Still Open: The Guide to Traditional London Shops Book

London is world famous for its multitude of shops, but Knightsbridge and Oxford Street are just the tip of the iceberg. Each area of London - from Hackney to Hampstead, from Putney to Peckham - has its own distinctive atmosphere, shops and unique history. Unfortunately, the homogenisation of the downtown is beginning to blur these distinctions. Still Open is an intimate tour of some of the capital's best-kept secrets, the traditional shops that have managed to stay open and flourish in the face of this increasingly fierce competition. From the pie and mash shops of the East End, to the 1950s Italian delis of Soho, to James Taylor and Son's classic umbrella shop on Gower Street, Still Open also takes in butchers, florists, coffee shops, clothes shops and milliners. The establishments' interiors and exteriors are beautifully photographed and the history of each shop is told by their proprietors and customers. Still Open is at once a social history, a photographic essay on interior design through the ages and an affectionate look at the last vestiges of romance in the commercial center of England.