English Buildings

Fancy work I’m always on the look-out for interesting shop fronts, not least because everyone else seems to ignore them. This lettering...

Stick-ons: 3 I’ve been away for just over a week, hence the recent posts of pictures from my archives. Now I’m back, he’s a third stick...

Beguiling tiling I’ve posted before about the wonderful shop fronts built by the W H Smith chain in the 1920s and 1930s, most of which have...

Old principles, modern building From its 19th-century roots in the Rochdale, the co-operative movement grew rapidly in the Victorian and E...

Iron appeal BBC1’s series Turn Back Time: The High Street has now begun, and, as I wrote the book to go with series, there will be a fe...

Colour and light Here’s a rare survival. Victorian shop windows could be a riot of colour and lettering, and examples like Smith’s umbrel...

Umbrella men This is one of my favourite London shop fronts, and I expect a lot of my readers are familiar with it too. So, instead of the m...

Wells Cathedral was begun towards the end of the 12th century and its builders, as was usual in the Middle Ages, began at the east end with...

The web site of the most famous London hatters tells us that if we jump into a London cab and ask for the premises of Lock , the driver will...