I confess that, not only do I have a fascination for windows, but I also take photos of shop windows – over the years I have managed to record a bit of social history that is interesting to look back on and notice how things change or not. I hope you enjoy these, they are just a few of the many starting with …
…the memorable
…the ones lost in time…
…and the ones that didn’t quite make it
….and the modern
…the local post office
…and bookshops…
…the eye catching and well presented…
….and finally the Christmas windows
So many interesting windows and a little snapshot of daily life recorded for ever.
An absolutely FABULOUS collection of windows. So fascinating to look down the years – your family snapshots are gorgeous.
I will come back and look through them again.
What a wonderful entry to the photo challenge – thank you!
I am so glad I stopped by today and read this post! I am with you 100%, I love shop windows and often take pics of them. Mine is because of my window dressing days, and I know how much work goes into getting them right. I get irritated, almost angry, when I see a really bad window display. The window is the most important part of any retailers, so you have to put the effort in. I used to read a fascinating blog that showed the windows of NYC, sadly it’s no more, how I wish it was still there. I loved that site.
You have so many fabulous photos. I absolutely adore the pink dresses! So gorgeous. And I love the pink china, which looks like Pip Studio and makes me sad. I smashed one of my pink PS plates last week and am annoyed with myself about it.
The Ancient House in Ipswich used to be a bookshop, and I adored it as such. Now it’s Lakeland Plastics, which is great, but it was the perfect premises for books. And yes, closing down graphics are sad. This week we have a vegan shop opening in town, but our Monsoon is closing. So many shops have closed over the past few years it’s beyond sad.
I just knew you would love the pink dress and the china – I said so to DH at the time!
Isn’t it amazing how some places change all the time and others seem to stand still. As irritating as they are those hotch potch window displays you see in some places do have a kind of charm about them and they remind me very much of some wonderful carefree childhood days, when both ‘fashion’ and ‘designer’ wasn’t such a big issue. xx
The shop where we bought my ring is just amazing – I think the only changes are probably in the stock – the shop is exactly as I remember it and even back in those days it looked old fashioned.
What a wonderful post! You’ve given me the bug to take some of my area. The independent shops, anywhere, I feel, have the most inventive window displays and often the actual buildings are more original 🙂
I do love a shop window display! You have a great record there of shopfronts over the years. At one time I wanted to be a window dresser and don’t know why I didn’t follow that path….x
You would have made a wonderful window dresser being as creative as you are. I once went for an interview for a window dressers job just after college in a jewellers – needless to say I didn’t get the job – erhaps just as well I was probably a bit young and definitely inexperienced. x
What great photos. I take lots of shop windows too and my favourite is one in Glasgow with loads of old singer sewing machines as adornment. In this town we have lost lots of shops. No butchers, greengrocers or any interesting little independent shops. Plenty closing down each week.
It is sad to see them go – the internet has a lot to answer for, but also our changes in lifestyle too – especially the generations behind us who live in a totally different way now.
Wonderful post. So evocative. A trip down memory lane for me to see all the old shops–the green grocer, butcher, ironmonger–still surviving. All memories of my childhood growing up in UK–like the annual visit to Regent Street and Oxford Street in London at Christmas to see the window displays. The glove shop in Italy reminds me of one I visited in Rome twenty years ago that was just a sliver of a store but packed with every conceivable type of dress glove in every colour. I bought several pairs–just so delighted with the sheer choice. (Ha! Just looked it up on g##glemaps–and it is still there, right across from the Spanish Steps-Sermonetta–looking quite smart these days.) Told you it was a trip down memory lane. Thanks.
The glove shop was something else – I didn’t manage to buy any but it was lovely just to see the display. I can’t think of anywhere in the UK that just sells gloves – in fact you don’t see many people wearing them these days.
An absolutely FABULOUS collection of windows. So fascinating to look down the years – your family snapshots are gorgeous.
I will come back and look through them again.
What a wonderful entry to the photo challenge – thank you!
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Thank you – I have just remembered to go back to edit my post and put the link through to your page.
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I am so glad I stopped by today and read this post! I am with you 100%, I love shop windows and often take pics of them. Mine is because of my window dressing days, and I know how much work goes into getting them right. I get irritated, almost angry, when I see a really bad window display. The window is the most important part of any retailers, so you have to put the effort in. I used to read a fascinating blog that showed the windows of NYC, sadly it’s no more, how I wish it was still there. I loved that site.
You have so many fabulous photos. I absolutely adore the pink dresses! So gorgeous. And I love the pink china, which looks like Pip Studio and makes me sad. I smashed one of my pink PS plates last week and am annoyed with myself about it.
The Ancient House in Ipswich used to be a bookshop, and I adored it as such. Now it’s Lakeland Plastics, which is great, but it was the perfect premises for books. And yes, closing down graphics are sad. This week we have a vegan shop opening in town, but our Monsoon is closing. So many shops have closed over the past few years it’s beyond sad.
Thank you for your post. Made me smile. xx
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I just knew you would love the pink dress and the china – I said so to DH at the time!
Isn’t it amazing how some places change all the time and others seem to stand still. As irritating as they are those hotch potch window displays you see in some places do have a kind of charm about them and they remind me very much of some wonderful carefree childhood days, when both ‘fashion’ and ‘designer’ wasn’t such a big issue. xx
The shop where we bought my ring is just amazing – I think the only changes are probably in the stock – the shop is exactly as I remember it and even back in those days it looked old fashioned.
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What a wonderful post! You’ve given me the bug to take some of my area. The independent shops, anywhere, I feel, have the most inventive window displays and often the actual buildings are more original 🙂
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I always wish I had taken more photos of the more ordinary things when we go places – so many are disappearing now.
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What a wonderful trip you have taken me on today. I especially love the Christmas windows and the Wigtown bookshops are very familiar to me. X
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You know the bookshops in Wigtown – I am curious now, do you attend the festivals and have you read the Bookseller book? xx
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I do love a shop window display! You have a great record there of shopfronts over the years. At one time I wanted to be a window dresser and don’t know why I didn’t follow that path….x
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You would have made a wonderful window dresser being as creative as you are. I once went for an interview for a window dressers job just after college in a jewellers – needless to say I didn’t get the job – erhaps just as well I was probably a bit young and definitely inexperienced. x
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What great photos. I take lots of shop windows too and my favourite is one in Glasgow with loads of old singer sewing machines as adornment. In this town we have lost lots of shops. No butchers, greengrocers or any interesting little independent shops. Plenty closing down each week.
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It is sad to see them go – the internet has a lot to answer for, but also our changes in lifestyle too – especially the generations behind us who live in a totally different way now.
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Wonderful post. So evocative. A trip down memory lane for me to see all the old shops–the green grocer, butcher, ironmonger–still surviving. All memories of my childhood growing up in UK–like the annual visit to Regent Street and Oxford Street in London at Christmas to see the window displays. The glove shop in Italy reminds me of one I visited in Rome twenty years ago that was just a sliver of a store but packed with every conceivable type of dress glove in every colour. I bought several pairs–just so delighted with the sheer choice. (Ha! Just looked it up on g##glemaps–and it is still there, right across from the Spanish Steps-Sermonetta–looking quite smart these days.) Told you it was a trip down memory lane. Thanks.
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The glove shop was something else – I didn’t manage to buy any but it was lovely just to see the display. I can’t think of anywhere in the UK that just sells gloves – in fact you don’t see many people wearing them these days.
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I loved looking at these pictures, thank you so much for posting them! Proper independent shops. Wonderful!
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Thank you
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That was a delightful shopping expedition. I’ll take the other pink dress. Not to wear, just to admire the perfection of line.
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Yes I could have done the same if I had the money but wasn’t quite the size – just bought it anyway and hung it in my bedroom to admire.
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Such a lovely collection. Together the whole is better than the individual. And you’re right. Such a snap shot of social history.
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