EVENTS

Find a live or virtual event in 2023

London's Lost Department Stores

Event Details

A chance to step back in time, via fabulous period images, to a vanished era of glamour, confidence and style. We'll tour the West End like an Edwardian 'shopping woman', before heading off to the suburbs, via Gamages toy department, the flamingos in Derry & Toms roof garden and D. H. Evans' pioneering ankle reduction service. Who were the personalities behind these temples of consumption? Which invisible women broke through the glass ceiling? And what happened to middle class shoplifters?

Also... ART DECO & THE DEPARTMENT STORE

Bold publicity stunts, statement architecture, suave dining: the 1930s was a supreme era for London’s great emporia. Starting on Piccadilly with Joseph Emberton’s Moderne masterpiece, Simpsons, we’ll explore the capital’s department stores through an Art Deco lens – from Selfridges’ fabulous elevators, whizzing us up to roof garden fashion shows, to the jaw-dropping interiors of D.H. Evans, ready in time for the 1937 Coronation, to the live flamingos atop Derry & Toms. Then off to the suburbs where superb Deco buildings were springing up in surprising locations: Shinners of Sutton, Holdrons of Peckham, Bodgers of Ilford.

Dates for 2025

- 14 October 2025, 11am, The Arts Society Rickmansworth

- 29 October 2025, 10am, The Arts Society North East Cheshire, STUDY DAY: three lectures, with lunch in the middle, building a nuanced portrait of the rise of consumerism at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries. The Fabulous World of London's Lost Department Stores; The Confessions of an Edwardian Shopoholic; Fashion, Fury & Feathers. Venue: The Pinewood Hotel, Wilmslow.

- 13 November 2025, 7.30pm, The Arts Society West Cornwall.

- 26 November 2025, 2.30pm, The Arts Society Totnes.

- 27 November 2025, 10.30am-3pm, The Arts Society Portsdown. SPECIAL INTEREST DAY: moving from the Victorian era to the frenzied Edwardian 'golden age' of shopping, closing with the fabulous Art Deco world of the 20s and 30s.

Arts Societies welcome guests - get in touch via the links.

Fashion, Fury and Feathers: Women’s Fight for Change

Event Details

When Tessa Boase told the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds she wanted to write their early story, they refused to let her visit their archives. To a former investigative journalist, this was a challenge she could not resist . . .
This lecture shines a light on the intriguing story of women’s love affair with plumage – and of the brave eco feminists who fought back on behalf of the birds. Moving from a polite Victorian tea party to an egret hunt in a Florida swamp; from a suffragette ‘monster rally’ to a milliner’s dusty workshop, you’ll be taken back in time to a world where every woman, of every class wore a hat.

Dates

- 6 October 2025, 10.30am, Battle U3A.

- 11 October 2025, Worth 200 Festival, Aveland History Group. The father of modern couture, Charles Worth was born in Bourne, Lincolnshire, in 1825. Hear how he drew his inspiration from working in London's department stores, and studying society portraits in the National Gallery – and how his Parisian world of high fashion antagonised our anti-plumage campaigners.

- 13 October 2025, 10.30am, London Art & More Society, Richmond Library Annex.

- 12 November 2025, Winchester Textiles & Embroidery Group.

Confessions of an Edwardian Shopoholic: the story of Heather Firbank, debutante and spendthrift.