The Cheapside Hoard

Last week I went to see the Cheapside Hoard at the Museum of London and was totally amazed by the craftsmanship of these wonderful pieces that had been hidden under ground for centuries.
I don't need to write much more about the Hoard's history etc here because you can find an excellent in-depth review on the London Historian's blog.
My theory is that, seeing as his stock was so large and valuable, the owner of the jewellery shop that was originally located at the site, kept kept everything of value in an underground space on a regular basis. But, how come the gold didn't melt in the Great Fire of London? Was the collection boxed and locked or just wrapped up? If boxed, where is the box? Perhaps the jeweller intended to return after the fire but he, and possibly his family too, died, and having told no one about his hiding place the jewels stayed buried.
The Cheapside Hoard is amazingly good so it's disappointing to report that the layout of the exhibition does not back it up.
On entering through vault-style turnstile gates, the initial information board talks about when the Hoard was discovered, so you move into the first main room but find it is full of things from the Elizabethan period with scant explanation to why there are there. It took me ages to realise that these items were not from the hoard but were museum pieces included to help place the Hoard in context with what was happening in that period. A big heading somewhere reading "Jewels and jewellery-making in the Elizabethan period" would have been helpful. I was not the only person there who was confused like this. I heard lots of "what's this?/Who is he/she?/Where?/Why?". There was lots of milling back and forth re-reading things.
Many of the information cards are nowhere near the artefacts they refer to; one lady and I effectively made up a new dance step as we kept moving circling each other trying to find things. Items are mentioned in the text yet not visible in the cabinets. And conversely, there are artefacts with no explanation at all. It's all very confusing. In one cabinet there are street names referred to. I had no idea where these streets were and how they related to Cheapside, and I am a Londoner... so how's a man from Sweden going to know where they are? The inclusion of a map showing the location of the shop would have been extremely useful.
So it was such a palpable relief to enter the next room and be confronted with a cabinet full of beautiful long chain necklaces that WERE from the Hoard. Phew!
At the end of the exhibition, just before a really dodgy 5-min film about why the Hoard might have buried, are two information boards that, to my mind, would have been better placed near the entrance, because I said "A-ha!" out loud.
It's always wise to get someone who hasn't worked on a job to check it before it goes live, whether it's a book, a presentation or an exhibition. It's often hard to notice the mistakes when you are in the thick of it. So, if anyone out there would like any help with their next event then please do contact me because I have a keen eye for detail and a questioning mind so I make a good test dummy.
But hey.... go go go.... it's on until 27th April 2014.

Jewellers etc in London. 

At least three of the shops featured here have since closed for good. 

I wonder if there's anything sparkly buried underneath them?

Edwardian era architectural trompe l'oeil at 386 Oxford Street – linen, jewellery or furs?

Here's another one that's been festering in my 'To Do' folder for way too long...

Until 2023, 386 Oxford Street was a Dr. Marten's Store, but I wonder how many people shopping for  shoes and boots bothered to look up and notice that this turreted 1907 building at the corner of Bird Street, sports some delicate examples of architectural trompe-l'oeil...?

On the corner section there are delicate renditions of two faux windows each flanked by garlands of fruit and flowers dangling from bowed ribbons.

As this snippet from the 1910 directory shows, No.386 was at time The Irish Linen Company, shirt makers, with another store at 90-92 at the corner of Newman Street (currently Sunglasses Hut), but there are no similar hand-painted adornments at that second address. I'm having a tough time trying to find any info about this company, being as so many other shops offered the same products using the same words Irish and linen. 

My hunch is that the trompe was added by a later company, perhaps Lawrence & Laurence, jewellers, who are listed here in 1915 or the Cabot Fur Company here in the 1930s, located mid-way between two of the biggest high street fur shops – The London Fur Company at No.376 at the corner of Duke Street, and Swears & Wells at No.374, all perfectly placed for the fashionable ladies shopping at Selfridges and Bond Street. 

The listing also shows two tax agencies in the offices above the linen shop which I assume were independent companies. Also of interest is the half-built Selfridges store, showing that it did not at that time cover the whole block from Vere Street to Orchard Street as it does today. Note, especially, the listing for Gray's jeweller which, for a time, would have been flanked by the department store, hanging on in there in much the same way as Speigelhalter Bros did in Whitechapel Road within Wickham's store, now forming the entrance to the university buildings at the rear. 

Here in Oxford Street, T. Lloyd & Co Ltd had effectively done all the hard work for Selfridge by securing most of this site throughout decades of successful business, hence the application of bold caps in their listing, denoting a well-known store or one that can afford the promotion. It's been suggested that that Lloyds would surely have taken over the whole block itself had it not been bought out by Selfridge & Co – read the full story here from page 23 onwards which contains an evocative reference to the Lloyds as ‘those little yellow shops where ladies with bustles once bought antimacassars for their horsehair furniture’ and suggests they were a bit behind the times – I can't find anything about T. Lloyd & Co going forward. 

Having looked to see what became of the other businesses displaced by Selfridge & Co, by 1915 William Ruscoe had expanded to cover three premises at No.476-480, Pownceby & Co continued to trade from its other store at the other end of Oxford Street, today Vision Express, but I am struggling to discover what became of Mr Fauerbach. 

It's amazing what a little bit of trompe can uncover. Inconclusive, but interesting nonetheless.