Department Stores

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

Department stores evolved in the late nineteenth century but by the First World War had grown in ambition, both architecturally and in business terms, and came to dominate the retail scene of the middle decades of the twentieth century. The interwar years saw the sector shift away from local family businesses to the groupings that remain familiar today, such as Selfridges, Debenhams and House of Fraser. In the 21st century their future is uncertain, with changing shopping habits and the Covid pandemic leading to many department stores becoming redundant. Matthew Whitfield will look at the history and architecture of buildings that shaped our high street but are now under threat.

Matthew Whitfield is an architectural investigator at Historic England, for whom he has been researching the history of department stores.