Back to the Shops

The High Street in History and the Future

Rachel Bowlby (Professor of Comparative Literature, University College London)

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English

Oxford University Press
19 May 2022

History; British & Irish history; Social & cultural history; Material culture; Consumerism

What will become of the shops? More than ever, the high street appears to be under mortal threat, its shops boarded up as the sad 'bricks and mortar' survivals of a pre-online retail world. But behind the bleak appearance, there is more to see.

Back to the Shops offers a set of short and surprising chapters, each one a window into a different shop type or mode of selling. Old shopping streets are seen from new angles; fast fashion shows up in eighteenth-century edits. Here are pedlars and pop-ups, mail order catalogues and mobile greengrocers' shops. Here too are food markets open till late on a Saturday night, and tiny subscription libraries tucked away at the back of the sweet shop.

Over time, shops have occupied radically different places in cultural arguments and in our everyday lives. They are essential sources of daily provisions, but they are also the visible evidence of consuming excess. They are local community hubs and they are dreamlands of distraction.

Shops are inherently spaces of imagination as well as of practicality. They belong with their own surrounding streets and town; they bring back the times and places of our lives. They linger in stories of all kinds, whether far-fetched or round the corner. From butcher to baker and from markets to motor vansDLafter reading this book, you will want to go back to the shops.

By: Rachel Bowlby (Professor of Comparative Literature University College London)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 222mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 460g
ISBN: 9780198815914
ISBN 10: 0198815913
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 19 May 2022
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Illustrations Introduction SETTINGS 1 Chain stores 2 Convenience 3 Fixed prices 4 Local shops 5 Mail order 6 Markets 7 Self-service and supermarkets 8 Shopping centres 9 Shop windows 10 Sources ROLES 11 Collections 12 Counters 13 Credit and credibility 14 Customer loyalty 15 Motor vans and motor buses 16 Nineteenth-century bazaars 17 Pedlars 18 Saturday nights and Sundays 19 Scenes of shopping 20 Shopworkers and shopkeepers SPECIALITIES 21 Bakers 22 Butchers 23 Chemists 24 Florists 25 Furniture shops 26 Haberdashery 27 Household goods 28 Jewellers 29 Sweet shops 30 Umbrella shops Afterword Acknowledgements Index

Rachel Bowlby teaches courses on the history and theory of consumer culture at University College London, where she is Professor of Comparative Literature. Previous books include Just Looking (on department stores), Shopping with Freud, and Carried Away (on supermarkets).

Reviews for Back to the Shops: The High Street in History and the Future

Bowlby has been thinking about shops and shopping the length of her distinguished career as a critic of commerce and culture...Short chapters on different shops or modes of selling...offer a tour dhorizon that is both rich and unexpected. The commentary is concise and precise, featuring attention to language and flourishes of glee. * Norma Clarke, Times Literary Supplement * By looking to the historical role of a vast array of shops across two centuries, this book makes a spirited argument for their central, and continued, place in society. Its also packed with stories, case studies and diverting detours, including a consideration of the honourable tradition of hairdressers with punning names. * , BBC History Revealed * With the rise of internet shopping throwing future of the high street into uncertainty, this is a timely and intriguing read * BBC History Magazine * Rachel Bowlby has captured the essence of shopping all the way from the 18th century to todays chain stores and pop-ups in her fascinating social history... Well worth shopping for! * , People's Friend * Written throughout with a gait, a lilt and a swagger that are rather captivating, resonant with a personal voice that inhabits both time and space, collecting and recollecting gestures, images, imprints and practices as it does so Bowlby has a talent for words, for the world of associations and images that they can conjure and retrieve, for the incisiveness with which they can allow a mind like hers to read each step along the human journey of shopping and trade It is a fine journey into history, a resonant jaunt towards what we may well want to visit in the uncertain after * Mika Provata-Carlone, Bookanista * not only informative...but also a really lively and entertaining read * , Shiny New Books * A broad-based, long-run, and finely judged survey of our shopping history: this is the book to give us a necessary perspective on the twenty-first-century transformation now under way. * David Kynaston, author of Austerity Britain, Family Britain, and Modernity Britain * This book traces retailing trends from the first market stalls to internet shopping and is a timely indicator of how our town centres could develop over the next 50 years. * Sir John Timpson, Chair of Timpson and champion of town centre regeneration initiatives *