25Nov

Shopping for England

posted by Steve Bowbrick

In order to see this content you need to install Flash

What a lovely, fascinating, useful programme. Proper scholarship (from Mica Nava, a clever historian who was once, in the distant past, my boss for a short while), great stories and really interesting and relevant insights into the translation of Britain from 19th Century manufacturing powerhouse into 20th Century shopaholic paradise.

The two big names featured were both Americans but, between then, transformed Britain: FW Woolworth and Gordon Selfridge. The sad part is that Selfridge lost everything and died a bitter onlooker and Woolworth’s, already long gone in the US, looks like it’s about to do the same here, which makes me wonder what’s going to happen to the amazing Woolworth Archive featured in the programme (and to its passionate honorary archivist, Paul Seaton, who is an IT manager at the firm).

2 comments

Comments so far.

  1. Posted by Anne on Tuesday 25th November

    Ah, you beat me to it. I really enjoyed this too. The whole evening was fascinating.

  2. Posted by Isi on Monday 22nd June

    I really enjoyed it.
    I am from Iran and now study English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “Some pharmaceutical companies offer assistance programs for the lamisil.”

    Thanks :o . Isi.

Leave a reply

(You can do this safely while watching; thanks to internet magic you can add a comment here without causing the page to reload. Try it.)