Napoleon's famous epithet may have been a little harsh, but it is true that the English have long had a penchant for retail. So it's curious that the 'nation of shopkeepers' has produced so few fine retail buildings. The Italians have their galleria, the French invented the department store but not a single English shop makes the 'grade I' listing ― the highest ranking a building can get. One, however, does fall into the next class (grade II): Peter Jones. The 1930s store on London's Sloane Square is one of the capital's most prominent modernist buildings. Designed by the young British architect William Crabtree (with executive architect Slater & Moberly) after a visit to Germany, the shop, with its sweeping steel and glass curtain wall, is a homage to Eric Mendelsohn's Schocken department store in Stuttgart.
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