ABSTRACT
Between the 1890s and 1914, fierce competition between London’s major department stores, furnishers, caterers, and entertainers launched the building of palatial edifices, the advent of diverse services and amenities, the introduction of new styles of display and publicity, and an increasingly feminine workforce. Never as large or as spectacular as their American and continental counterparts, several London shops had become modern department stores by 1914. For many middle-class Victorians the theatre had become a necessary ingredient during a sojourn in London. After the Great Exhibition in 1851, West End audiences were made up increasingly, but not exclusively, of middle-class suburban and provincial visitors. A marriage between the heiress shop girl and the penniless but good son of the solicitor brings the play to its happy ending. Musical comedy kept farce’s basic structure, but placed the serving classes, particularly the favoured heroine of the day, the shop girl, in a more central role.
