Ferkai András: Shopfronts - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1996)
glass were installed in the shop windows next to the entrance as part of the reconstruction, but the two small flat show-cases on either side were not restored. As a result of this well-intentioned restoration, the shop has been given back its outer glitter but, unfortunately, some of the earlier delicate details have been lost. The interior of the Neruda chemist’s is worth viewing, too, because as well as the neo-Renaissance carved wooden shelves and cupboards, contemporary worktops, a neo-Baroque mirror and an American “Heating” coke stove, which can now be regarded as a relic, have survived from the original furnishings. Several rows of shopfronts designed together with their buildings have survived from the 1910s. Among these metal-structure constructions there are one-storey shopfronts such as the row with arched panes of glass and covered with bronze plates (recently restored with great care) at 11 Régiposta utca in District V, two-storey shopfronts (9 Dorottya utca designed by Emil Ágoston in 1913; 25 Irányi utca by Bálint and Jámbor, 1912; and 33 Váci utca by Dezső Hültl, 1915 - all in District V), and even three-storey shopfronts such as that of the former Szénássy & Bárczay Department Store (Dávid and Zsigmond Jónás, 1908) at 2 Szervita tér, District V, or the nearby “Rózsavölgyi House” at 5 Szervita tér (Béla Lajta, 1912). The pilasters are usually covered with a strip of embossed brass or cast bronze and panes of glass were used on the balustrade to take the shop sign and its advertising features. Due to its unique elements, the multi-storey frontage at 9 Vitkovics Mihály utca in District V (Kálmán Löllbach, 1910) is superior to the others. Its base and heavy gateway frame are constructed from cast-iron manufactured in Antal Oetl’s iron foundry. The marble slabs on the frame of the shopfront are secured with accentuated bronze rivets, a method applied by Viennese Art Nouveau master Otto Wagner. The restoration of these shop faqades is a difficult task, especially when the functions of the shops have changed. The reconstruction of the shop parts in the former Piarist monastery and secondary school (33 Váci utca, District V) can be quoted as an illustrative example. Here not only the missing ornaments but the domed projecting roofs above the doorways, the bent glass pieces and the door fittings have been replaced. Even less fortunate was the reconstruction of the two-storey, late Art Nouveau frontages (Hegedűs and Böhm, 1911) at 11/B Gerlóczy utca in District V. The premises have been converted into a branch of the 17
