spotter's Guides
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A Spotter’s Guide to the High Street: Jewellers’ Clocks & Time Balls
Just as pawnbrokers signal their presence with three suspended balls, and barbers have their red and white striped poles, so jewellers, clockmakers and watchmakers have traditionally attracted attention with elaborate projecting clocks, turret clocks or time balls. Examples can be … Continue reading
Posted in Jewellers Shops, Spotter's Guides
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A Spotter’s Guide to Marks & Spencer
Conservative Neo-Classicism Marks & Spencer did not build shops until 1910, coinciding with Woolworth’s arrival on English soil (if, indeed, this was a coincidence – Woolworth was a direct rival!). The new and more familiar generation of M&S ‘super stores’ … Continue reading
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A Spotter’s Guide to W. H. Smith’s
The Newsboy W. H. Smith’s distinctive enamelled hanging signs depicted a newsboy crying his wares against a bright red background. The newsboy was designed for Smith’s in 1905 by the artist Septimus E. Scott (1880-1966). Scott had trained in his … Continue reading
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A Spotter’s Guide to Boots the Chemist
The Boots Scroll The Boots scroll – the distinctive signature logo – is familiar to everyone. Boots’ name is written in flowing cursive script, with a pennant flowing from the bar of the ‘t’ and an understroke emerging from the ‘s’. This … Continue reading
Posted in Boots the Chemist, Chemists' Shops, Spotter's Guides
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A Spotter’s Guide to Montague Burton – the Tailor of Taste, Part 2
Art Deco Motifs Burton’s architect, Harry Wilson, had fully embraced art deco by 1930 and seems to have had great fun dressing façades in variants of this popular style. This involved the application of stylised geometric motifs, sometimes in profusion. By … Continue reading
Posted in Burton, Fashion and Clothing, Spotter's Guides
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