Victorian Shop Front Design

Monday, February 19, 2018

Ken White is most well known for his work designing bookstores and convenience shops, but did you know that he is also an author? Ken White, often with his son, Frank White, wrote a number of books on bookstore design and visual merchandising (which I hope to discuss more in the future), but I was surprised to find mock-ups for a book on a slightly different theme: Victorian English and American Shop Front Designs and Drawings 1834-1900

Cover of "Street Architecture" book.

Victorian Shop Front Designs gives examples of various shop front windows through time, provides examples of popular themes, and discusses some of the more famous architects designing these facades. 

Sketch of a shop front, painted green with Greco-Roman columns.

The book includes beautiful etchings and drawings - some copies of original plans, and others reproduced and colored by Ken White. The result is a gorgeous and informative book. 

Sketch titled "design for an isolated villa" with the front of the house and below it a floor plan.

Unfortunately, this book never was never able to get past the early development stages. I’m glad Hagley has these in-progress copies and beautiful drawings to share. 

NHPRC logo


Rebecca Koch is the Processing Archivist for the Ken White and Marshall Johnson NHPRC Project at Hagley Museum and Library.

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