Through the years we’ve written a great deal about the way in which Greater Kennington evolves and develops, but rarely about how it revolves and becomes something similar to what it was before. Thus is the case with Elephant and Castle, which was once a hub for swishy shopping, dining and entertainment for the bourgeoisie and is on the precipice of revolving into that guise yet again.
In previous generations destination hubs were anchored by a department store and some of these still exist, such as Morleys in Brixton. In Elephant it was the mighty Tarns, whose massive footprint roughly matched that of the impending shopping centre. Tarns was a remarkable business empire which employed hundreds, and perhaps the very person who lived in your current digs. Local folk and people throughout London flocked to Tarns for departments which varied from baby linen to haberdashery and parasols to teas. We were particularly intrigued by the ‘mourning wear’ department, and have delicious images of a person rocking up in floods of tears saying “I am DEVASTED that auntie Flo has passed but I was looking for a black strapless anyway so now seems as good a time as any”.
Tarns was a staple of Greater Kennington for decades and the department store craze revolutionized the way people, most notably women, shopped. No longer did people have to dodge puddles only to end up having to haggle for the price of an apple, and you could just browse. Sadly, during the Blitz the Elephant was almost completely obliterated and our mighty Tarns then went to that giant Milliner in the sky. So when you’re juggling that shiny apple in the new M&S in the shopping centre spare a thought for those apple buyers that came before.
