* The 50th anniversary of Are You Being Served? was rightfully celebrated by Roger Lewis in our May issue.
Sadly, it’s not just the hallowed premises of Grace Brothers department store that are no more. In a new book, London’s Lost Department Stores: A Vanished World of Dazzle and Dreams, Tessa Boase celebrates their heyday.
Boase writes, ‘Today, we have little idea of the sheer dazzle of these “Halls of Temptation” during the golden age of shopping their theatrical spectacle, assault on the senses, architectural élan. From the Art Deco of Derry & Toms, with its Moorish roof garden, to the startling Moderne lines of Holdrons of Peckham Rye, department stores led the way in fashion and design.’
Deny & Toms, on Kensington High Street, began life as Toms
