Edgar's department store

This elegant photograph from 1916 captures two female lift operators standing proudly at the entrance to the lifts in Swan & Edgar's, one of London's most iconic department stores, located at the corner of Piccadilly Circus. Dressed in formal uniforms with military-style detailing, the women represent a new era of female employment during World War I, as women increasingly took on public-facing roles once dominated by men.

Signs around them advertise services and social causes—alterations, corsetry, and knitting for Belgian soldiers—reflecting both the daily life and the wartime spirit of solidarity.

These women weren’t just moving shoppers between floors—they were helping move society forward.

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