Ferkai András: Shopfronts - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1996)

tects of the end of the century already included the shopfronts in their designs of tenements. Thus they avoided the danger of merchants “spoiling” the ground floors of their buildings by subsequently adding shopfronts of various sizes in different styles. In the streets of Pest one can find several rows of shopfronts, which harmonize with the whole building and combine the shops and the entrance to the building in a unified composition (for example, 37 Kertész utca in District VI and 48, 74 and 78 Baross utca in District Vlll - the latter two are especially attractive).

It was at the end of the 19th century that the first metal shopfronts appeared. The finer ones were made of cast- iron, while the cheaper ones were made of embossed sheet iron. The original row of shopfronts designed together with the building at 41 Király utca (District VI) and covering the whole of its ground floor was hidden for decades under shabby shopfronts added later. The original features were discovered by architect Imre Koppányi and interior designRow OF CAST-IRON SHOPFRONTS AT 41 KIRÁLY UTCA, VII

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