Walking up the East stretch of Oxford Street, London, rather
a noisy area with loud amplified music and ghastly souvenir shops, I gazed up
to a large imposing building and I struggled to remember what was there before.
Then it came back to me – it was the splendid department store of Bourne & Hollingsworth, always known as “B&H” which flourished there
from 1902 to 1983. Ladies would try on their new hats there and be fussed over
by very polite shop assistants who called them “Madam”.
 |
| B&H in its prime |
Times have changed and although London can still boast of Harrods, Selfridges, Liberty's, John Lewis
and House of Fraser, many other great
names are now history. Retail habits of course change but it is not just the
names that disappear, it is also a certain lifestyle. City workers used to
throng Gamages in High Holborn for family
gifts and toys for their pin-striped young: Victoria attracted eager shoppers
to the Army and Navy flagship store:
Regent Street had superior Dickins &
Jones while Swan and Edgar was a
favourite meeting place at Piccadilly Circus. Long lost to the denizens of
up-market Kensington are Barkers and Derry & Toms although its famed Roof
Garden survives. Provincial cities have suffered similar losses – for example
Edinburgh still embraces genteel Jenners but
Thornton’s and R. W. Forsyth, with its iconic globe and spire, are no more. The
passing of so many stores was probably inevitable but is nevertheless
regretted. Their names will in time be forgotten.
One of the great decisions of parents is what to call their
young, as the names will stick for ever. I had feared that all boys are now
called Elvis or Brooklyn, but I find that easily the most popular boy’s name in
Britain is, er, Mohammed. Moving on to those who have an unrestricted choice,
the most popular names are Oliver, for boys and Amelia for girls. Some of the
older names are making a steady comeback with Alfie, George, Charlie and Clive
in the frame (although Yorick and Ethelred do not yet feature!) My dear father, born 1904, was called Herbert
and I hope there is a revival of his name and future generations will be led by
little Herberts. The girls too are not all Traceys nor SindyLous: sedate and
emotive names like Rose, Florence, Emily, Blanche and Edith are returning,
thank goodness.
I have sons but not yet any grandchildren and maybe my surname's branch
will disappear in another generation. I cannot get too worked up about this.
Much greater names than mine have come, flourished and departed. I leave the last
word to Lord Chief Justice Crewe whose eloquent and philosophic peroration in
the Oxford Peerage case in 1625 decided the matter on the heraldic claims of
the de Veres. He delivered his judgment at a time when the English language was
at an apogee and this is one of my favourite quotations:
“And yet time hath his revolutions; there must be a period
and an end to all temporal things—finis rerum—an end of names and
dignities, and whatsoever is terrene; and why not of de Vere? For where is Bohun?
Where is Mowbray? Where is Mortimer? Nay, which is more, and most
of all, where is Plantagenet? They
are entombed in the urns and sepulchres of mortality! Yet let the name of de Vere stand so long as it pleaseth
God.”
SMD
8.03.2015
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2015
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