The former Wickham's department store, Mile End Road

Image: © Derek Voller Taken: 14 Mar 2013

In 1892 the Wickham family of Drapers began to expand their thriving business by buying up the neighbouring shops, intending to acquire the whole block. But one jeweller named Spiegelhalter refused to budge. Thinking that the jeweller would eventually give in Wickham built his huge store around it, intending to fill the gap upon Spiegelhalter's capitulation. This magnificent facade built in 1927 was intended to be "The Harrods of the East End", and to a large degree it was. But the old jeweller held out to the end, and the gap remains to this day. Wickham's closed following the decline in the popularity of department stores in the sixties, and the jewellers some years later.

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