Derry and Toms department store in London, 1937. The company was founded in the 1860s by Joseph Toms and Charles Derry. The building in Kensington High Street is now used by various retailers

Department stores have been in existence for almost 200 years and quite often they have reflected huge social and technological changes.

Long before the birth of the department store, people have always shopped. In medieval times, this was done at weekly markets, the forerunners of our market towns. As the centuries passed, simple shops, consisting of a board outside living premises with unglazed windows, began to appear. Traders would sell only one type of product and usually groups of them such as butchers would sell their wares in the same area.

In the 18th century, some shops began to become grander establishments. A more leisured class, with time and money, appeared and luxury goods became more affordable. The relief on glazing tax meant that goods could be displayed behind elegant windows and items such as fine silks and delicate china were displayed in spacious show or ware rooms. Shopping was becoming a pleasurable experience for an expanding middle class whose sense of style was expressing itself in fashion and furnishings. More and more people became shopkeepers in order to capitalise on this new consumer demand for luxury goods: it was hardly a surprise when Napoleon referred to England as a nation of shopkeepers .

But it was the Industrial Revolution which led to dramatic changes in the way our ancestors shopped. An increase in urban populations and the coming of the railways meant that shops had more to sell and more people to sell to. Many of these people had money to spend on the new goods that were coming in from all around the world and the first retailers to see the potential of the situation were the drapers.

In the 19th century fashion was becoming very big business, with a young, beautifully dressed Queen on the throne and a newly burgeoning magazine market began to tell ladies how to be fashionable. It wasn’t just dresses or material that ladies needed to emulate the look: they had to have accessories such as gloves, stockings, bags and parasols, and the draper began to expand his stock so that all these things could be found under one roof. They were, as the historian Sir Roy Strong says, the proto-department store and as time passed, the shops had to become bigger than ever before to accommodate all their wares.

There were many examples of this. Kendal, Milne and Faulkner in Manchester is just one, which today belongs to House of Fraser. In 1836, it was a simple draper’s store but in the space of ten years, it was supplying everything a lady could require, as well as offering services as diverse as upholstery and funeral undertaking.

Like many others of its type, it also fixed prices and introduced a ready money payment scheme, declining to give credit to all except its most valued customers. Customers would hand their money to an assistant who would put it in a tube and send it along a wire to a cashier, who would write out a receipt and return it with any change. This system, known as the ‘cash railway’, was a very popular and is still in use today in Jacksons of Reading.

Department stores gained a reputation as places where shopping could be a truly pleasurable experience. Early stores often grew haphazardly but as they became more prosperous these were often knocked down and splendid new purpose-built stores were constructed. These contained everything for the comfort of the customer: tea rooms, smoking rooms for gentlemen, electric light, spacious shop floors and, quite often, musicians to entertain as one browsed. Department stores were keen to afford their customers the latest innovations. Harrods, for example, installed the first ever escalator in a British store in 1898. It was a mixed success, however, as customers were quite often so shaken after using it that smelling salts and brandy would be offered to them!

Many stores were proud of their huge range of stock and one store, Whitley’s – dubbed ‘the Universal Provider’ – vowed that it could supply anything from a pin to an elephant. Sumptuous catalogues were provided, so that customers could browse goods at home and stores even had their own horse-drawn transport and, later, vans to deliver their order, sometimes the same day.

The very size of department stores meant that they became a large employer. Jobs covered the whole spectrum and included managerial staff, buyers, bookkeepers, cafe staff, porters and cleaners. However, the people that the public had most contact with were the shop floor workers. There was a strict hierarchy from department head to the most junior assistant. Very often, the whole of the shop floor was overseen by a floor walker, usually a man, who would ensure the smooth day-to-day running of the store and occasionally act as a discreet security guard.

Many assistants worked a 60-hour week. Most lived in and board and lodging was included in their salary, a situation which resembled a fairly strict boarding school. Emily Faithful, writing in 1864, considered that it was good clean employment for girls. However, she also suggested that they would need the power of standing for many hours and entire self control when dealing with rude customers. Handbooks of rules were issued, which generally listed the huge amount of failings which would result in fines: anything from talking to wrapping a customer’s parcel badly. However, conditions were eased in 1909, with a bill forbidding excessive hours and gradually the draconian rules were also relaxed leading many department stores to forge reputations as excellent employers.

The history of department stores is a rich and huge area. It can tell us much about the consumer habits of our ancestors, who loved shopping enough to make them a reality.

Window displays

Department stores have always realised the importance of display and the availability of huge plate glass windows enabled this. Owners believed The Draper’s Record’s comment that business was done between the public and the shop window .

The arrival of lifelike mannequins in the early 20th century helped, although police had to be called to one Scottish store when people mistook mannequins with moving eyes and chests for human beings. Harrods advertised its sale by displaying an elephant made entirely out of white towels and Lewis’s in Liverpool advertised its new range of Harris tweeds by constructing a life size crofter’s cottage in the window.

It was Gordon Selfridge, though, who gained the reputation of King of the Windows, although even he caused amazement when he managed to display Amy Johnson’s airplane. Unfortunately, his signature window, inscribed with signatures of stars that visited the store, was damaged in World War Two.

Department store archives

Many department stores have archives which can be consulted by those who are either interested in their history or by those who think that an ancestor may have worked in one and would like to glean some information about them.

Archives contain a fascinating collection of historical documents, which reflect our changing consumer tastes and give a valuable insight into what it was like to work and shop in department stores. These documents include material such as photographs, advertisements, catalogues, minutes of meetings and general employment rules.

Staff magazines also feature in many archives and these often contain accounts of staff outings, Christmas parties and material relating to individuals such as marriages, retirements and obituaries. Some stores, for example, Marks and Spencer plc, also produced special staff magazines for colleagues who fought in the war and several maintain rolls of honour for those who fell. These can be very useful in tracing individuals.

It is important to realise that smaller stores may have been incorporated into larger groups and if so, the first thing to do is to check which group it was incorporated into and then consult their archives. In cases where the store went out of business, The National Archives may be able to help with locating any available records.

Stores such as The House of Fraser and Marks and Spencer plc have accessible archives which are open to the public and professional archivists who are willing to help trace a particular ancestor.

Some useful web addresses:

• www.housefraserarchive.ac.uk
• marksintime.marksandspencer.com
• archiveshub.ac.uk a search for ‘department store’ reveals many further such archives
• There is an online museum of North American department stores at www.thedepartmentstoremuseum.org/