The Tiring Building

A European department-store dream, crowned by four Atlas figures shouldering a globe.

Victor Tiring opened his department store in 1912, when Attaba was the smart new shopping quarter. Its corner is topped by an extraordinary sculpture — four straining Atlas figures holding up a great globe, once lit at night as an advertisement to the whole square. Trade moved on; the building sank into workshops and warehouses, but the globe still turns above the crowd.