Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Purdey's, Mayfair
The style shown in my two drawings is, however, a quite separate development - con-
temporaneous but, I think, unconnected. Only the Victorians could produce it. It is quite
handsome in a stolid kind of way and has the air of solidity found in nineteenth-century
banks and Pall Mall clubs. This late-flowing, brackish Renaissance stream soon dried up;
the style had quite gone by the 1890s, being overtaken in popularity by
art nouveau
. The
two lamps outside Cooper's are rather fine, and Purdey's, a wonderfully preserved peri-
od establishment with gas brackets, has a magnificent Victorian room, ornamented with
old photographs and sporting equipment. The shop still retains an early telephone, a wall
instrument, of impressive appearance. There are few shops in London so carefully cher-
ished.
