Past Shopping

A selection of photographs showing the different ways people have shopped in the last 150 years. Check out our Teaching Activity What evidence of everyday life since 1948 can we find in a photograph?

Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Market Place, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk Market day in Great Yarmouth. The Market Place is crowded with stalls and shoppers. There has been a market here since at least 1384, when it is recorded that the area was partly paved and had a pillory. A pillory was a pole with hand/foot restraints on it used for punishing people, very similar to stocks.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Fruit seller at Castle Green, Kenilworth, Warwickshire A view of Mrs Sarah Lee selling fruit from a table on the green. The type of bonnet she is wearing would generally have been worn by an older working class woman or a woman from a rural area.
Add to My Favourites English Heritage.NMR M Blaize, 22 Stafford Street, Stone, Staffordshire This pair of houses has upper storey workshops. The ground floor has been converted into a shop.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of Oxfordshire County Council Covered Market, Avenue 2, Oxford, Oxfordshire One of the avenues in the covered market built by John Gwynn in the late 18th century, showing several butcher's stalls advertising their goods in the foreground.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Sutton's Seed Shop, Reading, Berkshire Customers buy seed at the Sutton's Seeds shop. The drawers behind the counter presumably hold seeds, while the cashier sits behind the counter to the right. A solid fuel heater stands in the centre of the floor.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Market Place, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire A street scene with the market in progress and the Cavendish Monument (also known as the Bentinck Monument) visible in the centre of the market stalls
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Lewis the Butcher, Kineton, Warwickshire Fit as a butcher's dog? Almost proverbially, a dog has been attracted to the butcher's shop. Several cuts of meat are on display in the window. Before refrigeration was common people would have to buy their meat fresh every day from shops like this one.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Golding & Adams, High Street, Byfield, Northamptonshire Staff and customers pose outside Golding & Adams grocery shop. The shop boys are wearing long white aprons. Behind them, the windows are piled high with goods for sale.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Market Place, Faringdon, Oxfordshire The cattle market underway, with the Salutation Inn to one side and the churchyard to the other. Faringdon was granted a market in 1218.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR 'Royal Blue' horse omnibus, London The 'Royal Blue' horse omnibus outside 5-9 Euston Road. The bus carries route information and an advert for Selfridge's. The shops behind, including Boots the Chemist, Stewart & Wright's Cocoa Rooms and the Northumberland Hotel, are covered in advertisements.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Chandler's Stores, Kineton, Warwickshire This store in Kineton sold a wide selection of goods, and had the prestige of their own signwritten delivery van. Mr Chandler can be seen standing outside his shop with its elaborate display of Cadbury's chocolate and cocoa. The shop front is a more recent addition to an older house.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Swift's, Smithfield Market, City of London The stalls at Smithfield Market were often elaborately decorated; especially at Christmas. Swift's 1928 display not only had a magnificent porcine show, but also featured a stack of goods constructed to resemble a Christmas tree, at the foot of which was a seasonal domestic scene made entirely from lard! This building was constructed in 1851-66 by Horace Jones just before it became the London Meat Market.
Add to My Favourites Copyright English Heritage.NMR Street market, North London A woman buys fruit at a stall in a North London street market.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Vye & Son, Grocer, High Street, Lydd, Kent Two assistants pose for a photograph in the summer sun outside the door of the shop. The window display advertises plenty of special offers inside.
Add to My Favourites Copyright Crown copyright.NMR Cheese Shop, 7 Low Pavement, Chesterfield, Derbyshire This cheese shop was built into the structure of an 18th-century shop. With its high ceiling, tiled floor and wide counter it has the appearance that it has not changed radically for decades.	Add to My Favourites Copyright English Heritage.NMR James Smith and Sons Umbrella Shop, 53 New Oxford Street, Holborn, London The cluttered interior of James Smith and Sons Umbrella Shop on New Oxford Street, showing the counters dating back to the 1870s. The firm was founded in 1830 in Saville Row and also sells walking sticks.
Add to My Favourites Crown copyright.NMR The Galleria, Hatfield, Hertfordshire Originally planned as a retail and leisure complex with 130 shops, The Galleria ran into financial difficulties and now houses about 60 outlet and discount stores. It was the first building of it type to be positioned over a motorway, the A1 (M), and had the largest single-span steel roof in Europe when it opened.	Add to My Favourites Copyright Crown copyright.NMR Royal Arcade, Norwich, Norfolk This shopping arcade was built in 1899 and was designed by G J Skipper. The shops are surmounted by ceramic tiles, while the arcade itself has a glass and timber roof. Covered arcade like this one were the Victorian equivalent to the malls and hypermarkets of today.
Add to My Favourites Copyright Crown copyright.NMR Market trader, The Bullring, Birmingham, West Midlands The picture shows one of the many stalls in the Open Market by the famous Bullring shopping centre. This man and his son work the family business selling a selection of knitwear, all at bargain prices!	Add to My Favourites Copyright English Heritage.NMR Bluewater, near Stone, Greenhithe, Kent Bluewater near Stone in Kent is an out-of-town shopping complex built in a disused chalk pit. The central 'V' shaped mall seen here from the air is surrounded by vast car parks.
Add to My Favourites Copyright English Heritage.NMR Fishmonger, Railway Street, Hertford, Hertfordshire Fish from all over the UK is sold in Claydon's fishmongers, from Scottish salmon to Cornish mackerel. Better facilities for storing and quicker methods of transporting goods mean that there is a wider range of food today than was available in the past.