The recent closure of Debenhams (with its silver-fronted Oxford Street flagship and the historic Arding & Hobbs at Clapham Junction) is confirmation that suddenly the department store is an endangered species. But London has been losing its great department stores for decades - once every major high street in Greater London, from Croydon to Uxbridge, had its landmark store, while the West End was full of them, from Bourne and Hollingsworth in Oxford Street to Swan and Edgar at Piccadilly Circus.

Now, for the first time, Tessa Boase guides you through a vanished era to celebrate all these fabulous stores, from Baroque Revival Debenham & Freebody in Wigmore Street to Art Deco Simpson's in Piccadilly and Derry & Toms in Kensington (later Biba) with its roof garden, and the Moderne lines of Holdrons at Peckham Rye (now Mr Khan's Discount), as well as Gamages' peerless toy department and Swears & Wells' furs - and the social history of a lost age of confidence and style.

There is even a guided walking tour pointing out the lost stores of the West End.