When I was down in Croydon a couple of weeks ago, I walked past this fantastic old building on the high street. I love the colorful brickwork and ornamentation.
It looks like it's called "London House" -- or used to be, anyway -- and it was obviously some type of notions or accessories shop, probably from the Victorian era. This is the wall to the left of the central tower (above)...
...and here's the wall to the right.
I believe it's now part of a larger entertainment complex called Grant's. But surprisingly I can't find anything online about the building, its history or its preservation status. Part of the problem is that very generic name -- Google "London House" in Croydon, even in quotation marks, and you mostly get real estate listings. (See addendum below.)
This medallion is way up at the top. Looks like those are the initials "CB" on the sail of the Viking vessel, along with the words "for use and beauty."
It's a mystery! If anyone knows anything about this structure and its past, please tell me about it or leave me a link in the comments.
Addendum: Of course, almost immediately after posting this, I found a page about the building. It's a former department store called Grant's, dating from 1894. I found it by Googling "building lace millinery croydon historic." Here's its Wikipedia page. I assume the "CB" above is probably actually "GB," for Grant Brothers?
It's a mystery! If anyone knows anything about this structure and its past, please tell me about it or leave me a link in the comments.
Addendum: Of course, almost immediately after posting this, I found a page about the building. It's a former department store called Grant's, dating from 1894. I found it by Googling "building lace millinery croydon historic." Here's its Wikipedia page. I assume the "CB" above is probably actually "GB," for Grant Brothers?
45 comments:
Yep, that’s definitely a GB. How great that you found it online. What an exquisite building.
What an interesting building. I like it. Once you mentioned it, I can see a stronger downward mark on the G than the curl at the top.
Well done you for sleuthing out the building information. It is nearly always about the search terms.
That is a lovely building. I would love to have visited when it was a department store and sold all those lovely things¬
That was good Googling Steve. Questions gnawed at the inner lining of your skull but you persevered and found the solution you desired.
What an interesting building. On Twitter there's an account which takes interesting scenes like this, gives a history and makes it a find the object puzzle. I may direct them to this one, right up their alley.
I love the confidence of literally building their purpose into the facade. That's Victorian in outlook. Thanks for sharing this one.
Wow, known as "the Harrods of its generation". How fascinating. It's a beautiful building.
Will we ever come full circle and build building like that with so much detail again? I'm guessing I won't be around to see the answer.
Oh, how I wish I could have entered those doors when the building was filled with lace and gloves and silk and dresses, hats and ribbons! It must have been a vast wonderland of all the pretties. I am wondering if any of the antique ribbon that my friend Lis uses in her art was sold from that very place.
Sometimes after a long search and turning up nothing , the search becomes simple.
Glad you found the info about the building! Your photos of it are fabulous!
I just finished a book, "V2" by Robert Harris, which is historical fiction about the V2 rockets that the Nazis fired at London. I am always amazed at the number of buildings that survived WWII since London was bombed so often! What a horrible time to live through.
How many people bother to look above the shop fronts?
They miss so much
What a lovely building. So often the names of places that you mention rattle around in my brain, names I have heard my mum talk about. I wish she was still alive so I could ask her.
That is a lovely building! I love all the tile work and that lettering showing what they sold. I wish we still used such pretty things...
This is a beautiful building. Back in the late fifties, we had a store open up in the downtown shopping area called "Grants." Hmmm, just a memory. You have a super day, hugs, Edna B.
Gorgeous facade. I love all that brick work.
I love walking around London and taking photos of architecture and the small details on the older buildings.
Two excellent blogs on London that I follow that provide great detail and info:
A London Inheritance-A Private History of a Public City
Symbols and Secrets-Walking the City of London
A simply gorgeous building. As always, I do enjoy your photos and comments. You are lucky to live where you do. Allison and I loved London when we were there.
A very pretty building!
Yes, beautiful. I was entertained by the citation that the building was purchased by "Scottish Widows", which turned out to be an insurance company rather than a group of elderly ladies in black garments.
What a wonderful building! I'm glad you persevered to learn its history. Sometimes just one word can make or break a Google search.
The restoration of the exterior looks very good. Fun to read a bit about the history.
I love the detail on the London House -- wouldn't it be wonderful to shop for notions in such a gorgeous spot? You just don't see that detail anymore. Thanks for the links.
And I just saw Olga over at Vivian's. Isn't she remarkable? I think she nailed it.
I'm surprised it took me that long to find it, but yeah, persistence pays!
I still think it looks like a C! LOL
I bet it was beautiful inside in its day.
Everything is out there on the Internet -- it's just a matter of finding it!
The Victorians were certainly very confident. They built for permanence.
I wonder how much overstatement is in that phrase!
Can you imagine how expensive it would be? In this machine age, I don't think we'll ever build like that again -- all the more reason to save these old structures.
I also wish I could have seen the interior in its day. It must have been amazing and probably seemed so luxurious to people back then.
It's just a matter of trying different combinations of search terms.
I can't imagine what it must have been like to fear that you could be bombed at any moment. (And of course some people around the world still live with that fear.) London streetscapes still bear those scars -- modern buildings plunked in between old ones on what used to be bomb sites.
In New York, I learned to look up because so much building detail is above street level.
Croydon is a pretty big suburban city, so I'm not surprised you might have heard of it. It has a rather down-at-heel reputation but there are interesting sights too.
I know -- it's a shame that modern buildings often don't have such personalized, artistic touches.
Yeah, we had a Grant's in Tampa, too. It was a national chain of dime stores in the USA, apparently not connected to this Grant Brothers store in Croydon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._T._Grant
Yeah, I love the colorful effect.
Interesting! Thanks for the blog tips! I'll check them out.
There's always so much to see! (In any city, really, but I do love that about London.)
It stands out from most of the surrounding architecture!
Ha! Yeah, Scottish Widows is a big company here. I think I've blogged about them before -- they have these ridiculous ads with glamorous models who look nothing like Scottish Widows.
It's always interesting to tweak those search terms and see what else comes up!
Yeah, they did a great job. It looks like the upper floors aren't occupied inside, at least at the moment -- maybe because of Covid.
I did see Vivian's painting -- fabulous! I mention it in the next post. :)
I'm still amazed that so many mundane buildings in England (and other places) are so beautiful while ours are boxy and hideous.
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