Postcards from England
I’m fascinated by the way in which shop designers used tiles to make a colourful splash on street frontages, a type of decoration that enlivened many a shop front from the Victorian period until well into the 1930s. One of my favourite examples of this is on the front of a branch of W H Smith in Malvern, and one of its tile panels came to mind the other day when, in my previous post, I used the phrase ‘postcards from England’ to describe my blogging activities. This is a building I’ve posted before but one of its tile panels* is so beautiful, and, I think, so mysterious, that’s worth sharing once more.
This panel, set into a narrow reveal to one side of the shop window and so very easy to miss, advertises postcards – clearly, in a much visited spa town like Malvern, postcards were an important thing to stock. The view it depicts is a bit of fantasy architecture by moonlight. A medieval stone bridge leads across a river towards a gatehouse in what looks like a town wall. In the background is a looming tower, that seems to exist in a space that’s separate from the rest of the picture. Or not quite. In the foreground, the corner of this tower seems to grow out of the bridge, but in the background it appears to be behind the city wall. It’s also drawn, to seems to me, to a much larger scale than the bridge or gatehouse.
None of this matters very much, because the image, with its varied shades of blue and purple and its eery moonlight is a lovely confection that seems to invite us into a world of night-time mystery and make-believe. It certainly draws you in, although a postcard with a run-of-mill photographic view on it might be a bit of a come down after seeing it.
The other wonderful thing about the tile panel of course is that (together with another opposite it advertising maps) is still there. It must have been installed in the 1920s or 1930s and it takes us back to a time when shop fronts were designed for a life of decades rather than a year or two, when businesses weren’t expected to reinvent themselves every six months, but traded on their history and reputation. My readers can decide for themselves whether or not the change to a less long-term outlook is a good thing. But I’m glad at least that the old ways produced bits of occasional art like this.
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*Made by Carter's of Poole, as one of my fastest-off-the-mark readers has reminded me.
Thought you might be interested in this : http://www.pooleimages.co.uk/Pages/CartersTiles.aspx
ReplyDeleteLovely design.
Yes, Carter's, I'd forgotten. Thank you so much. I'll add a link to the post.
ReplyDeleteJust stayed the night near Malvern. Wish I'd seen this lovely post before returning home
ReplyDeleteW H Smith used to have the most beautiful shops. One or two of them still remain but the company has become a major international group and I suppose doesn't have time or interest to win customers by making itself a star of the local high street. It is still quite a reasonable shop, apart from its airport and train station prices which are just plain exploitative!
ReplyDeleteThaks for sharing this - Carters produced some lovely work. Here's a memorial to early navigators who set out from the Thames at Ratcliff. http://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/navigators
ReplyDeleteJenny: If you're ever in Llandudno, look out for the W H Smith to see more of these tiles. And the restored W H Smith in Newtown, Powys, also has a museum about the company and its shops.
ReplyDeleteLondon Remembers: Thanks for the link. The tiles are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIronically the quality of the shopfronts that W H Smith built was felt to make the shops appear exclusive and only for the middle class. This fact and that the quality of the shopfronts were more expensive lead to a change of policy in the 1930's to adopt a simpler and cheaper design style.
ReplyDeleteThe current typeface used is fairly elegant an improvement on the previous logo and design employed by W H Smith.
Ironically the quality of the shopfronts that W H Smith built was felt to make the shops appear exclusive and only for the middle class. This fact and that the quality of the shopfronts were more expensive lead to a change of policy in the 1930's to adopt a simpler and cheaper design style.
ReplyDeleteThe current typeface used is fairly elegant an improvement on the previous logo and design employed by W H Smith.
Stephen: Thank you. It does seem as if this has long been a business that is not quite sure where in the market to position itself. The early facade of the Cheltenham branch was an art nouveau confection with a quotation from Wordsworth (about how wonderful books are) emblazoned across it: very much designed to appeal to the middle class I'd have thought. But maybe that approach was right for the retired colonels (and their wives) who were reputed to inhabit the place in the first part of the last century.
ReplyDeleteThat is really lovely. I don't remember seeing tiles like that before. I did have a thought about the large tower structure; I believe that enlarged parts of the subject inserted in the picture were quite popular in that era. I remember other kinds of pictures where the same ploy was used, and I think the large tower is a close-up view of the smaller tower.
ReplyDeleteEileen: You could well be right: the larger and smaller towers do look very similar.
ReplyDelete