Selfridges

Some might say it was the yellow and black bag which put Oxford Street on the retail map. Since 1909 the imposing grandeur of founder Harry Gordon Selfridges’s department store has witnessed two world wars, the first public demonstration of the television, an array of Santas, the ebb and flow of fashion’s fickle face and not to mention crowds of nude Londoners exhibited on its escalators in 2003.

Since then, it has gone on to open its doors in Manchester, and Birmingham each with their own nuances towards architectural ingenuity. 15,000 spun Aluminium discs later and the emporium that is Selfridges continues to jump the queues of department stores waiting for their big is best badge. Whether you stroll into ‘The Wonder Room’ becoming so enraptured with the nearest ruby that re-mortgaging seems the only option, gorge on the tastes and testers of the food hall, or wish you could keep that Marc Jacobs dress on for a little while longer, the sheer glossiness of the place will transport you into shopping oblivion. May you over-spritz with perfume, purchase somewhat degrading outfits for you dog, invent friends to fill hampers for…

It’s gifts for gifts' sake.

Read more about this

Review by contributing editor Sybilla Harvey

Have you been here? Why not add your own review or report an error.

If you liked that, you might like these...

• 

  Harrods

  How does what is essentially a department store selling mostly the same products as other department stores become a travel destination? How about be...

• 

  Geneva City Centre

  Window shoppers pack the streets of the city center admiring the beautiful displays of famous designers and watchmakers. The two parallel streets of...

• 

  Bond Street

  Any street which has stores where security guards open the door to you, or you have to buzz to be let in is inviting only a select clientele. But...

• 

  Rongbaozhai

  Painters and calligraphers flocked to Rangbaozhai in the 19th century, making this paper store Beijing’s center for artistic discipline. It used to...

• 

  Holly Golightly's Tiffany's 57th Street

  Is it too obvious to include Tiffany’s in a list of great literary locations? The thing about Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is that it has...