The design of shop fronts has evolved tremendously from the earliest markets to the modern aluminium store designs you see today, and as with most architectural changes, form follows function.

The biggest shift in this regard came during the 20th century after display windows had gone from being a condemned practice during the era of Francis Place to being the standard for any modern store design.

As it became the norm, an expected standard display window language emerged that largely took the form of the so-called “well-dressed window”. These were shop fronts that displayed a mix of goods and offers within the window itself, typically elaborately displayed.

In some types of shops, particularly those with more of a boutique tradition such as department stores, this is still the case. However, for the vast majority of shops, this has changed dramatically, and much of what a shop front displays is the inside of the shop itself.

There are a few reasons for this, one of the biggest being that it helps shoppers within the store feel more comfortable given that more light gives the impression of more space.

However, it also highlights how the shop itself became its own selling point, and the reason for this was the evolution of the self-service shop concept beginning in the 1950s.

Before this, if you wanted to buy anything, you generally would go to a shop and ask the shopkeeper to get it for you. Many mediaeval and Early-Modern English shops did not allow customers to browse inside, instead serving them from a window hatch.

This all changed with the self-service concept, where shoppers would pick up a basket or trolley and fill it up themselves, paying the shopkeeper at the till at the end of their shop.

This meant that the focus of displays turned inward, and the biggest selling point became shopper activity. If there were lots of people scanning the aisles, the store was worth stepping in, and it took huge plate glass windows to let them know for sure.