History of the high street found in a drawer (All that is left behind: Case study of British graphic design on paper bags)

Selfridges / Festival of Britain

When searching for materials to work with I often discover items that I had no intention of finding.
On a recent salvaging expedition I collected together one persons history of shopping as it was discarded at the end of a house clearance. As the waste-not-want-not ethic erodes and hoarders are in decline I feel there is great value in recording elements of everyday life that are deemed to be worthless financially. Many of the bags were found being used as drawer liners, others packed into drawers fresh from the shops with the original purchased contents still intact and unused. The original owner appears to be a single lady living in south east London. Here follows a selection.

Boot prescription bag

Tollit and Harvey Ltd. Manufacturing Stationers & Printers

Wests of Ilford 

Chiesmans The Family Stored

Selfridges 

Harrods

D H Evans, Oxford Street 

W H Smiths (medium size) 

Neatawear of Regents Street

Bourne & Hollingsworth Ltd, Oxford Street

John Menzies with useful Decimal Currency converter

John Lewis, Oxford Street (small bag)

Bentleys Bread (one of my favourites) 

Sainsbury's - Good food costs less at - (how long have they been using that?)

Sainsbury's - Make it a Sainsbury chicken for a change

Chiesmans The Family Stores (small bag)

Batters Better Bread, Croydon, Surrey (another lovely bread bag) 

Needlewoman. 146-148 Regents Street 

Bow Bells Wool Shop. 48 Cheapside, London EC1

D H Evans (chic small bag with carry handle) 

Denis Weaver Ltd, Stationery, Dover & Deal (shopping on holiday?) 

Achille Serre. cobblers shoe bag?

St Michael the brand name of Marks & Spencer

John Hood Ltd. The leaders in modern cleaning!

Nicholsons. St.Paul's Churchyard 

Gamages, Holborn

Youngs of Bexleyheath 

British Home Stores (sounds much better than BHS) 'Prova' for quality

Not a bag, Early brown printed wrapping paper for John Lewis, Oxford Street 

...and a late 60s early 70s John Lewis bag. Never knowingly undersold.