Selfridges

SELFRIDGES

It was announced on February 11^th 2010 that the forty year old fashion designer Alexander McQueen has been found dead at his London address. One of the creations from his last year alive was passed by hundreds of thousands of ordinary shoppers during the last months of 2009, in London’s Selfridges department store. In collaboration with the two hundredth anniversary celebrations of the first performance of Cinderella at The Theatre Royal and as the centrepiece of Selfridges 2009 winter collection, Alexander McQueen made a one-off £16,000 ‘pantomime dame’ dress. It was a truly exquisite creation and typical of Selfridges to display such a jaw dropping crowd puller.

Every day in central London, people can be seen clutching distinctive yellow and black carrier bags, each betraying a visit to Selfridges, famous across the four compass points of the world. It is the second largest shop in the United Kingdom, after Harrods, (see earlier blog.) Selfridges has remained fashionable since it first opened up in 1909 and this is in no small part to its founder, the extraordinary H. Gordon Selfridge who, leading by example, totally transformed the experience of shopping in this country.

Gordon Selfridge was an American who learned his trade in Chicago. On his first visit to London, he was astonished to find on more than one occasion, that he was asked to leave stores for simply browsing, rather than making an obligatory rapid purchase. His encounter with frosty shopkeepers standing behind imposing counters, protecting the shelves from shoppers, inspired him to leave America and open the store that still bears his name to this day.

The store cost £400,000 to build and is positioned on the northwest side of what was to become London’s premier shopping thoroughfare, Oxford Street. It was a massive sum to pay at the time, partly because it was one of the first buildings in London to have a steel frame construction. Gordon Selfridge called it a ‘trade palace’ and the expression was hardly an exaggeration. He wanted the exterior of the building to be indicative of the quality of goods on sale within. The store is fronted by load bearing ionic columns, with a 1928 Art Deco clock, known as ‘The Queen Of Time’ riding her ‘Ship Of Commerce.’ The ground was not levelled before construction and the entire building slopes eleven feet from one end to the other, a feature that may be noticed by careful observation.

Back in Chicago, Selfridge had been the first to promote Christmas with the expression, “only x number of shopping days left until Christmas.” Never one short of a catchphrase, he also coined, “less servility and more service,” and this motto was drummed into his staff, who were made to have three months of training before the grand opening. Such was the anticipation, that on the first day of business people queued around the block (unlike most of London this area is laid out in grid pattern and does have blocks) and a million people passed through its doors during the first week.

Marketed as the equivalent of Macy’s in the USA, its popularity was instant. Selfridge was the first to put expensive popular items, such as perfumes, near to the entrance. He tried to make shopping fun rather than a chore, merchandise was displayed so that customers could touch and examine it, leading to profitable impulse purchases.

Bristling with ingenuity, he exhibited Bleriot’s airplane in Selfridges one day after its pioneer flight across the channel, attracting people 150,000 people into the store who would never otherwise cross its threshold. He staged the first public show of television in 1925 and installed a seismograph, which in 1932 recorded a well-documented earthquake in Belgium.

The roof of the building is nowadays covered in air conditioning units, but in Gordon Selfridge’s time, a garden with trees and a lily pond covered the roof. At times, ‘mini golf’ was played up there and a seasonal ice rink provided further excitement. Selfridge even threw election night parties for English society on the roof, which was also where in 1930, he exhibited the work of sculptors from ‘The London Group’ whose members were the most pre-eminent artists of the day.

Like many, Gordon Selfridge made a fortune during the First World War. In 1919, he planned to build a huge mansion on the south coast of England, with grand intentions for it to be taller than St Paul’s Cathedral, a plan that was never realised. Ultimately too extravagant, Gordon Selfridge lived the life of Croesus and he died a pauper. He became a British subject in 1937, three years before he was forced to relinquish control of the store, shortly after the start of the Second World War. It was during the war that the lowest of the three floors beneath ground level was used by U.S. personnel. At a depth of sixty metres, it was safe enough for both Churchill and Eisenhower to hold meetings there.

In his last years, Selfridge was reduced to travelling through London by bus, sometimes making the trip up to Oxford Street to gaze across at his greatest achievement. He died almost penniless in 1947, but was held alive in the memories of loyal staff of longstanding service. Indeed, many of the staff served out their entire career there, which was unusual for retailing, where a high turnover of workforce was common, even during the earlier part of the twentieth century. There was much to be proud of, from its history of bold window displays, to its marvellous food hall.

The Selfridges food hall is one of four major food halls in central London, Fortnum and Mason, Harrods and Harvey Nichols incorporate the other three. Selfridges food hall has the best reputation amongst internationals, with Middle Eastern cuisine comfortably stacked around the corner from the famous kosher department. If you cannot afford the oyster bar, then fill up with free samples, Selfridges has a longstanding generous tasting policy.  Although now surpassed in cost if not by flavour, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, Selfridges Food Hall sold the world’s most expensive sandwich, at £85. Consisting of Wagyu beef, brie de Meaux, foie gras and black truffle mayonnaise, the sandwich was reportedly most often requested from and dispatched to, a number of luxury hotel rooms on the nearby Park Lane.

The store is open from ninety-thirty in the mornings until eight, nine on Thursdays and Sunday opening is midday until six. Finally, to answer the question that every child asks when first encountering the famous name, yes, they do sell fridges…

Selfridges

400 Oxford Street

London

W1A 2LR

London Underground Railway (Tube): Bond Street and Marble Arch 

Where to view Selfridges and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Selfridges’ category of this website.  New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.