Arcade (architecture)

Exterior arcades are designed to provide a sheltered walkway for pedestrians; they include many loggias, but here arches are not an essential element.

In Renaissance architecture elegant arcading was often used as a prominent feature of facades, for example in the Ospedale degli Innocenti (commissioned 1419) or the courtyard of the Palazzo Bardi, both by Filippo Brunelleschi in Florence.

Other notable nineteenth century grand arcades include the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert in Brussels which was inaugurated in 1847 and Istanbul's Çiçek Pasajı opened in 1870.

[citation needed] The Palais-Royal, which opened in 1784 and became one of the most important marketplaces in Paris, is generally regarded as the earliest example of the grand shopping arcades.

The retail outlets specialised in luxury goods such as fine jewellery, furs, paintings and furniture designed to appeal to the wealthy elite.

It developed a reputation as being a site of sophisticated conversation, revolving around the salons, cafés, and bookshops, but also became a place frequented by off-duty soldiers and was a favourite haunt of prostitutes, many of whom rented apartments in the building.

[14] One of the earliest British examples of a shopping arcade, the Covered Market, Oxford, England was officially opened on 1 November 1774 and is still active today.

The Covered Market was started in response to a general wish to clear "untidy, messy and unsavoury stalls" from the main streets of central Oxford.

John Gwynn, the architect of Magdalen Bridge, drew up the plans and designed the High Street front with its four entrances.

From this nucleus the market grew, with stalls for garden produce, pig meat, dairy products and fish.

Sprawling at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and Sadovaya Street for over one kilometer and embracing the area of 53,000 m2 (570,000 sq ft), the indoor complex of more than 100 shops took twenty-eight years to construct.