Arding & Hobbs
Arding & Hobbs is a former department store and Grade II listed building at the junction of Lavender Hill and St John's Road, Battersea, London SW11 1QL.[1]
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Arding & Hobbs was established in 1876. The present building was constructed in 1910 in an Edwardian Baroque style, and the architect was James Gibson.[1]
The department store sold to the John Anstiss Group in 1938, before John Anstiss was purchased by United Drapery Stores in 1948[2] and was added to their Allders 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 department store and TK Maxx 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, the 1994 Mr. Bean episode, Do-It-Yourself Mr. Bean[3] and is very prominent in the video "Life On Your Own" by the band The Human League which is set in a future, apocalytic London where the lead singer is the only person left alive and lives in the building.
References
- Historic England, "Arding and Hobbs store (1389528)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 26 September 2014
- Saint. Andrew (2013). @Survey of London: 1, Public, Commercial and Cultural. Battersea. p. 401. ISBN 9780300196160.
- "Mr Bean". retrofilminglocations.weebly.com. Retrieved 2 August 2017.