Visitors to London will, out of deference to their parents,
their schoolteachers or a maiden aunt, dutifully gaze upon the glories of the
National Gallery, admire the Mallard Ducks at St James’s Park or catch that
brittle Coward revival in Theatreland. Left to their own devices however, there
is only one thing on their minds – ecstatic retail therapy in the grand
department stores, spend, spend and spend again – with huge temples to Mammon
Harrods and Selfridges there to fulfil their wildest dreams and ignite their
plastic cards. Harrods, with 1m sq ft of retail space is the largest store in
Europe and Selfridges, though half the size, is still the second largest store
in the UK and third in Europe. Both have their supporters and detractors but in
most people’s view both are splendid emporia catering to every whim of the
Consumers, kings and queens of the modern economy.
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| Harrods Store in Knightsbridge |
With its wonderful dome and opulent red terra-cotta façade,
the 5 acres and 7 floors of Harrods totally
dominates Brompton Road; a little off-centre but who cares? The devotees enter
to the sight of shirts, ties and suits of impeccable quality, stumble into the
fragrant Food Hall with joints of beef, lamb and pork hanging invitingly among
the pheasant and grouse, huge rounds of cheese from every corner of the world,
glide up escalators to dozens of (actually 330) other departments including
couture and every kind of fashion, books, furniture, antiques, electricals,
household goods – even still animal furs, but no longer live pets. There is a
Harrods Bank, an estate agency, travel bureau, all manner of restaurants and
convenient eateries catering for a clientele which expects, and is willing to
pay for, the best.
Harrods is a colossally successful retail operation and on a
busy day an astonishing 300,000 people will enter its portals. The business was
founded as a grocer and haberdasher by Charles Henry Harrod in 1824, flitting
from Southwark to Clerkenwell to Stepney before arriving in Brompton in 1851. It
was expanded by the founder’s son Charles Digby Harrod and employed 100 people
in 1880 but burnt down in 1883. Digby Harrod persisted, the business floated on
the stock market in 1898 and the present spectacular building was erected by
architect Charles William Stephens between 1894 and 1905. The upper classes
flocked in, enjoying the store’s famed service levels.
Harrods bought up many other department stores but
eventually was taken over by the elder Hugh Fraser in 1959 who had built up a
retail empire in Scotland and the North of England. His son, Sir Hugh Fraser
managed Harrods well but he was afflicted by the gambling bug, a high roller
regularly losing £250,000 a night at the roulette tables of the Clermont or Les Ambassadeurs casinos. Fraser had to
raise money personally and was courted by mega-mogul Tiny Rowlands of Lonrho
(once described by Edward Heath as “the unacceptable face of capitalism”) who
eventually made a failed hostile bid and in 1985 Harrods fell amid much
acrimony to the Egyptian Al-Fayed brothers for £615m probably secretly financed
by the wealth of the Emirates princely families.
The leading brother Mohammed Al-Fayed was a colourful
character once working for the Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, marrying his
sister, much involved in Middle Eastern construction companies and with Lonrho.
He was nonetheless a brilliant retailer and showman, upgrading and
re-invigorating Harrods at great expense. He had a megalomaniac streak, posing
as a new Pharaoh.
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| The Golden Pharaoh at Harrods |
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| Mohammed Al-Fayed |
The tragic 1997 death in a Paris motor accident of Princess
Diana and Mohammed’s son Dodi Al-Fayed seems to have unbalanced Mohammed. He
stated that Dodi had been assassinated in a plot dreamt up by Prince Philip and
MI6, contrary to all the evidence. He did all he could to belittle the monarchy
and English politicians; destroying Harrods Royal Warrants, trapping two MPs in
the cash-for-questions imbroglio and supporting Scottish independence, after
much beautifying his Highland estate. Harrods itself was probably not much
effected but Al-Fayed’s paranoia, long reinforced by British refusal to grant
him a passport, was an unhappy factor. Aged 80 in 2010, Al-Fayed sold Harrods
well for £1.5bn to the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, the ultimate “trophy”
acquisition.
Harrods remains one of the glittering glories of London
--------------------------------------
Selfridges and Co
at 400 Oxford Street has slightly more recent origins. It was established by
the American entrepreneur Gordon Selfridge, who had worked at what became the
department store Marshall Field and who had married into the rich Buckingham
family of Chicago in 1890. On a holiday to London, Selfridge noted the relative
lack of decent department stores in central London and invested £400k of his
own money in building a store in the then unfashionable West end of Oxford Street.
It followed US practice in being steel framed and he used the eminent Chicago
architect Daniel Burnham. In 1909 Selfridge opened his palace.
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| Selfridges, Oxford Street |
It was an immediate success and Selfridge mounted one of his
typical exhibitions - Louis Bleriot’s plane which had just flown across the
Channel. Selfridge wanted shopping to be fun, an experience in itself. He had
coined the phrase “The customer is always right” and insisted on high service
standards. The life and loves of Gordon Selfridge are currently enthralling TV
audiences in the series Mr Selfridge as
he lost his wife in the 1918 flu pandemic and had many later amours. He was a big spender and gambler
and fatally did not curb these habits in the Depression. The extravagant marble
clock over the entrance of the store dates from 1931 and he was deposed from
the board in 1941, dying quite poor in 1949. The store was eventually bought by
Sears Holdings, the vehicle for property ace Charles Clore, and is now owned by
the mogul Galen Weston of the immensely rich Canadian Weston bakery family.
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| The Clock at Selfridges |
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| Gordon Selfridge in 1910 |
Selfridges is always a pleasure to enter, its prominent
perfumery counters evoking the aromas of the East. I enjoy the salt beef bar on
the ground floor while my dear wife revels in the enormous shoe department. Selfridges' spectacular window displays, especially at Christmas, are legendary. It
has all anyone would ever want and its yellow carrier-bags are a contemporary
symbol of the good life.
Both Harrods and Selfridges deliver huge satisfaction to
visitors to London. It would be a pity if some visitors actually found them the
principal attractions of the place, but many of us live on the shallow surface
of existence and must take our pleasures when and where we can.
SMD
11.04.14
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2014
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