Blustons

BLUSTONS

Shop, 1931, constructed for Samuel and Jane Bluston, with later alterations. The upper storeys have been refurbished and are not of special interest.

SHOP FRONT

The 1931 shop front is dominated by a black Vitrolite fascia featuring a Deco-style stepped central section framing the word "BLUSTONS" in white, three-dimensional capital letters rendered in a bold, blockish typeface. The words "COATS" and "GOWNS" flank this, placed at diagonal angles, with the whole edged in a timber surround painted red. Three of the fourteen Vitrolite panels have been replaced.

Below the fascia is a plain lower band above the most distinctive element: an arcade of window display cases that occupy over half the floor space of the plot—a remarkable proportion typical of 1930s retail practice. This arcade allows customers to browse goods while protected from the weather. The double-fronted shop features two side display windows and a third central cabinet at the rear of the arcade backing onto the shop interior, plus a fourth island display window in the centre of the shop front. The arcade floor is black and white chequered marble with traces of where the threshold once bore the inscription "Blustons".

The display cases are edged in chrome surrounds with large panes of plate glass uninterrupted by glazing bars. This use of separate panes without glazing bars appears to have been an economical strategy for this suburban shop to replicate the fashionable curved or bent glass windows of exclusive West End shops in the 1930s, which were expensive to produce. The display cases against the walls contain decorative panelling in classical designs with Art Deco-style sunburst fanlights and mirrors.

The shop front also retains fragments of an earlier façade: pilasters and consoles flanking the fascia, with further Vitrolite panels facing the lower parts of the pilasters. Simple wood panels form the stallrisers.

SHOP INTERIOR

The original counter and shelving have been removed, but simple mouldings creating wall panels survive. The original pay-booth, a simple wooden partition, remains intact, as do the original glazed doors bearing gold blockish lettering reading "BLUSTONS" on the diagonal. The upper storeys were not inspected but are known to have been rebuilt in the late twentieth century and are therefore not of special interest.

HISTORY

Jane and Samuel Bluston, Jewish emigrants from Russia who arrived in Britain in the early twentieth century, established a drapers shop in Stoke Newington after working in the East End tailoring business. Their success led to the opening of eight branches, including locations on Oxford Street, Hoxton Street, Kingsland High Road, and Mare Street. The Kentish Town Road shop opened in 1931 and first appears in the Post Office Directory of 1933. It remains the only surviving branch still trading; the others closed in the 1950s and 1960s.

Blustons occupies the ground floor of a building whose upper storeys have been completely refurbished in recent years. The original building dates from the Georgian development of Kentish Town and appears on an 1801 map. It has been substantially altered since then. The 1896 Ordnance Survey map shows a larger structure on the site. From the mid-1870s, the ground floor was converted to a shop, and by 1910 it was occupied by George Arnold, a pawnbroker. Fragments of this phase survive as the pilasters and consoles flanking the 1930s shop front.

The display arcade is a rare survival of an inter-war trend for vast display cases and covered browsing areas, even in shops with modest floor space. The arcade at Blustons is exceptional: it takes up over half the surface area of the shop. This devotion of extensive space to window display rather than retail space characterises 1930s commercial practice, but Blustons is an outstanding example. Many shops with arcades or island display cases were department stores or large multi-storey establishments. Smaller shops might use a slender island display case to attract customers, but extensive arcading was unusual. Yet at Blustons, the arcade is the showpiece and the largest component of available retail space. The arcade is notable both for its size relative to the shop floor and as a rare surviving example of a once-common shop front type now largely disappeared from the high street. It is one of very few remaining examples in London; all others have been removed, either due to the need for greater sales space or concerns about misuse of arcades after shopping hours.

SETTING

The building occupies a prominent position on Kentish Town Road. The original Georgian structure has been considerably altered and enlarged, with the ground floor shop added in the mid-1870s.