Arding & Hobbs

Arding & Hobbs is a former department store and Grade II listed building at the junction of Lavender Hill and St John's Road, Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth.[1]

Arding & Hobbs was established in 1876. A second store was established on the corner of Falcon Road, Battersea, known as the Falcon Road Drapery Store, but this was sold to firmer employees Mr. Hunt & Mr. Cole in 1894.[2] The original building was destroyed by a fire on 20 December 1909.[3] The present building was constructed in 1910 in an Edwardian Baroque style, and the architect was James Gibson.[1]

The department store was sold to the John Anstiss Group in 1938, however, John Anstiss was purchased by United Drapery Stores in 1948.[4] The store was added to the Allders group in the 1970s and continued to operate until Allders went into administration in 2005.[5] The building was subsequently broken up and sold, with the building split between a branch of Debenhams department store and TK Maxx retail. As of 9 June 2020, the Debenhams section of the building has been permanently closed.

The store and building are featured in a number of films and television programmes including the 1981 action-thriller Nighthawks, where the shop was bombed, and the 1994 Mr. Bean episode "Do-It-Yourself Mr. Bean".[6] It is very prominent in the video "Life On Your Own" by the band The Human League which is set in a future, apocalyptic London where the lead singer is the only person left alive and lives in the building.

References

  1. 1 2 Historic England (30 November 2001). "Arding and Hobbs store (1389528)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
  2. ↑ https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004605/18940210/010/0001?browse%20=%20false
  3. ↑ Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher (1992). The London Encyclopaedia (reprint ed.). Macmillan. p. 183.
  4. ↑ Saint, Andrew (2013). @Survey of London: 1, Public, Commercial and Cultural. Battersea. Yale University Press. p. 401. ISBN 9780300196160.
  5. ↑ Allders store closing its doors BBC News, 22 May 2005
  6. ↑ "Mr Bean filming locations". retrofilminglocations.weebly.com. Retrieved 15 May 2022.

51°27′49″N 0°10′03″W / 51.463475°N 0.167371°W / 51.463475; -0.167371

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