Ferkai András: Shopfronts - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1996)
When planning the new shopfront, the builder-industrial designer Gábor Forgó (mentioned already in connection with Brammer draper’s shop) doubled the width of the shop. He doubled the entrance and, on either side, constructed a shop window that was much taller than the previous one and consisted of huge undivided glass panes. In between the two doors (one serving as the entrance, the other as the exit) he placed a small, semi-cylindrical glass cabinet to display the most luxurious items. Well-intentioned restoration was carried out by the Vasi firm in 1991, but the reconstruction cannot be said to be accurate, though the shopfront has retained its main features dating from 1937. Changes have been made to the central part - the shop window glass, formerly consisting of one pane, is now made up of two and the thickness of the frames covered with stainless steel plates reveals that their structure is not the same as it used to be. Nobody used to make such heavy and undivided frames. One only has to compare them to the slim bronze elements used by Haas & Somogyi on their central arched shop windows. The present “Fönícia” shop sign is no match, either, for the former beautiful “Münchengrätzi” sign written in block letters, which used to be on the upper edge of the frontage so that it was discernable from the other side of the street. However, it is worth taking a look at the interior of this shop, which looks almost the same as it did in 1937. The wall panelling with its mirrors The “Münchengrätzi" shoe shop after enlargement 29
