The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker: A History of the High Street

by Annie Gray

'The queen of food historians' LUCY WORSLEY

'Annie Gray leads the pack' JAY RAYNER

Google 'the future of the high street' and you'll be confronted by opinion pieces debating the ethics of
vegan cafés, spiralling economic projections and the rush to online shopping. But what about the history of the high street?

Historian Annie Gray walks us down the road and through the ages - from the dawn of the high street in medieval England to what we see today. Bustling with historical detail, and colourful vignettes, we visit everything from apothecaries and penny bazaars to the birth of Marks and Spencer and the original toyshops, where curiosities were sold for adults rather than children.

A surprising and colourful work of social history, The Bookshop, the Draper, the Candlestick Maker tells the story of how we shopped and lived in days gone by in one of Britain's most loved but ever-changing public spaces - and what the future may bring.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Historical, British Literature

489 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 10, 2024

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

Account of how the high street developed, peaked, and changed. Some good accounts of shops but not overall terribly revelatory. I was hoping for more specificity. Also, it's divided into chronological sections and has narrated 'you go to the shops' sections to try and make it vivid, but these are all put in the wrong chronological section (so a section on shopping in 1930 goes after the account of shopping up to 1914, but is still in the same chapter) and it drove my editor brain absolutely mad.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting short version.

[Dmytro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book after spotting it on display at Hatchards in London, and I’m so glad I did.

It offers a captivating journey through the history of British high streets, tracing their evolution from the 13th century to the present day. The book delves into how high streets in towns and cities have transformed over the centuries, reflecting changes in society, commerce, and culture. It’s a light yet thoroughly enjoyable read, perfect for anyone curious about the history of places, habits, and the everyday spaces that shape our lives.

[Francis Pellow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learnt a lot from this book that i had overlooked during my high street visits. very easy and accessible.

[Debby Binns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the abridged version of this on BBC Sounds. It’s a great journey through the history of British high streets, tracing the high street’s evolution from the 14th century to now. Very enjoyable and informative.

[Katy Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic format and entertaining historical look at myriad versions of the high street.

I loved this. Admittedly, I love the earlier chapters and periods more, as I am fascinated by how things developed early on and what they were many hundreds of years ago. But the whole book was a wonderful idea and captured each period in a way I was impressed with.

Over the last 400 years, the author takes us, a few decades at a time through developments that started with small sellers and open air markets all the way to what we know today, by way of eateries, bazaars, pavements, window displays, the addition of electricity, names we'll know and their origins (Boots, Sainsburys).

She gives us a shopping list in each era and shows us where to go to source the items, taking in the development of each form of business along the way and some of the psychology behind changes that were sometimes long in coming.

This was just brilliant. I could picture books I've read from various points in this timeline and how they fit into this (and the author uses quotes from writers and books herself to illustrate the points). She also includes a plethora of drawings of cities and their layouts, maps, photos and drawings.

It was excellent, I could feel myself walking among the shoppers, hearing and smelling the descriptions, and understanding more fully how shopping and shops have changed, and why, over the last few hundred years.

It's almost sad to the stone monstrosities of today's shopping centres at the end after the beauties and innovations that came before and have all but disappeared.

Appreciating the history we can still see, or that we can learn about was brought home to me in this very readable volume. Highly recommended for those interested in social history. I would love a TV series on this!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Packed with information but never dense. I am not sure the various structures always worked (largely because too many) but I was engaged by being put into the persona of a shopper in different times. The book provided some nostalgia but less indulgently than might be expected and gently drops some facts and perspectives that we all but especially a certain sort of person really needs to know about.

[Zoë Kimber · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book! It's probably the fastest I've read a history book and found it very engaging - an interesting exploration of the high street and the development of shops from the 1600s to the modern day. It traces broad shifts in society and culture, exploring its impacts on the most local scale. Each chapter was followed by a brief case study into a particular high street, and while this was a nice concept the execution was sometimes not the most interesting just as a description of a list of shops on a street. Overall though, very interesting and enjoyable!

[Louise Culmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting account of how shopping has changed over the centuries, from the medieval market to the modern shopping mall. We visit each era and see the different kinds of shops available,and how they develop. The shops are described vividly so you can almost imagine yourself in,say a Georgian grocer or a Victorian drapers. We also hear the views of contemporaries on the subject - not surprisingly there were moralists who disapproved of shopping as a leisure activity, particularly for women. The book is crammed with fascinating information. Very enjoyable to take a stroll along the changing highstreet.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and witty.

[Vansa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This deeply underrated book should be on everyone’s shopping list! If there’s an activity that most of usperform, it’s shopping. And probably on a daily basis, for most of us, for our daily bread ( literally and figuratively, the area where I stay still remembers some of its charming medieval ways and the bread guy comes around on a daily basis so we all get our loaves fresh!) Dr.Gray takes you on a history through the ages of how we started to shop, and all the ways that activity changed, apart from how what we shop for changes. A fascinating conceit that she uses is to imagine a typical shopper of the time period, and give you their shopping list, where they would purchase it from, where you would buy it from and fascinatingly, the social class you would belong to, if you were going to the shops to buy those. Her writing is so evocative that you’re transported to the time period, and you also get insights into the development of city centres. It starts with the medieval period in the 13th Century, where marketplaces were concentrated around the churchyard, and were important enough to be mentioned in the poem ‘Piers Plowman’. After the Black Death, however, many parts of western Europe started urbanizing, with cities becoming more populated, and market days drawing hundreds of people. Town planning had to be taken seriously by the authorities that now knew how societies could be ravaged by infectious diseases rampaging through crowds, and new planned marketplaces came into being. These were regulated quite strictly with one of the biggest market place crimes called “engrossing “ and “forestalling” -basically the idea that middlemen were cheating honest producers and shoppers by buying from the former and making a profit selling to the latter, and that people should consume directly from producers-like today’s concerns about long supply chains and worker exploitation. Dr.Gray draws your attention to the fact that even in some glorious old past, people did not consume directly from producers because for some people, it made more sense to focus on the production and they may not want to produce solely for self-consumption, and others might be better equipped at getting their produce out to the end consumers.
England in the 17th Century had seen the execution of a monarch, a civil war, a short-lived republic, and the return of the monarchy. Through all this, cities were steadily gaining importance, and becoming more populated, with a proper High street slowly coming into existence, a place specifically to shop and it would not just be market day or temporary stalls. Medieval guilds that controlled production were breaking down, and sumptuary laws were also overturned-the laws that governed what people could buy according to the social class they belonged to-they even dictated things like who could eat turkeyand swan and in what quantities, and who was allowed to wear fabrics like silk and wool. A servant at the time was arrested for wearing hose “too large and flamboyant for his station’! BY the 16th Century though, sumptuary laws were increasingly aimed at promoting internal trade , such as mandating a woollen cap on Sundays for men. The undercurrents of this though were a moral unease on consumption of luxury goods, silk being an imported fabric and imports meaning luxury. Purchasing power was improving, and trade with the Americas was booming, along with trade routes to the east and foreign goods started flooding the market. Calico was a coveted fabric, compared to linen and it was more comfortable and so pretty with its prints! The earlier concerns about middlemen were rapidly diminishing-trappers or calico makers in other country could not possibly be expected to travel to British marketplaces! In 1714, Bernard de Mandeville in his ‘Fable of the bees’(with a super subtitle: or Private Vices, Publick benefits), applauded the desire to show off and spend money, through a satirical epic poem/treatise, of a beehive that decides on virtue and banishes “vice, pride and luxury”. All consumption grinds to a halt and merchants end up bankrupted, and this extends to all trades, in a cheeky celebration of rampant consumerism and capitalism! This century’s shopping list would be tobacco, lace, shoes , things for dinner, and the social class you would belong to would be what Dr.Gray calls the ‘Squire-archy”, living in their country estates.
The second half of the 18th century in the UK saw a mad king, and a profligate regent. Major world
events included the violent spread of empire, French revolution, slavery, American war, Napoleon, and the Industrial Revolution( that Dr.Gray quite insightfully says is called a revolution but was more the accelerated progression of technologies already slowly developing). Now if you could afford to go to the shops, you might have been a doctor, or a banker-the professional upper middle and not an aristocrat anymore. You would probably go to the town for an occasional trip to browse, buy medicines and the confectioners for things that would keep. By now the roads were probably paved with a section for pedestrians and drains to carry away the dirt, though they would probably be clogged with all the horse traffic! In this chapter Dr.Gray explores the increased use of porcelain or china ware in this century (some colonial hangovers still persist, my parents for instance, still keep the ‘good china’ for guests ,and dinner sets of china are still a common wedding gift) For centuries, if you were rich, your crockery would be pewter, silver or even gold, but by the mid 17th Century with the increased consumption of tea, coffee and chocolate (it was drunk for centuries before it was eaten), porcelain started being used. Chinese porcelain started off as merely being packing material and ballast by merchant ships of the East India Company, which then found a market, and English potters started copying the styles. There were different styles, with stoneware being common, that was glazed to resemble the real thing, porcelain- still the most expensive. The Chinese had perfected the art of porcelain by the medieval era, and they guarded their secret-the addition of bone, leading to it being called ‘bone china’. I loved her writing on Josiah Wedgwood, a pioneer in not just of porcelain and chinaware, but retail practices as well. Very early on, he had cottoned on to the importance of aggressive PR and what would work-he advertised himself as a supplier to royalty and fascinatingly, Wedgwood stores were large spaces with rooms designed with porcelain settings, to show you how they would look actually in use-like a proto Ikea! While he marketed his porcelainware as luxury, Wedgwood firmly believed that with the volumes he could churn out, all price points were catered to. Another mainstay of the shopping trip would be the newly opened confectioner, and their store would be a fairytale wonderland to step into-extensively
decorated, all rococo and ornate plasterwork with deeply evocative descriptions of their wares ( clearly the template of pastel shades with annoyingly quirky crockery that every single bakery/café seems compelled to follow is a throwback to their origins!). The Georgians called anything sweet confectionery, and you would get a variety of jellies, meringues, waffles, wafers, wine biscuits to dip in your wine, and fruits, candied flowers, and even elaborate sugar sculptures (available to rent also). Contemporaneous letters of the time mention people planning their visits to not miss Gills, the pastry cook, who’s also mentioned by Austen-an early example of a confectioner developing brand recognition! Some of these places started also getting associated with specific dishes-Birchers opposite the Royal Exchange loved to show off their specialty- turtle soup where if you so desired, you could even watch the process of the live turtle being turned into soup. Much like the way modern day consumerism is tinged with the knowledge that probably what you’re buying involved child labour/slave labour/ecological devastation, visits to the confectioners, or queuing up to get turtle soup were all possible because of empire. Turtles were imported live from west indies. The spread of empire was particularly evident from the increase in the confectioneries available- sugar and spices, the main ingredients, were all imported from colonies. Very few industries, to this date, have exploited humans to the extent that the sugar industry did. William Fox, an abolitionist and pamphleteer, in 1791, printed a pamphlet targeted at women, urging them to boycott slave produced sugar, because women would be the ones doing the household shop. This pamphlet was printed by Martha Gurney, the foremost abolitionist printer of her time-she’s worthy of a book in her own right!
1815 was when the Napoleonic Wars finally ended. The Regency, that time of classical fashions, and
high taxes to fund never-ending wars, gave way to a less restrained and more confident time. The
population of the UK more than doubled and by 1851 Britain was the world’s first urban nation- more people living in cities than in the countryside. The social class you needed to belong to, just to be able to afford the minimum, would have gone down a notch to middle class-a bank clerk, or a governess, or people working as the domestic help, and your attitude towards it would be to want to ‘keep up with the JOneses’. The high street would continue to be filthy and noisy, though, with several Georgian and older buildings being torn down, and constant construction works to build new cities. You would probably be covered with construction dust when you went about your shopping! I loved her writing about the evolution of the butchers-in many parts of the world, people still buy their meat at what are called ‘wet markets’, basically open butchers shops in their local market, and not frozen from a supermarket. There’s some very evocative writing about their layout, and how they evolved to preserve freshness decades before refrigeration. This was also the time of the gin craze, the most consumed spirit in Britain. It was introduced by soldiers to the country, who saw the Dutch drinking it, and it was considered a ward against plague. People also used it to clean things because it was so inexpensive ( sadly, the 17th Century cleaning tips don’t quite work!). In the Late 17th and early 18th centuries, this became an urban phenomenon, when it got easier to distill, despite prohibition. While earlier, middle and upper classes consumed gin as medicine, after 1830, the invention of the continuous still led to better quality gin, that everyone could consume without fear of poisoning. High grade gin was starting to be mass produced by 1830- that’s when brands like Gordons and Tanqueray started. Tonic water, patented 1858, British far east took it by 1860s for digestion. Schweppes started in the 1880s in Bristol, and they called it aerated tonic water. They were still situated down back alleys though! The average clientele still continued to be described in pamphlets as ‘the poor, the old, the miserable, costermongers” and also “small miserable children. Gin numbs and destroys for a time the gnawing pangs of hunger”. By mid 1800s, it was at least being acknowledged that misery was driving this demand with more sympathy for them, and less moral panic. Gin palaces started decorating to improve standards-chandeliers, crystal, stained glass windows. Dickens lists out their quirkily charming names- Old Tom, Cream of the Valley, No Mistake, Out and Out. They also started opening ladies’ bars! After
dark, nobody genteel is out, but if you’re not genteel, by all means party till late

WWI changed leisure shopping when clothes manufacturers and factories got diverted to the
production of uniforms and munitions. People panic-bought and stocked up on essential groceries and all the food they could find money for. The government resisted rationing or price controls and expected people to “share nicely”, causing the cost of food cost to rise by ~100% in the first couple of years when the war began. the repercussions of the war changed a lot of things. For instance, manufacturers were freed from wartime constraints, but their profits had been bolstered by wartime contracts, and they now had economies of scale, so they could produce more with lower prices. Shops catering to working classes opened up in planned suburban areas. Some returning soldiers invested their demob money in small scale shops-one of these was Jack Cohen, who opened a grocery store in 1919, which was renamed in 1924, to combine his name with his main tea supplier TE Stockwell. Small tobacconists were relatively easier to open, as now there was an influx of branded goods, whose names customers were familiar with from advertisements, so grocers and shop assistants no longer needed to give people their recommendations for quality. In the 1920s and 1930s, confectioners now changed to what were called sweet shops with brands that still last -Quality Street and Kit Kat among them. Shops were no longer located in enclaves meant just for shopping, so had conveniently located shops nearby. With the Great Depression, people started to look for savings and the effect was to increase things on offer, anywhere you wanted, at the price point you could afford. The class of people who could now afford to shop were the respectable working class-those with a steady salary, manual labourers, factory workers, telephonists. Now the range of shops where you would be welcome started to expand, unlike earlier centuries where the working class would only feel comfortable at the marketplace and shopping at a store was still a middle class activity. Shoppers were probably young, single and living with their parents because they wouldn’t be able to afford lodgings of their own. In England, the poorer you were the
more bread you were likely to consume. In the inter war years, bread continued to be eaten on a daily basis. For 80% of the population, bread was a breakfast staple, and for half of the bottom 15%, it was their evening meal. In early ways of what we would now call cross-promotion, mor profits were generated from advertisements being printed on the backs of receipts. By the 1930s, it was hard for local bakers to compete with grocers who now stocked sliced bread from America, which was marketed as safer for children as it didn’t require knives, was more hygienic, easier to digest, more convenient, better for sandwiches, palatable, free of gases( because apparently slicing the bread before wrapping it released gases. It was a different time). Modern sliced bread continues to be made using the techniques of the 1930s! I finally understood the “greatest thing since sliced bread” simile. Since brown bread was made from coarser flour, it was associated with poverty. She quotes an historian from the 1960s, lamenting the decline of the high street and standardization with large stores, that’s led to the de- skilling of shop work and employees who need to know about the inventory they’re stocking.

By now, shops have cafes and there are what are called “dining rooms” on each street. In 1910 , HG
Wells called department stores “low class” because they were selling too much-such a contrast to Zola and his celebration of the large department store and expansion of access. Many family run single stores such as United Draperies, Debenhams, Selfridges and House of Fraser all went on buying sprees and expansions in the 30s ( House of Fraser would continue to do this in the 50s, and go on to acquire other, including a store on Oxford Street called Harrods). The shops they bought, though, retained their names and identities and people would still refer to them by their local names. Catering outlets would be located on the upper floors with roof gardens, to take advantages of views; one called Derry and Toms in Kensington, was famed for its roof garden of 3 distinct styles-English water garden, Spanish, Tudor style ( now sadly closed to public). In true retail fashion, you had to go through the entire store to get there. DH Evans was renowned for its escalator at Harrods that was painted pink. An illustration of the time shows free standing glass cases, a piano in the atrium, palm trees and elegant women, very few men. I found t fascinating that some strategies haven’t changed at all, some department stores would get famous actresses of the day to open their outlet-exactly how jewellery stores open new outlets to this day in India. They tried it all to get customers: Selfridges offered a warts removal service in one, prefab houses in another. Since they were all selling branded goods, the big stores had to compete to differentiate, explaining their in house brands and shop in shop formats-Bainbridge, for instance, had “separate entry for the nervous male”. Apart from Miss Selfridge, Junior Miss offered with bright colours
and less formal layouts. The also employed large scale stunts. Kingston kept elephants in the store till the 1960s and lions, that lived in the lift shaft after hours. To promote their 1939 summer fair, people gathered to watch a Swedish diver “daring 70 foot dive from roof of escalator hall into tub” for which the ground floor was reinforced. How did this increased availability of readymade clothing in the 1950s change taste? If you were a man, your choice was a suit, till the 1950s at least. For women-dress or skirt and blouse and definitely a hat. Stores even started including alteration rooms ( still a feature of Indian malls), ad there were outlets called “Madam shops” that bridged the gap between ready to war and customized, and worked with a small loyal clientele. These would have French names, and customers could pick from a catalogue of dresses, cheap stockings, party dresses. Ageism was embedded in women’s shopping with the “older woman” expected to wear clothes with higher necklines and larger sizes. This was the now familiar letter based code for sizes started. After 14 years of rationing, in the post war period was when ready to wear boomed. With this increase in people wanting to shop, brands had to start thinking about marketing techniques, market segmentation and market research started getting a lot more sophisticated. The focus was no longer focus on the high street. A new wave of design led outlets started that were aimed at youth with attractive window displays and store design, and emphasized transgression and flamboyance. Mary Quant’s Bazaar was one of the first to be called a ‘boutique;, followed by ‘Biba’, Terence Conran’s ‘Habitat’.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another smashing book by Dr. Gray. Funny and informative, you will never go shopping quite the same way again.

[Jacki Bedworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really a big fan of Dr Annie Gray as a food historian. This is a wonderfully written, thoroughly researched and highly entertaining read. My only complaint is from the audio book: the author is the narrator, but she speaks soooo fast, that its sometimes hard for my more elderly American ears to appreciate the language, and the humor because its wizzes by so fast!

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book, I could quite happily start reading it again right now. I own a high street shop, and I loved finding out the history of other small (and bigger) business owners through the centuries. I already find myself thinking about the different kind of retail options in a different way. Goes right up to the present day, such as the proliferation of vape shops, and has so much interesting information.

[Behrooz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mildly interesting and nostalgic. Good to read about the start evolution of the high streets and particulrly some of the well known shops and supermarkets.

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't remember how I came across this book BUT I thought it was interesting. As a Yank I am not familiar with the concept of a "high street" (although it's roughly the equivalent of a main street in the US) but all the same I was curious. I know I've seen depictions of high streets in British-produced/set works so I was excited to see what I could learn from this.

Gray delivers a history of high street: how the concept developed, how it has changed throughout history, the purposes of the specific shops and businesses that had a place on the street and how they changed, adapted, were eliminated via the passage of time/technology/lack of demand, etc. Gray also has subsections about the specific businesses (grocer, coffee houses, tea rooms, chemists, etc.) and what they did/do.

It was okay. Unlike others I found this overly dense and dull. I'm not sure if it's because being a Yank that means I do not have the same knowledge, nostalgia, etc. of a high street as it is known in Britain or what but it felt like a a lot of research dumped into a book. This was one of those concepts that I might have liked as a long-read or even as a virtual concept (exploring what they might have looked like in history like on YouTube or interactive web program or even video games like 'Assassin's Creed', etc.

Probably a good reference if you have a specific interest in this concept, are a historian of such concepts, need it for your own art (like fan fiction and you need to know what a high street is, etc.). But if you're just a casual reader and are simply curious, this is probably best as a library borrow.

I got it as a bargain buy which was fine for me.

[Rob Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker: A History of the High Street by Annie Gray is a captivating journey through the evolution of the British high street. Gray skillfully weaves together historical anecdotes, personal stories, and economic analysis to paint a vivid picture of the high street's rise, decline, and potential resurgence.

One of the book's strengths is its ability to evoke nostalgia. Gray's descriptions of bustling market towns and vibrant shopping districts transport the reader to a bygone era. She highlights the social and cultural significance of the high street, emphasizing its role as a community hub.

However, the book occasionally falters in its depth of analysis. While it offers a comprehensive overview of the high street's history, it could delve deeper into specific periods and trends. Additionally, the focus on the British high street may limit its appeal to a wider audience.

Despite these minor shortcomings, "The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker" is a valuable contribution to the history of retail and urban development. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of the high street.

[Jeremy Butterfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Put simply, very informative about how our shopping habits have developed and changed from mediaeval times onwards. Chunked into digestible and sensible periods, and richly peppered with entertaining or illuminating contemporary quotations (Pepys, Smollett, Defoe, Austen, etc.). To liven up what could be a catalogue of somewhat dry facts, chapters feature an imaginary shopper to whom the author gives a shopping list and then takes us with the shopper to the relevant shops. Though sometimes I think she slightly forgets that's what she's doing.

The verso illustrations at the start of each chapter and the historic black & white illustrations enliven and deepen the text in interesting ways. I've made copious notes as background reading for a book project. Who knew that York (where I live) had a section of Coney Street call 'cuckold's corner', or that a popular medicinal drink caled salop, saloop, or salep was made from orchid bulbs and supposed to have aphrodisiac qualities because orchids resemble what the scrotum contains? (How about that for avoiding mentioning a word?)

[Nicolette Weaver]

Google 'the future of the high street' and you'll be confronted by opinion pieces debating the ethics of
vegan cafés, spiralling economic projections and the rush to online shopping. But what about the history of the high street?

Historian Annie Gray walks us down the road and through the ages - from the dawn of the high street in medieval England to what we see today. Bustling with historical detail, and colourful vignettes, we visit everything from apothecaries and penny bazaars to the birth of Marks and Spencer and the original toyshops, where curiosities were sold for adults rather than children.

A surprising and colourful work of social history, The Bookshop, the Draper, the Candlestick Maker tells the story of how we shopped and lived in days gone by in one of Britain's most loved but ever-changing public spaces - and what the future may bring.

[Elysia Fionn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy cats, I am only halfway through the first chapter of this book, and I am head over heels for it!
Dr. Annie Gray, food historian and author extraordinaire, is one of my favorite people that I have yet to meet. She is funny, witty, well-read, and exceedingly easy to read.
Give me a book by Annie Gray, a mug of builder's tea, a big sofa, and a snowy day, and I have everything I need. Well, throw a cosy robe and some snacks in, then, just to make it realistic.
Not only is she a fab writer, she is producing an excellent series of videos with the Food Museum on YouTube starring Kathy Hipperson as "Mrs. Wilding", a 1950s cook in the UK! Check it out, it's hot off the presses, as it were...

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐
A light, informative look at the history of the British high street.

A good amount of information without being dense or boring. Annie Gray manages to keep it entertaining and engaging by giving examples of shopping lists, drawings of high streets, as well as photographs. I might not be old enough to have taken part in any of these time periods, but she painted a fairly comprehensive picture of what the average shopping experience of each time would have looked like. The little insights into the cultural views of the people of the time were really endearing - people will always have a propensity to be vocal about how awful the newest fad is, no matter the century.

[Sally George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, informative and with some humour. I really enjoyed this book as it relates to our present struggling High Streets thanks to Internet shopping. There does seem to be more of the service businesses filling empty shops such as nail bars, tattoo parlours, dog grooming, fitness suites etc. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

[JoJo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This could have been a very dry book, but the author has taken an approach which brings the ethos and changes in the high street to life. I think this is an area overlooked in many historical contexts which is why I have placed it in a 5 star category. Very enjoyable.

[Lauren Little · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love when Annie Gray makes an appearance on a show to explain how something (normally food) was historically like for people at the time. This book is informative, but not the most interesting to read. I think it’s full of good information, but in a less easy to follow format.

[Blasr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mammoth amount of research obviously went into writing this book. There were some good snippets of information, but somehow it didn’t grab me.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing insight of how our high street and shopping habits have changed, culminating in a trip down memory lane of the shops and brands.

[Debra Shaverin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting timeline of the highstreet, but I definitely felt that some chapters were a bit rushed and could have gone into more detail.

[Amy Tavares · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5