The primary focus of Laid by Monty has always been the Art Deco store buildings designed by Burton’s in-house architects Harry Wilson, and later Nathaniel Martin, from the 1920s onwards.
However, Sir Montague Burton’s empire has a fascinating history reaching far beyond this set of buildings. The company was phenomenally successful with 595 retail branches by 19391, the year that bespoke garment manufacturing hit its peak. Ordering a suit from Burton was a rite of passage for British men. As Eric Sigsworth notes in his book:
“The revolution in dress which transformed the appearance of the working man, for which firms like Burton’s were mainly responsible, the demotic implications of a world in which it was increasingly difficult to spot the difference between Jack and his master, are all profound changes which can be placed to the credit of Montague Burton.”2
Many stores pre-dated the Art Deco period, and even after a town or city gained a Deco branch, rapid expansion might require another branch to be quickly set up in an existing building. Such was the case at 33-35 Queen Street, Cardiff, a few years after the street had received its elephant-headed branch at Nos. 4-6.
These insertions into existing buildings often still included the familiar foundation stones, black granite or Larvikite, and the ‘chain of merit’ of branch locations applied to the window lights, blurring the distinctions between Deco and Non-Deco locations.
Post World War II, the company began a programme of store rebuilding in a modernist style, including new shopfronts sometimes in an existing Art Deco branch. At some former branches you can spot pairs of masaic tile covered cylindrical columns at a corner entryway from this period. As the retail landscape changed, stores migrated into indoor malls and shopping centres.
Laid by Monty is now expanding to catalogue this vast estate of non-Deco stores, and our location database as a shiny new front page:
https://laidbymonty.com/locations/
When you visit the Locations page, it will load the entire list in alphabetical order, but you can change the types of locations you want to see using the filter images. Select Deco, Non-Deco or both, and Surviving, Demolished or both, and the list will update. You can also still search by location name as previously.
Not sure where to start?
Try our new ‘Featured Burton’ widget on the home page. You’ll find it over on the right, or by scrolling down if you’re viewing on a phone. Click or tap the location name or photo to view the location’s full detail page or hit the “Show me another!” button to re-load.
There are many more locations still to be added, so check back soon!
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