Simpsons of Piccadilly was a large retail store situated at 203-206 Piccadilly in central London. It was created by Alexander Simpson and architect Joseph Emberton. When it opened in April 1936 it was the largest menswear store in Britain, and is now a Grade I listed building due to its innovative construction. Its original purpose was to house the entire range of clothing provided by the tailoring company S. Simpsons and DAKS. It was later purchased by the Waterstones chain of bookshops, and currently serves as their flagship store. History After the launch of the successful DAKS trousers in 1934 Alexander Simpson wanted a store in which to stock the entire S Simpson range in central London. Wanting a location near Savile Row so that the foreign visitors to that street could go to examine Simpson clothes nearby for its high quality ready-to-wear tailoring, in 1935 the site of the old Geological Museum in Piccadilly was to be sold on a 99-year building lease, which Simpson won at auction for £11,000. The site had a frontage on both Piccadilly and on Jermyn Street (rear entrance) with a footprint of about and an easy walking distance from Savile Row. Simpson's aim was to build a large, modern menswear store to serve as a flagship for the S Simpson brand, with a steel structure, faced in Portland stone and to be built as high as permitted, and to compete with the store built for the rival Austin Reed ten years prior. Simpson contracted Joseph Emberton as the architect for this project, known for his modernity in architecture and for designing the interior of the Austin Reed store. The building's main elements were large bands of Portland stone alternating with strips of windows spanning the whole building width, a glass wall that stretched the height of the building at that lit each open-plan floor with natural light (from a side lightwell due to the densely built up area), against which the enormous Travertine marble staircase spiralled up the centre of the building, and the distinctive non-reflecting concave windows along the street level at front and back – the first in the country at the time. The design is distinctly modern in comparison to the regular architectural style of the time. Simpson wanted the building elements to visually show their function rather than be disguised by unnecessary decoration. It is considered innovative in its