Department Stores & Market Halls in London
4 stores · curated ORBIS register
The Knightsbridge palace — 330 departments, Egyptian escalators, trading since 1849. On 16 November 1898 Harrods debuted England's first 'moving staircase' (escalator) in the Brompton Road store.
Harrods' cooler neighbour — fifth-floor restaurant, curated fashion, and the department store that prides itself on discovery over tradition.
Liberty's London department store brings printed fabrics and clothing together with beauty products and home furnishings. The business began in 1875, when Arthur Lasenby Liberty opened his first shop on Regent Street. Its later Great Marlborough Street building uses reclaimed ship timbers within the department store's Tudor revival design.
Harry Gordon Selfridge’s 1909 theatre of retail — the Oxford Street innovator that invented shopping as entertainment. Opening day drew 90,000 visitors; first-week visits topped one million. Westminster Gazette (1909): aim to make shopping 'a pleasure, a pastime, a recreation'.