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

Embossed sheet írom shopfromt at 14 Révay utca, VI

er László Gergely in 1978, when they were commissioned to plan a small shop, Módi Butik, on the right of the facade. It is to their credit that half of the row of shopfronts covered with ornamental cast-iron elements were restored at that time. The example set by them inspired others to reconstruct the other half of the row of shopfronts some time later. The only criticism of this restoration is that the two parts made otherwise uniform were painted in different colours.

The row of shopfronts in the tenement designed by Henrik Schmahl at 4 Kígyó utca (District V) used to be similar in construction, but only half of it has survived. The curious lines and the oriental-style ornaments on the cast- iron shopfronts recall Moorish forms of architecture. Until recently, the popular Mézes Mackó (Honey Bear) coffee bar and food shop used to be at the right end of the row. The line of embossed sheet iron shopfronts at 14 Révay utca (District VI) bears a striking resemblance to the one in Kígyó utca, so we have every reason to believe that this was also designed by Henrik Schmahl.

It was in this period that the first “department stores” emerged. In these buildings the shop and the office belonging to it occupied not only the ground floor but also the mezzanine and sometimes the first floor. A pronounced cornice separates the residential storeys from those of the retailers opened up by huge glass surfaces. On the valuable plots in Rákóczi út, Kossuth Lajos utca, Váci utca and Petőfi Sándor utca this was almost the only type of

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