The higher ceilings of the main floor make for a better escalator view, but it's still undeniable that this is a very bland space. If I had visited at a time of the year without seasonal decorations, it would have looked even more boring! I still don't get how the Bon Marche decided to make the interiors of their three mid-century flagships so boring while making the exteriors super cool.
I wonder if this store was originally this boring. Most department stores around here were quite dark at one time with minimal lighting, dark floors, and so forth. In the 1990s and 2000s, some of these stores received renovations to make them look lighter. I wonder if that's what happened here. I think it's safe to say that the white tiles and the carpets we see here are not original, but it's hard to say what this store would have looked like before. I suspect it is fancier than how it looks now even if the original look would have been quite dated by modern standards.
ReplyDeleteCould be, but I've seen some vintage pictures of the Northgate Bon Marche (the first of the three suburban flagships), and it looks like it was similarly bland inside, which is what makes me think this store probably looks fairly similar to how it was when it was new.
DeleteInteresting photos. I think that particular store has a design that predates the earth tones trends that were popular in the 1970s. As for this store itself, I'm not sure if it had an interior like the store in photo and it just missed out on the earth tones trend. It's hard to say.
DeleteThese three stores span from the late 50s to the late 60s, so they are probably ahead of any 70s design trends. I feel like a lot of buildings from this era were quite plain on the inside -- there were certainly exceptions, but it seems the Bon Marche followed that trend.
Delete