Behind the Scenes: Participants and Processes in the Development of London’s Interwar Suburban Shopping Parades

Abstract

England between 1919 and 1939 experienced enormous suburban expansion. In Greater London the population grew by about seventeen percent, while the built-up area doubled in size. Thousands of shopping parades were built on suburban high roads and in estates, providing the residents of these new communities not just with a local place to shop for their daily (or more major needs) but also offering a center for local activities and interactions, both informal and formal. These parades are still a familiar feature of the suburban landscape but, until recently, both the buildings and the complex process of their development have been overlooked. Drawing upon existing histories and geographies of shopping, of the commercial property market, and of suburban development and culture, this paper examines four cases in order to bring into the foreground the network of participants and processes in the financing, designing and building of London’s interwar shopping parades.