London’s sumptuous Victorian and Edwardian department stores changed the capital – and changed its women. Shoppers of every rank were lavishly wooed, seduced and often undone by the temptations laid out before them in these new ‘cathedrals of desire’. But as consumerism reached ever more frenzied levels, there was a more personal price to pay.

 This varied and fascinating day brings to life the untold stories behind objects, institutions and ‘invisible’ people of the late 19th and early 20th-Centuries and will take an in-depth look at:

1: The Victorian ‘big store’ and the rise of consumerism.

2: The cautionary tale of Heather Firbank; the Edwardian shopaholic whose entire couture wardrobe ended up in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
3: Art Deco and the department store; from roof gardens to curved glass walls, Coronation fever to marketing stunts.