he'd used at the Blackpool Pleasure Beach before; and having the first curved-glass windows in Britain. A year after the shop's opening in 1936 Alexander Simpson died at the age of 34 from leukaemia in May 1937. The shop's performance was successful, renowned for the window displays and was considered a sight for London, and as planned by Simpson, the fourth floor was designated to womenswear a year after opening. During the Second World War Simpson Piccadilly was one of the largest stores to stock wartime uniform for soldiers, providing for both men and women officers and civilians. Simpson was commissioned by the Government to make a wide selection of clothing and in total it was worked out that seven million items of clothing were produced. Dr Simpson (the company successor and elder brother of Alexander Simpson) opened the members club on the top floor of the store for soldiers where they were able to find a place to sleep, bathe and telephone loved ones. After the war, when it was announced that DAKS clothes would start selling again, queues of people would line up down Piccadilly, tailors would measure them in line, and suitable pairs of trousers were then presented to them in the store. In the early 1950s, scriptwriter Jeremy Lloyd was employed as a junior assistant at Simpson; he drew on his experiences to come up with the idea for the highly popular 1970s/80s television sitcom Are You Being Served? Throughout the last few decades of the 20th century, the store branched out on the variety of stock and sold other brands such as Armani, Mary Quant and Christian Dior. Present day Simpson continued to trade in the Piccadilly store until the 1990s after DAKS Simpson Group plc was acquired by the Japanese group Sankyo Seiko Co. Limited in 1991, and the building sold to the Waterstones chain of bookshops in 1999 and now serves as their flagship store. On the 5th floor is a bar, 5th View Bar & Food, with a southerly view over the rooftops towards the Houses of Parliament. Although Simpson is no longer trading as it was, the DAKS Simpson brand of menswear and womenswear continues rebranded under the DAKS name and is sold in DAKS stores, amongst other outlets with the flagship store now on Old Bond Street. DAKS holds royal warrants granted from three members of the Royal Family. The