Innovation in non-food retailing in the early nineteenth century: The curious case of the bazaar

Abstract

Commercial bazaars were a short-lived retail innovation of the first half of the nineteenth century, mainly in London. Rather like fairs had done earlier, they offered a wide range of clothing, household and fancy goods and entertainment. Like fairs they were about both shopping and leisure. But, unlike fairs, they were a controlled environment, permanent and fashionable. The norm was for counters to be let out daily, but some bazaars were essentially large shops. Traders in bazaars were often female, and at least some used bazaars as secondary outlets. Shop retailers complained about the unfair competition offered by bazaars, but many bazaars struggled commercially. Nevertheless they can be seen as precursors of department stores and covered market halls.

Keywords:

• retailing
• bazaars
• fairs
• markets
• nineteenth century
• London
• department stores

Acknowledgements

This is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the ABH/CHORD Conference at Wolverhampton University in June 2007. I am grateful to the organisers of that conference and to those who commented on that paper and for comments from anonymous referees.

Notes

 1. Mui and Mui (1989) laid the foundations for a re-appraisal of eighteenth-century shopkeeping, while Cox (2000) offers a detailed and more nuanced perspective. Stobart, Hann, and Morgan (2007) explore the spatial dimension of eighteenth-century retailing and consumption.

 2. Adburgham (1981) is the exception, with a detailed account of the rules of the Manchester bazaar (pp. 19–21).

 3. According to Stobart (2008, pp. 102–103), trade directories listed nearly three times as many shops in the Midlands in the 1840s as in the 1790s, and the type of shop growing most rapidly in number was the small general or provisions dealer.

 4. Cheshire Archives, Greenall Papers, DGR/A/33/4.

 5. Chester examples include Thomas Yearsley and J. Whitebrook, both advertising their shoe warehouses in 1814 (Chester Courant, 8 February and 8 March 1814).

 6. If this was true at first, it soon changed. See the evidence from insurance records discussed later.

 7 Bodleian Library, John Johnson Collection, London Play Places 1 (84A, 84B).

 8. Ibid., 1 (85).

 9. Witnesses in court proceedings about thefts from stalls often described themselves as ‘conducting’ or ‘superintending’ a stand for someone else (e.g. London Metropolitan Archives MJ/SP/1835/02/034 and /10/038).

10. Guildhall Library, Sun Fire Office Registers, Ms 11936/471/91706, /919359, /925114, /925485.

11. Ibid., Ms 11936/510/1051764.

12. Ibid., Ms 11936/510/1051763.

13. Ibid., Ms 11936/521/1078783.

14. Norfolk Record Office, Norwich and Norfolk Royal Bazaar, SO 18/29.

15. Ibid., SO 18/20.

16. Ibid., SO 18/26, /87.

17. Guildhall Library, Sun Fire Office Registers, Ms 11936/521/1088081.

18. Bodleian Library, John Johnson Collection, London Play Places 1 (91A–C).

19. Information from the database retrieved on 25 May 2007 from the website at http://www.historicaldirectories.org

20. Lancashire Record Office. Miscellaneous Documents, Viener's Temple of Fancy Handbill (DX 1961).

21. Contemporary descriptions can be found at http://www.victorianlondon.org/shops/bazaars.htm. The Punch quotation is from January–June 1842.

22. National Archives, Crown Estates, Portland Bazaar CRES 35/2148.

23. Norfolk Record Office, Norwich and Norfolk Royal Bazaar, SO 18/7.

24. Old Bailey Proceedings, 11 June 1829, trial of Mary Hewitt (t18290611-240). Retrieved 22 October 2007 from Old Bailey Proceedings Online website: http://www.oldbaileyonline.org

25. Ibid., 20 October 1831, trial of Ann Miller (t18311020-175).

26. Ibid., 20 February 1822, trial of William Hoy (t18220220-190).

27. Norfolk Record Office, Norwich and Norfolk Royal Bazaar, SO 18/4, /80.

28. Ibid., SO 18/84, /65.

29. Stalls at Derby market in the 1830s cost one penny farthing per foot for toys and shoes, but 1s 6d for a stall for cloth (Nottinghamshire Archives, Nottingham City Archives, Correspondence on Tolls, CA 4048/VIII).

30. Wirral Archives, Minutes of the Birkenhead Market Committee, 1843–47, B01/013/2, 152; Cheshire Archives, Rentals of the City of Chester, TAP/9.

31. West Yorkshire Archives, Leeds, Leeds Bazaar and Shambles Estate, Summary and Abstract of 1837 Deed, WYL 58/13, 14.

32. West Yorkshire Archives, Leeds, Leeds Improvement Act, Market Committee Minutes, 1848–57, LLC10/1/2, pp. 5–6.

33. For an illuminating fictional account, see George Eliot (1860/1952), The mill on the floss, book 6, chapter 9.