Whiteleys
51°30′52.6″N 0°11′18.4″W / 51.514611°N 0.188444°W
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Whiteleys is a shopping centre in London, England. It was London's first department store, located in the Bayswater area. The store's main entrance was located on Queensway.
History
The original Whiteleys department store was created by William Whiteley, who started a drapery shop at 31 Westbourne Grove in 1863. By 1867 it had expanded to a row of shops containing 17 separate departments. By 1890 over 6,000 staff were employed in the business, most of them living in company-owned male and female dormitories, having to obey 176 rules and working 7am to 11pm, six days a week. Whiteley also bought massive farmlands and erected food-processing factories to provide produce for the store and for staff catering.
The first store, described as 'an immense symposium of the arts and industries of the nation and of the world', was devastated in an enormous fire in 1887,[1] one of the largest fires in London's history.[2]
The current building was designed by John Belcher and John James Joass, and was opened by the Lord Mayor of London in 1911. It was the height of luxury at the time, including both a theatre and a golf-course on the roof. It appears in a number of early 20th-century novels, and in Shaw's 1913 play Pygmalion, where Eliza Dolittle is sent "to Whiteleys to be attired." In the late 1920s, Dr. A. J. Cronin, the novelist, was appointed the medical officer of Whiteleys. The upper floors of the building were used by LEO Computers Ltd. in the 1950s and later by International Computers Limited (ICL) for offices and training facilities in the 1970s. The offices were named "Hartree House" after Douglas Rayner Hartree in recognition of his part in the LEO Computers story.
The department store closed down in 1981 and the building was purchased by a firm called the Whiteleys Partnership, later acquired by the Standard Life Assurance Company. Extensive reconstruction followed; the facade and some interior features such as stairs and railings remain, but essentially the building was demolished and rebuilt. During this reconstruction a tower crane collapsed, killing workmen and the driver of a car.
Shopping centre
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In 1989 Whiteleys was re-opened as a shopping centre. The current Whiteleys contains a large number of shops and places to eat including Marks & Spencer, HMV, Starbucks and a sushi bar. Leisure facilities include an Odeon cinema and bowling alley. The shopping centre never worked as a retail destination and became much maligned by the wealthy and sophisticated residents of nearby Notting Hill. Since 2005 a slow change of direction began under a new management regime which incorporated substantial physical improvements to the interior, the replacement of McDonalds with Rowley Leigh's new restaurant Le Café Anglais and a new food hall in the central mall area. On site management have claimed in the press that this is the start of a transformation of the building and its shops.[citation needed] The ground-floor fountain, with its inspiring sculpture, certainly disappeared unannounced around that time. In June 2008 the ground floor was transformed into what the management have called a 'foodstore', essentially a larger, more glamorous version of a department store foodhall, designed by Lifeschutz Davidson Sandilands and operated by renowned restaurateur Dominic Ford it is called 'Food Inc' and sells fresh fish, meat, dry goods, wine and meat from the shopping centre's own farm. This year a new vintage store, Victory Vintage, opened on the first floor opposite GAP. One of the largest retail spaces on the first floor was formerly operated by Borders, but is now part of the Toys-R-Us chain.
Other occupants
Within the current Whiteleys building there is a TV studio, which has been used for British breakfast TV show RI:SE, currently producing The Wright Stuff, Something for the Weekend and T4. All shows are produced by Princess Productions.
Zara (retailer), really is the gem in the crown of Whiteleys. Located on the first floor it provides high end fashion at reasonable prices. Despite the despicable music, it is the place to go for blazers and the sale will allow you to bag them for as little as £25.
On the 2nd floor you'll find 'The Real China'. Nestled between various restaurants that are perpetually failing due to The Real China's outstanding value for money, it serves up premium Chinese cuisine at discount prices. The buffet format makes navigation of the menu a breeze, with no nasty surprises when the bill arrives. So crush your hunger cravings for the rest of the day by treating yourself to a lunchtime buffet for less than a fiver, and add a bottomless soft drink to wash away your sins.
Whiteleys also houses one of the leading clothing brands French Connection (clothing). The French Connection store is situated on the ground floor of Whiteleys shopping centre.
Former occupants
Until April 2010 Whiteleys also housed the online retailer NET-A-PORTER.COM. The company's main offices are now situated in Westfield London.
In popular culture
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Whiteleys is mentioned in several books and has appeared in numerous films, TV shows; most notably:
In War of the Wenuses, an 1898 parody of The War of the Worlds, one of the main battles between Earth women and Venusian women takes place outside the original store in Westbourne Grove.
In the cinematic version of Billion Dollar Brain the hero uses an X-Ray machine in Whiteleys' shoe department to examine the contents of a sealed package.
In the TV series adaption of The Tripods, filmed in 1983, the run-down Whiteleys building is used to portray an abandoned department store in 21st century Paris.
In the film, Closer starring Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen. In the film, the upper floor of Whiteleys hosts an art gallery exhibition, and is the only scene where all four actors appear together at the same time.
Whiteley’s Folly by Linda Stratmann (2004, Sutton Publishing) is a biography of William Whiteley, and a history of the store.
Notes and references
- ^ AFFAIRS IN FOREIGN LANDS; THE BURNING OF WHITELEY'S GREAT ESTABLISHMENT. THE LOSS ESTIMATED AT $2,500,000-- INCENDIARISM SUSPECTED--MR. WHITELEY'S PREVIOUS LOSSES New York Times, 8 August 1887
- ^ Shepard, Ernest H (1957) Drawn from Memory, Penguin Books, London, ISBN 01400.3905.8