The world of retail is one of constant evolution, which can be best seen in the shift throughout history to the aluminium shop fronts that are a common fixture of the high street today.

However, whilst the origins of the gleaming, welcoming glass and metal facades we know today can be directly traced back to the retail reformer Francis Place, the origin of the shop front itself can be traced back far further than this.

The origin of retail predates civilisation itself, at least in the recognisable forms we see in places such as Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, with the first green shoots of retail trade originating in the kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor, now modern-day Turkey.

There is evidence in several Turkish historical sites of primitive shops and trade centres, but these will have been makeshift, open-air stands supplying goods made in more closed-off buildings somewhere else.

This was also true of the Ancient Greek agora and the Roman forum, but it was in Rome itself that the exceptionally gradual yet seismic move from the open-air market to the first steps towards the shop front as we recognise the concept today.

Based in the Forum of Emperor Trajan, Mercatus Traiani was a major part of the huge forum complex and was believed to be if not the first-ever shopping centre then the oldest one to survive.

Constructed around 110 AD, the labyrinthine building consists of a multi-floor structure with shops, accommodation, Imperial offices and even a library.

In practice, it operated closer to an indoor market than a shopping centre, with merchants selling a variety of different products, including spices, produce, meat, fish, wine and oil, as well as being the host of the Cura Annonae, the grain dole that gave wheat to the residents of Rome, later extending to free bread near the end of the Empire.