Simpsons of Piccadilly - Building at Piccadily

Building At Piccadily

Straddling two streets, the building has entrances in both Piccadilly and Jermyn Street, where it replaced the former Museum of Practical Geology.

The architect of this multiple-floor Modernism building was Joseph Emberton, and Simpson's was the first shop in Britain to have an uninterrupted curved-glass frontage. This new style was made possible by arc-welding a wide-span steel frame, rather than earlier techniques which involved using bulky bolted joints. The interior was designed with rooms conforming to domestic proportions arranged around an open staircase.

The building is notable for the 42-foot (12.8-metre) spans of its welded steel framing, which produced one of the most elegant shop interiors of the decade, although the purity of the concept was compromised as a result of interventions by the London County Council. It was faced in Portland stone as required by the landlord. Simpson's was used in the 1967 film Charlie Bubbles staring Albert Finney.