4288 x 2848 px | 36,3 x 24,1 cm | 14,3 x 9,5 inches | 300dpi
Aufnahmedatum:
27. Januar 2015
Ort:
Mile End Road, London, UK
Weitere Informationen:
Wickham's Department Store on a large site in the East End of London began as a family firm of drapers. By 1927 the firm owned the entire site frontage to the Mile End Road with the exception of Spiegelhalter's jewellery shop at No. 81. The Wickham family planned a department store to rival Selfridge's in Oxford Street and anticipating that they would be able to acquire the jeweller's shop commenced development. Once it became apparent that the Spiegelhalters would not move the only solution was to build the right-hand wing of the store on the far side of the jewellers with the hope of completing the development at a later date - although this would have left the 'central' tower off-centre. However, patterns of shopping changed and department stores declined; Wickhams closed in the 1960s while Spiegelhalters continued to trade until 1982. Ian Nairn described it in Nairn's London as 'one of the best visual jokes in London, a perennial triumph for the little man, the bloke who won't conform.'
