Building Our Past

Greenwoods, County Arcade, Leeds, 1980s (© David L Thompson) From a single hat shop in Bradford, Greenwoods expanded to become the largest privately owned men’s outfitter in Britain.

St Ives (Hunts), once a bustling market town, has a number of historic shopfronts dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Britain once had so many chains of home-grown shoe shops that it proved impossible to do justice to Saxone’s rich history in the pages of Chain Stores (reference below).

London Central Meat Co.

After months of anticipation, the process of changing the identity of W.

For decades, the best known and most artistic chain of fish shops in the United Kingdom was Mac Fisheries, widely advertised as ‘the blue & white shop you’ll find in town & country’.

Alexander the Great Tailor, Oxford Street, 1923 (opened 1902) (© Historic England Archive).

Sainsbury’s, Folkestone (© The Sainsbury Archive).

79 Bohemia Road, St Leonards Thumbing through their daily newspapers, Victorian consumers were assailed by pictorial advertisement for Mazawattee tea.

In 1927 Hugh Fraser II, the head of Fraser, Sons & Co.