The Decorum of Shopping Streets

The first lecture in the series Twentieth Century Shops: From Arndale to Zara, marking the publication of 100 20th Century Shops.

'Good Taste is Good Business' - these words come from a Civic Trust publication on Shop Fronts of the early 1960s, and were the orthodoxy from the beginning of the twentieth century. In spite of this, it is often the survival of 'bad taste' shop fronts that now attracts our cameras and our desire to preserve. Alan Powers asks whether 'good taste' is simply boring and vulgarity more appealing where shops are concerned.

Alan Powers is a former Chairman of C20 and a current trustee. He teaches at London School of Architecture, New York University in London and the University of Kent.