Swan & Edgar Ltd was a department store, located at Piccadilly Circus on the western side between

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...

and

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...

established in the early 19th century and closed in 1982. Wiliam Edgar ran a haberdashery stall in St James Market, before meeting George Swan.Story of London (Bill McCann) They first opened a shop together in

Ludgate Hill Ludgate Hill is a street and surrounding area, on a small hill in the City of London. The street passes through the former site of Ludgate, a city gate that was demolished – along with a gaol attached to it – in 1760. The area include ...

which Swan had been operating, but moved to 20 Piccadilly in 1812. They then moved to 49 Regent Street when their former site was demolished to make way for Piccadilly Circus, which had been the home to the Western Mail coach offices and the Bull & Mouth public house. Swan died in 1821, however Edgar continued to use the name. By 1848 the premises had expanded to 45–51 and the entire corner of Piccadilly Circus. In 1886, the old "partnership" businesses of Messrs Swan and Edgar and Messrs Halling, Pearce and Stone were acquired and amalgamated into a new Company named Waterloo House and Swan and Edgar (Limited). The directors of the new Company were John Swayne Pearce Esq (Chairman), Edward G. Stone Esq & Lewis Edgar Esq with two others to be elected by the shareholders at the first general meeting. In 1896, the capital of the company was reduced following a resolution passed on April 21 and the name was changed to Swan and Edgar (Limited). The premises were rebuilt and integrated in 1910–20 to a design by Sir

Reginald Blomfield Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield (20 December 1856 – 27 December 1942) was a prolific British architect, garden designer and author of the Victorian and Edwardian period. Early life and career Blomfield was born at Bow rectory in Devon, w ...

with the interior designed by Murray Adams-Acton. It became a popular place of assignation for Londoners for many generations: under the clock outside the department store, or sometimes the restaurant on the first floor, were often cited as meeting places. The store sold very high quality goods including the popular

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teddy bear. The shop-front was one of the West End businesses targeted by the

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in their window-breaking spree on 21 November 1911. The store was hit in the last

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raid on London on 19 October 1917 and again rebuilt and remodelled in 1919, by Louis David Blanc and John James Joass. In 1920, during a period of difficult trading for the industry, Swan and Edgar (Limited) was acquired by

Harrods Harrods Limited is a department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It is currently owned by the state of Qatar via its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The Harrods brand also applies to other ...

' Stores Limited for a reported sum of £600,000. In 1927, the business was taken over by the

Drapery Trust Drapery Trust was formed in 1925 by Clarence Hatry, a notorious British financier. He had made his fortune in speculating on oil stocks, and had convinced investors to promote department stores and bring them under the management of a retail con ...

, which became part of Debenham Group in the 1970s. It was Debenhams that closed it in 1982 because of the high cost of modernisation. The building lay empty for a few years until it became the flagship UK store for

Tower Records Tower Records is an international retail franchise and online music store that was formerly based in Sacramento, California, United States. From 1960 until 2006, Tower operated retail stores in the United States, which closed when Tower Records ...

. In 2003, it was bought by

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

of the

Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by the Companies House, who class it as a holding c ...

and became a

Virgin Megastore Virgin Megastores is an international entertainment retailing chain, founded in early 1976 by Richard Branson as a record shop on London's Oxford Street. In 1979 the company opened their first Megastore at the end of Oxford Street and Tottenha ...

. The Virgin name disappeared in 2007 and was replaced by

Zavvi Zavvi is an online retailer of entertainment products, including Blu-rays, collectables, homeware and toys. Originally a physical retailer, the brand has been online only since it was bought from administration by The Hut Group in 2009. History ...

but Zavvi went into receivership in 2009. The Sting, a fashion department store with branches in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, opened in the building in July 2010.

Legacy

The Feathers

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

at 43 Linhope Street,

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...

, was renamed the "Swan & Edgar" in honour of this former department store. Swan & Edgar was regularly mentioned by the staff in the television show

Are You Being Served? ''Are You Being Served?'' is a British sitcom created and written by executive producer David Croft (Croft also directed some episodes) and Jeremy Lloyd, with contributions from Michael Knowles and John Chapman, for the BBC. Set in London, t ...

External links

Picture of Swan & Edgar prior to remodelling

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Swan and Edgar Defunct department stores of the United Kingdom Shops in London Debenhams Defunct companies based in London Companies based in the City of Westminster Piccadilly Circus Retail companies disestablished in 1927 British companies disestablished in 1982 1982 disestablishments in England Department store buildings in the United Kingdom History of the City of Westminster