Counter Culture: What Lakeside Arts' Boots exhibition says about shopping on the high street
Counter Culture: What Lakeside Arts' Boots exhibition says about shopping on the high street
We went down to Lakeside Arts' Counter Culture exhibition and chatted with its curators...
Cheese and wine. Bread and butter. Boots and Nottingham. These are all pairings that just make sense. So, when we saw the Counter Culture exhibition that Boots and the University of Nottingham curated, we knew we had to check it out.
We spoke with curators UoN’s Dr Richard Hornsey and Boots archivist Sophie Clapp to find out all about it and why you should head down and see it. It really made us think about how we shop and how there’s actually such beauty in heading into a store and soaking in the experience.
It’s one of our top things to do in Nottingham this May and — having been the first of the public to see it — we can confirm it’s a fascinating day out. Lakeside Arts is just a 15-minute tram ride away from the city centre, making it easy and breezy to reach.
“It’s just as much about what might have been lost over the years as what has been gained” — Counter Culture at Boots and what it says about shopping on the high street
By Eve Smallman
Before I headed out to Lakeside Arts, I applied various pieces of makeup and took a hay-fever tablet that I’d bought from Boots. I bought these from the store in Nottingham, using the self-checkout, and didn't think anything of my journey.
But as I’m walking around the Counter Culture exhibition, and looking at the different steps that people went through to get all these products at Boots over 175 years ago, I’m amazed at how different this could have been.
The exhibition, which is running until July 21, explores the changing experiences of the high street through historic images, architecture, and objects, which have all played an important part in the current modern shopping experience.
“It's really strange to think about how long people used to have to queue up and talk to somebody. All the goods at Boots used to be behind the physical counter, so you wouldn’t have access to them unless you asked,” explains Dr Richard Hornsey, associate professor in Modern British History at the University of Nottingham.
He continues, “But, if you went in and asked for Ovaltine, they’d ask which size you wanted, and the server might have an opinion about why it might be better to buy a bigger box. Whereas if this was the case now, you’d walk in and just ask to have the Ovaltine.”
The previous way may have been time-consuming, but now everything is geared towards customers having a minimal experience.
“There was a social element and a bit of interaction that made shopping a richer experience than just a transaction of describing what you want,” Richard adds.
Along with shopping for goods, Boots is a go-to for behind-the-counter pharmaceuticals. The origins of Boots saw Jesse Boot selling medicines and making them accessible to the masses before the big, ornate superstores began to come into play — and before the NHS started in 1948.
Richard says, “Before this doctors were really expensive, so you’d go to your pharmacist if you had something wrong, and they’d give you advice and the medicine you needed.” When the NHS came in, Boots became more behind the scenes in this sense and became a dispensary.
The exhibition shows this transformation, from big cabinets full of eclectic Boots-made goods, all the way to the seated queues for prescriptions. Richard continues, “Now, I think we're seeing a return to the original model where the NHS has such pressure under it and you can’t get to a GP, so you’re going to a pharmacist instead.”
Societal shifts are evident throughout the three rooms the exhibition spans, from women being the main shoppers and applying makeup for others, to the digital age where online ordering is a key part of what Boots (and countless others) now offer.
The past and present contrast with each other throughout and invite you to think about how they work together.
For instance, with the post-war 17 launch in 1968 (there is a talk on this at Lakeside Arts on Thursday, May 9), Boots would employ Saturday girls to give friendly make-up advice to their peers. It struck me that this still happens today in a sense, with Boots often using influencers to deliver the same messages.
There are many other similarities throughout that tie together every customer’s experience at Boots throughout the years.
“The customers are still looking at choice, price, and access. There was market research from the 1920s and the reasons customers gave for shopping at Boots are probably the same as people would say today,” explains Sophie Clapp, Boots archivist.
She adds that many of these decisions were driven by what people could afford at the time, going from the cheapest forms of medications to aspirational goods in the big Boots department stores. “Boots had its own typewriters and TVs, which was just nuts,” Richard adds.
Even though Counter Culture spans Boots’ history and is a celebration of the brand, it doesn’t feel corporate at all (unlike Boots's own brand TVs!). In fact, it feels very focused on people’s experiences and how shopping itself has changed. “I think it's something that everybody is going to be able to relate to in some aspects — in a sense, it's a history of the visitor,” Richard explains.
While there will be opportunities to be nostalgic about certain items (I personally swooned over the No7 makeup shop front display), it’s less about these and more about carving out new perspectives on ordinary things we do every day. “We're trying to not just celebrate shopping, but expand how people might look at it,” he adds.
There has also been clear freedom which makes it feel authentic and personal. In the section about self-selection, there is a convex mirror pointed right at you, giving a nod to shoplifting — showing the level of creativity the curators had.
Richard continues, “It's a meeting of history and it’s just as much about what might have been lost over the years as what has been gained.”
Once you move through the first two rooms, there is a third room where visitors are encouraged to interact and share their own thoughts through conversation and noticeboards.
Richard says, “We're hoping to get visitors to interact, and we will be posing questions that people can answer.” Who knows — these might even have an influence on the future direction of the store experience.
“It feels like a really relevant moment to be talking about shopping, given shops being closed during COVID and the public’s reaction to that situation nobody imagined,” Sophie adds. “The exhibition encourages you to look back in order to look forward and wonder what will be inevitable.”
As we finish talking, Richard and Sophie point out to me the sign at the start of the exhibition. It details how Jesse Boot gifted the Lido — now Lakeside Arts — to the University of Nottingham, along with Highfields Park, for all to enjoy. This exhibition celebrating people’s experiences that are for the people to experience for free — feels especially fitting.
And, I know the next time I head into Boots, reach for my essentials and rush towards the self-checkout, I’ll be thinking about the shoes and hands before me and how my own movements will change in years to come.
Counter Culture is on at Lakeside Arts until July 21. Exhibition is free and talks are £3pp.
If you go to Lakeside by tram, you may get lucky and catch tram no.210, which bears the name ‘Sir Jesse Boot’. Other tram names include Lord Byron and Ada Lovelace. For a full list of tram names visit: https://www.thetram.net/tram-names. 🐰