Autumn 2024

Autumn always inspires me to go shopping, to see what’s new.

Earlier this month, I was in Le Bon Marché, watching tourists jostle each other at the fridges of butter (the store vacuum-packs them, so they can be flown home) and a lady in pearls slowly pushing a trolley between shelves of delicacies, doing her weekly shop.

There’s something lovely about a huge store being enjoyed by all kinds of people for different reasons.

Department stores in Paris remind me of the pictures in a little book I found a few years ago, ‘Department Stores’ by Claire Masset. The book whizzes through the history of department stores, from the 1850s to 2010 (when the book was published).

The coloured illustrations and black and white photos show palatial staircases, glass ceilings and parquet floors – a far cry from the Debenhams and House of Fraser stores I grew up with. Sadly the giant Debenhams in Stockport town centre is now empty. I used to go to the Debenhams café with my gran, when the M&S café – our first choice – was too busy. That M&S is now also gone.

I like the idea of department stores being brought back to life, albeit in a less grand way. Filled with co-working spaces and independent stalls, pop-ups and even places to live, like the fantastically named Apartment Store in Taunton. Hopefully one day, the UK’s empty department stores can be enjoyed again, this time by the whole community, for all different purposes.