(Former) Arding and Hobbs store, Lavender Hill, Battersea

Arding & Hobbs is a former department store and Grade II listed building at the junction of Lavender Hill and St John's Road, Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Arding & Hobbs was established in 1876. The original building was destroyed by a fire on 20 December 1909. The present building was constructed in 1910 in an

Edwardian Baroque Edwardian architecture is a Neo-Baroque architectural style that was popular in the British Empire during the Edwardian era (1901–1910). Architecture up to the year 1914 may also be included in this style. Description Edwardian architecture is ...

style, and the architect was James Gibson. The department store sold to the John Anstiss Group in 1938, before John Anstiss was purchased by

United Drapery Stores United Drapery Stores, or UDS, was a British retail group that dominated the British high street from the 1950s to the early 1980s. Early history In 1925, Charterhouse Bank set up Charterhouse Investment Trust. The trust started buying up dep ...

in 1948 and was added to their

Allders Allders was an independent department store operating in the United Kingdom. The original store was established in 1862 in Croydon by Joshua Allder. In the second half of the 20th century, this parent store was developed into a chain of depart ...

group in the 1970s. Allders went into administration in 2005 and was subsequently broken up and sold. The main part of the Arding & Hobbs building was split between a branch of

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain operating in the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and grew to 178 locations across those countries, also owning the Danish ...

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

and

TK Maxx TK Maxx is a subsidiary of the American apparel and home goods company TJX Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts. The stores operate throughout the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria and the Netherlands, totall ...

retail. As of 9 June 2020, the Debenhams section of the building has been permanently closed. The store and building is featured in a number of films and television programmes including the 1981 action-thriller '' Nighthawks'', where the shop was bombed, and the 1994 ''

Mr. Bean ''Mr. Bean'' is a British sitcom created by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, produced by Tiger Aspect and starring Atkinson as the title character. The sitcom consists of 15 episodes that were co-written by Atkinson alongside Curtis and R ...

'' episode " Do-It-Yourself Mr. Bean". It is very prominent in the video " Life On Your Own" by the band

The Human League The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album ''Dare' ...

which is set in a future, apocalytic London where the lead singer is the only person left alive and lives in the building.

References

External links

* 1876 establishments in England Allders Commercial buildings completed in 1910 Debenhams Defunct department stores of the United Kingdom Edwardian architecture in London Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Wandsworth History of the London Borough of Wandsworth {{UK-listed-building-stub