East Midland Arcades

The East Midlands cities of Nottingham and Derby both have vintage shopping arcades from very different eras. The Strand Arcade in Derby dates from 1881 and pre-dates the Council House Arcade (1928) in Nottingham by about 47 years. They also differ in scale - the Derby arcade is a conventional Victorian design, comparable with many other examples in cities such as Cardiff, Birmingham, Bournemouth and Hull with ground floor shops and first floor accommodation.  Unlike others in Norwich, Newcastle or Leeds that dazzle the eye with ceramic splendour, the internal decoration is modest and the walkway, which connects The Strand with Sadler Gate to the north, is relatively intimate in scale.  The Strand itself has a fine continuous Neo-classical 3 and 4 storey frontage and the entrance to the arcade is included in Historic England’s Grade II listing. Rescued from dilapidation in 2006, it seems in good shape with an eclectic range of shops, no empty premises and a decent footfall.

In Nottingham the grand and spacious shopping arcade is part of the city's Council House and dates from 1928. The Council House was designed by the City Architect (T Cecil Howitt) to meet the need for a city hall and council chamber with the addition of a T-shaped shopping arcade inspired by the spectacular  Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan. What came to be built was a much reduced version of the Galleria with clean lines and restrained decoration. Not without its own sense of grandeur, I suspect an association with the architecture of privilege has deterred major retailers. Footfall seems light - it offers only minor advantages to pedestrians in search of a short cut. Nonetheless it survives as a destination for patrons of specialist traders in high value goods and an art dealer.

 

Central Arcade Newcastle

Even in a city well supplied with buildings of quality, the Central Arcade stands out for its sumptuous ceramic decoration. In plan, it links two sides of a triangular island building with a spur connecting to the third side (see diagram below).  The original building of 1840 was intended to serve as a Corn Exchange but before opening, it was remodelled as a conference hall with a coffee house and subscription newsroom included.  In its third iteration it was converted into a concert hall and art gallery in 1870. By 1897 it had become a vaudeville theatre which 4 years later was destroyed by fire. During rebuilding as shops and offices in 1906 the toffee coloured Central Arcade was cut through the centre to a design by J Oswald and Son. It is listed at Grade II* by Historic England.

Like the opulent, theatrical County Arcade in Leeds (1900) the faience decoration was supplied by Burmantofts of Leeds.  Renaissance motifs with rococo flourishes strike a more sober note on Tyneside than the exuberant floral swags and polychromed ironwork arches to be seen in Leeds. Central Arcade offers a café crème experience with a rich depth of colour in place of the dazzle of Leeds.  At each end, twin-arched entrances are topped by operatic ensembles of ornamental ceramics designed to impress. The shop fronts are restrained and close to the originals, there are no banners or intrusive signage to confront us with the vulgarity of commerce. Mostly specialist shops trade here as in many other arcades, less reliant on passing trade. Footfall is light despite the surrounding streets teeming with pedestrians - most who make there way under the arches are taking a short cut for the sake of protection from the elements and a time saving of about a single minute.  A more economically viable future for such places is difficult to imagine but for now at least the Central Arcade continues to delight the eye with its superb interior.

The immaculate condition of the arcade is a tribute to the owners and city planners who have enabled such sensitive conservation of an architectural treasure that despite a city centre location is unable to attract the prime retail that draws the Leeds public into the County Arcade in great numbers.  Perhaps it’s an act of contrition for permitting the demolition of one of the finest arcades in the country. This happened in the 1960s when the Royal Arcade of 1832 got in the way of an urban motorway project. There’s a low-res image that gives some impression of its magnificence below but what seems to have doomed it was the originally chosen location on the very edge of the city centre where it struggled from the start to attract custom.

Royal Arcade (1832 - 1963)

 

Pyramids, Arcades, Wheels and Elevators

Portfolio presentations from the postcard collection.  The process of selecting and grouping by subject throws up intriguing contrasts between images that have a superficial affinity and just as many differences. It’s interesting, for example, to watch the diminishing scale of the pyramids as they move from centre stage to incidental backdrop. What these 4 subjects have in common is that they’re all, in varying degrees, simple structures or volumes.  Serious collectors often arrange their treasures by slotting them, six at a time into plastic pockets held in cumbersome albums with ring binders.  Less discriminating collectors, or accumulators like myself, possess such a ridiculous quantity of cards that this option is logistically impossible.  Before they get sorted into boxes every card is scanned and tagged, ready for arranging into digital album pages when time permits.

Postcard of the Day No. 107, County Arcade Leeds

This postcard view of the County Arcade in Leeds shows something of what was on sale in the first decade of the arcade’s existence (1900-1910) - there was a Jeweller, Hairdresser, Optician, Confectioner and seller of umbrellas. The opulent architecture is identical to what we see today. On my annual visit to Leeds I always pay my respects to the splendour of the County Arcade. Although the gleaming mahogany shopfronts stock little of interest to me, the sheer visual exuberance of Frank Matcham’s theatrical fantasy always captivates. The repetition of ornamental cast iron ribs decorated with brilliantly coloured Burmantofts faience, Sienna marble pilasters, balustraded balconies, stone ball finials, and wonderful gilded mosaic panels combine to delight the eye. The Victoria Quarter in Leeds has been valued and cherished as a priceless civic asset offering a sense of continuity with the Victorian heyday of a proud industrial city.  Click here to read a previous post from 2008 on this subject.

 

Napoli Galleria Umberto 1

The Galleria Umberto 1 in Naples was conceived as a riposte to the great Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, twenty years after the latter was built in 1867. It was the centrepiece of a major regeneration project intended to combat the city’s unenviable reputation for squalor and criminality. All this and more is comprehensively explained in the YouTube documentary. The film-makers made the most of privileged access that enabled them to film inside the apartments that occupied the upper floors, the roof top dwellings provided for the maintenance staff and the basement areas that accommodated a theatre, a cinema and a snooker club.

Liverpool India Buildings

As the coalition proceeds with its ideologically driven “bonfire of regulations” property developers are tempted to employ ever more extreme measures to “sweat their assets”. The notion that buildings of architectural merit should be protected is perceived as an inconvenient bureaucratic barrier to economic growth. Listed buildings are never more vulnerable than when a new owner comes on the scene, all puffed up with the conceit that here is an asset just waiting to be transformed by his unique vision. Such a fate has befallen a grade II listed office building in Liverpool, India Buildings in Water Street, completed in 1930 where owner Green Property plans to do away with the handsome vaulted shopping arcade that runs through the building. Gavin Stamp writing in Private Eye 1329 makes the case for retaining the arcade and correctly describes India Buildings as “a monumental essay in modern commercial Classicism”. Local campaigners are doing their best to oppose this vandalism but history is not on their side. The city of Liverpool has, in the last decade, been a test bed for the privatisation of public space. All of which only encourages developers to disregard public access issues in the interests of maximising their revenues. 

Passage du Grand Cerf

As you travel south along rue Saint-Denis the raffish air of hustle and bustle declines into sober gentility and in keeping with the prevailing tone the Passage du Grand Cerf is a tranquil and little frequented space. It was extensively renovated in 1990 and in the service of uniformity the shop fronts conform to a single architectural formula repeated ad infinitum with very few concessions to individuality. The strongest impression is of affluence and exclusivity – these shops are not welcoming to the casual browser. At 11.8m in height, this is the tallest passage in Paris and its redeeming feature is the spectacular glazed roof, supported by improbably slender ironwork and through which a wondrous amount of light is admitted. The intense luminosity, doubled and redoubled by all the reflective surfaces more than compensates for the rather sterile character of the passage.

Vidocq Détective

Eugène François Vidocq often seems as much a fictional character as Fantômas. A career criminal and master of disguise who crossed over to the forces of law and order where he rose to the very top, being installed as the first director of the newly formed Sûreté National. His surveillance techniques included disguising himself as a foul smelling heap of refuse – he also faked his own death to disconcert his enemies. Vidocq’s unorthodox approach to crime-fighting was a remarkable success until the implementation of a new regulation, rather late in the day, excluding officers with criminal records forced him to resign in 1832. His next move was into the private sector where he set up the Bureau des renseignements (Office of Information), the world’s first private detective agency.


From premises at 13, Galerie Vivienne Vidocq ran a team of 11 detectives, mostly recruited from the criminal classes, and offered his services direct to Parisian victims of fraud, blackmail and theft. It was a smart address from which to operate although the provision of three exits from which to make a rapid escape may have been a factor. Balzac borrowed aspects of Vidocq for the sinister character of Vautrin in the novel Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes. There’s a dense cloud of mystery over all Vidocq’s activities and truth and fiction are indistinguishable. Vidocq’s published memoirs only add to the confusion and all written records of the era were destroyed by the Communards when they burned down the Hôtel de Ville.

North Country Arcadia

This is a tale of two arcades in the north of England, either side of the Pennines in Manchester and Huddersfield. Two multi-level Victorian shopping arcades that display some striking contrasts in the contribution they make to local distinctiveness. The Barton Arcade in Manchester, built in 1871, is an “h” shaped arcade constructed in iron and glass with two octagonal glass domes. The two balconies are graced with handsome ornamental balustrades with mahogany handrails. The paintwork is a dazzling white, with ornamental detailing picked out in gloss black and a tiled floor (not original) in shades of grey. The Byram Arcade in Huddersfield was built in 1881 within the interior of the Byram Buildings designed by local architect, William Crossland (who would later design Royal Holloway College). Like the Barton, there are two upper levels with decorative ironwork. The glazed roof is of simple pitched construction.

The eye is drawn upwards to the complex roof structure in the Barton Arcade and a cool and airy sensation is created. The upper levels are given over to office accommodation and access is via large plate glass doors making them feel like private space. The retail activity includes a travel agent, a sandwich shop, a wine shop, and a restaurant as well as menswear and fashion shops; not as high-end and exclusive as it appears at first glance. The fabric of the building is in excellent external condition but it feels as if the presence of a plethora of glitzy outlets in surrounding streets make it difficult to attract much footfall into the rarefied atmosphere of the arcade.

The Byram Arcade has a warm and enclosed feeling. The upper levels are all retail with an eclectic mix of shops selling art materials, leisurewear, musical instruments and haircuts. There’s a superb restaurant (The Oak Rooms) on the ground floor that attracts a lot of custom but there’s no through traffic, the entrance and exit being one and the same. The Byram has fine spacious architecture and wonderful decorative detailing and the excellent condition to which it has been restored is a joy to behold. Both arcades offer a special experience but seem to fall short of their full commercial potential, but for the disinterested observer, therein lies their charm.

Passage du Caire

The Passage du Caire has the distinction of being the longest passage in Paris and dates from 1798. In the hierarchy of these things, if the Galleria in Milan is placed at the top, then the Passage du Caire is perilously close to the bottom. That’s not to say it’s any less interesting or not worth visiting. There’s an air of bustle and purpose and it has its own raffish character, refreshingly free of ostentation. It runs off the west side of rue Saint-Denis in the 2ème and most of the businesses service the garment and textile traders that still survive in the neighbourhood. It’s the place to go if you’re in urgent need of a mannequin, some protective clothing and a surgical appliance. And, if you really want to blend in, you’ll need your own sack-truck. The passageway is cluttered with bales of bubble-wrap, outsize cardboard boxes, chrome-plated retail display fixtures, stepladders, café tables and families of mannequins. As for rue Saint-Denis, there’s little sign of gentrification here. Apart from the stampeding herds of overloaded sack-trucks, on the eastern side of the street the visitor can admire les demi-mondaines smoking and posing in shop doorways in search of passing trade. These exotic creatures are even more numerous in the nearby, and appropriately named, rue Ponceau.

Cathedral of Shopping

This triumphal arch forms the entrance to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan. It stands on the Piazza del Duomo thus uniting the God of Christendom with the God of Commerce. The interior is cruciform in plan with a central octagon. The internal facades are three storeys in height, above them soars an enormous glazed barrel vault complete with central dome. The floor area is entirely covered by a richly decorative scheme of mosaic work and provides an almost absurdly lavish and opulent space in which to shop. The modest shopping arcade as developed in Britain and France is here inflated to the proportions of a grand cathedral and symbolises the need for the newly united Italian nation state to see its sense of self-importance immortalised in architectural form.


Despite the air of exclusivity, the Galleria is open to all and there seems to be a mismatch between the leisure shirts, shorts and trainers worn by most visitors with the sort of clientele that would be likely to patronise the seriously up-market retailers. Apart from the presence of a McDonald’s, there is very little that would come within the spending power of the average shopper. The shop fronts are intimidatingly polished and perfect, repelling all but the most affluent customer.


A cultural footnote with which to conclude. The final scene in Michael Dibdin’s Aurelio Zen novel, Cabal, climaxes with the villain of the piece crashing through the glass of the central dome and plummeting to the mosaic floor below. The corpse touches down on the Coat of Arms of the House of Savoy.

City of Arcades

Cardiff has branded itself as City of Arcades. It’s an obvious destination for an arcade obsessive. An exploratory visit provided just enough time for an overview. Cardiff’s arcades may lack the decorative splendour of those in Leeds but they are nicely proportioned, well maintained and possess a wide range of retailers without the sense of exclusivity to be found in Leeds. There are second-hand bookshops, cafés and even an Authorised Apple Reseller alongside joke shops, tattoo studios and suppliers of fine cheese and fancy dress. The picture above comes from Morgan Arcade (opened in 1896) which has the pleasing feature of dividing into two curving branches. Slender glazing bars and delicate, perforated cast iron trusses contribute to a light and airy sense of space.


Castle Arcade (opened in 1887) has several distinctive features that enhance its L-shaped layout. Narrow flights of stairs provide access to an upper gallery (mostly given over to office accommodation) with narrow bridges that offer exciting elevated views. Best of all are the enormous mirrors that occupy the gable ends and visually extend the space into an infinity of glazing and roof trusses. The dimensions and mix of traders are more reminiscent of Passage des Panoramas in Paris than anywhere else I’ve visited in the UK. On that basis, Cardiff can be recommended to flâneurs everywhere.