The secret to retail is to remove as many barriers between your customer and the product as possible, and this philosophy applies not only to shop layouts but also to shop fronts.

The reason why shimmering heavily glazed aluminium shop fronts are so ubiquitous is that they provide the best look into your shop and at the products you place to catch a customer’s eye.

This is far from a new concept, but the first shopkeeper to truly take advantage of this was a radical in more ways than one.

In 1799, Francis Place opened a tailor’s in Charing Cross that featured huge plate glass windows rather than the traditionally tiny lattices, and despite his previous business and financial struggles, the shop was a huge success.

Whilst the windows of his shop were controversial, they ultimately proved highly influential, and his reputation and honesty helped to sustain the shop and his more radical ideas.

A radical reformer who would later prove pivotal in repealing the Combination Acts that restricted the ability of trade unions to function, Mr Place housed a library of radical literature in the back of his tailor’s shop that became a frequent meeting place for the London Corresponding Society.

Whilst the issues with unscrupulous partners initially threatened his business multiple times, he ultimately survived thanks to his good reputation and the success caused in part by his shopfront advertising.

He would run the business himself until 1817, when he handed it over to his son and started to pursue politics more strongly, including being a major part of the establishment of the Reform Act in 1832 as well as being part of a movement to repeal the Corn Laws.

He died just past the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day 1854, but his legacy was found not only in reform and radical ideas but in a whole new approach to shop fronts.