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Selfridges

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Selfridges Retail Ltd.
Company typePrivate
IndustryRetail
GenreDepartment Store
Founded1909
FounderHarry Gordon Selfridge
HeadquartersOxford Street, London, United Kingdom
Number of locations
4
Oxford Street, London
Trafford Centre, Manchester
Exchange Square, Manchester
Bullring, Birmingham
Key people
Alannah Weston, former creative director (2004-2014) and deputy chairman at the store’s parent company Selfridges Group (since 2014)[1]
Linda Hewson, creative director (since 2014)[1]
Anne Pitcher, U.K. managing director[1]
OwnerGalen Weston
Websitehttp://www.selfridges.com/

Selfridges, also known as Selfridge & Co., is a chain of high end department stores in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge. The flagship store on London's Oxford Street is the second largest shop in the UK (after Harrods) and opened 15 March 1909.[2]

In the 1940s, smaller provincial Selfridge stores were sold to the John Lewis Partnership, and in 1951 the original Oxford Street store was acquired by the Liverpool-based Lewis's chain of department stores.[3] Lewis's and Selfridges were then taken over in 1965 by the Sears Group owned by Charles Clore.[4] Expanded under the Sears group to include branches in Manchester and Birmingham,[5] in 2003 the chain was acquired by Canada's Galen Weston for £598 million.[6]

The shop's history was dramatised in 2013, in the British television series Mr Selfridge.[7]

Other Selfridges stores opened in the Trafford Centre (1998); Exchange Square (2002) in Manchester; and in the Bullring, Birmingham (2003).

History

Harry Gordon Selfridge circa 1880.
Selfridges nameboard

The basis of founder H. Gordon Selfridge's success was his relentlessly innovative marketing, elaborately expressed in his Oxford Street store. He tried to make shopping a fun adventure instead of a chore. He put merchandise on display so customers could examine it, put the highly profitable perfume counter front-and-centre on the ground floor, and established policies that made it safe and easy for customers to shop – techniques that have been adopted by modern department stores the world over.

Either Selfridge or Marshall Field is popularly held to have coined the phrase "the customer is always right",[8] and Selfridge used it regularly in his extensive advertising.

Oxford Street store in London

Selfridge attracted shoppers with educational and scientific exhibits and was himself interested in education and science, and believed that the displays would introduce potential new customers to Selfridges, generating both immediate and long-term sales.

In 1909, after the first cross-Channel flight, Louis Blériot's monoplane was exhibited at Selfridges, where it was seen by 12,000 people. The first public demonstration of television was by John Logie Baird from the first floor of Selfridges from 1 to 27 April 1925.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the roof of the store hosted terraced gardens, cafes, a mini golf course and an all-girl gun club. The roof, with its spectacular views across London, was a popular place for strolling after a shopping trip and was often used for fashion shows. During the Second World War the store was bombed but survived comparatively unscathed – although the famous roof gardens were destroyed and not reopened[9] until 2009.

A Milne-Shaw seismograph was set up on the Oxford Street store's third floor in 1932, attached to one of the building's main stanchions, unaffected by traffic or shoppers. It recorded the Belgian earthquake of 11 June 1938 which was also felt in London. In 1947, it was given to the British Museum. The huge SIGSALY scrambling apparatus, by which transatlantic conferences between American and British officials (most notably Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt) were secured against eavesdropping, was housed in the basement from 1943 on, with extension to the Cabinet War Rooms about a mile away.[10]

Selfridges at the Trafford Centre, which opened in 1998

In 1926 Selfridges set up the Selfridge Provincial Stores company which had expanded over the years to include sixteen provincial stores, but these were sold to the John Lewis Partnership in 1940. The remaining Oxford Street store was acquired in 1951 by the Liverpool-based Lewis's chain of department stores, which was in turn taken over in 1965 by the Sears Group owned by Charles Clore.[4] Under the Sears group, branches in Ilford and Oxford opened, the latter remaining Selfridges until 1986, when Sears rebranded it as a Lewis's store. In 1990, Sears Holdings split Selfridges from Lewis's and placed Lewis's in administration a year later. In March 1998, Selfridges acquired its current logo in tandem with the opening of the Manchester Trafford Centre store and Selfridges demerger from Sears.

In September 1998, Selfridges expanded and opened a department store in the newly-opened Trafford Centre in Greater Manchester. Following its success, Selfridges announced they would open an additional 125,000-square-foot (11,600 m2) store in Exchange Square, Manchester city centre. The Exchange Square store opened in 2002 as Manchester city centre started to return to normal following the 1996 Manchester bombing. A 260,000-square-foot (24,000 m2)[11] store opened in 2003 in Birmingham's Bull Ring.

Manchester, Exchange Square Selfridges

In 2003, the chain was acquired by Canada's Galen Weston for £598 million and became part of Selfridges Group, which also includes Brown Thomas in Ireland, Holt Renfrew in Canada and de Bijenkorf in the Netherlands. Weston, a retailing expert who is also the owner of major supermarket chains in Canada, has chosen to invest in the renovation of the Oxford Street store – rather than to create new stores in British cities other than Manchester and Birmingham.[12] Anne Pitcher is the Managing Director of Selfridges, while Irish retailer, Paul Kelly, who has worked for the Weston organisation since the mid-1980s is Managing Director of Selfridges Group.[citation needed]

In October 2009 Selfridges revived its rooftop entertainment with the opening of The Restaurant on the Roof.[clarification needed] In July 2011 Truvia created an emerald green boating lake (with a waterfall, a boat-up cocktail bar and a forest of Stevia plants).[clarification needed] In 2012 the Big Rooftop Tea and Golf Party featured "the highest afternoon tea on Oxford Street" and a nine-hole golf course with "the seven wonders of London" realised in cake as obstacles.[13]

Architecture

Selfridges in Birmingham

Selfridge stores are known for architectural innovation and excellence and are tourist destinations in their own right. The original London store was designed by Daniel Burnham, who also created the Marshall Field's main store in his home town of Chicago. Burnham was the leading American department store designer of the time with works in Boston (Filenes's), New York (Gimbel's, Wanamaker's), and Philadelphia (Wanamaker's, his magnum opus).[14]
The London store was built in phases. The first phase consisted of only the nine-and-a-half bays closest to the Duke Street corner,[2] and is an example of one of the earliest uses of steel cage frame construction for this type of building in London. This circumstance, according to the report of a contemporary London correspondent from the Chicago Tribune, was largely responsible for making possible the eventual widespread use of Chicago’s steel frame cage construction system in the United Kingdom. “Under the pressure of [Mr. Selfridge] and the interests allied with him, the councilors admitted the soundness of American building methods and framed a bill which will be pressed at once in parliament [sic] to permit these methods to be used here.”.[15] A scheme to erect a massive tower above the store was never carried out.
Also involved in the design of the store were American architect Francis Swales, who worked on decorative details, and British architects R. Frank Atkinson and Thomas Smith Tait.[16][17] The distinctive polychrome sculpture above the Oxford Street entrance is the work of British sculptor Gilbert Bayes.
Selfridges in London was named world's best department store in 2010 by the Daily Telegraph.[18]

Detail of sculpture above the entrance of Selfridges on the Oxford Street, London

The Trafford store is noted for its use of stone and marble and for the exterior which strikingly resembles the London store. Each of the five floors of the Exchange Square store in central Manchester was designed by a different architect and has its own look and feel. In December 2009, store officials announced it will undergo a £40 million renovation to give the store a more iconic look that has been associated with Selfridges. It has been announced the store will feature art installations using LED lighting that will be projected to the outside of the building at night.[citation needed] The Birmingham store, designed by architects Future Systems, is covered in 15,000 spun aluminium discs on a background of Yves Klein Blue.[19] Since it opened in 2003, the Birmingham store has been named every year by industry magazine Retail Week as one of the 100 stores to visit in the world.[20]

Windows

A Selfridges window display

Selfridges windows have become synonymous also with the brand, and to a certain degree have become as famous as the company and Oxford Street location itself. Selfridges has a history of bold art initiatives when it comes to the window designs. When the building was undergoing restoration, the scaffolding was shrouded with a giant photograph of stars such as Sir Elton John by Sam Taylor-Wood. The windows consistently attract tourists, designers and fashionistas alike to marvel at the current designs and styling and fashion trends.

Since 2002, the windows have been photographed by London photographer Andrew Meredith and published in magazines such as Vogue, Dwell, Icon, Frame Magazine, Creative Review, Hungarian Stylus Magazine, Design Week, Harper's Bazaar, New York Times, WGSN and much more including world wide press, journals, blogs and published books all over the world.[21]

Controversy

  • After protests by animal welfare advocates,[22][23][24] in November 2009 Selfridges agreed to stop selling foie gras[25] (a delicacy made from the livers of forcibly fattened ducks and geese) and banished from its food court a celebrity butcher who continued to sell it under the codename "French fillet".[26]
  • In July 2010 Selfridges apologized publicly after its Manchester store displayed an Alexander McQueen garment hanging from a gallows-like structure, just months after the designer committed suicide by hanging.[27][28]
  • In September 2013 the store suspended a shop assistant who refused to serve a friend of English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson.[29][30]
  • In February 2015 one of Selfridges' stores in Manchester installed so-called anti-homeless spikes.[31]

In culture

ITV and Masterpiece produced a series entitled Mr Selfridge, first airing on ITV beginning in January 2013 (in ten parts), and later on PBS starting on 30 March 2013 (in eight parts).[32] ITV began airing ten additional episodes in January 2014.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ a b c Jones, Nina (15 January 2014). "Alannah Weston Moves Up at Selfridges". WWD. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  2. ^ a b "Our Heritage". Selfridges. Retrieved 21 February 2012. Cite error: The named reference "heritage" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Lewis's". The Liverpool Wiki. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  4. ^ a b Richard Davenport-Hines (2004). "Clore, Sir Charles (1904–1979)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press.subscription required
  5. ^ "Land Securities – Retail – Birmingham, Bull Ring". PropertyMall.com. 18 February 2000. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  6. ^ "Selfridges UK expansion capped". BBC News. 28 October 2003. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  7. ^ Singh, Anita (24 September 2012). "From Selfridges to John Lewis, we've a treat in store". The Daily Telegraph. London: telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
  8. ^ "The customer is always right". The Phrase Finder. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  9. ^ "Selfridges unveils rowing boats and a cocktail bar as it opens its roof for the first time since WWII". Daily Mail. London. 21 July 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  10. ^ lWeadon, P. (January 2009). "Sigsaly Story". National Security Agency Central Security Service.
  11. ^ "Land Securities – Retail – Birmingham, Bull Ring". PropertyMall.com. 18 February 2000. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  12. ^ "Selfridges UK expansion capped". BBC News. 28 October 2003. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  13. ^ "1920-2012: A Look Back at Selfridges' Legendary Roof Top". Selfridges Department Store. Selfridges.com. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
  14. ^ Hines, Thomas S. (1974). Burnham of Chicago. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago. ISBN 0-22634171-2.
  15. ^ "H.G. SELFRIDGE WINS FIGHT WITH LONDON CITY COUNCIL – Last Obstacle Overcome by Chicagoan and Work on Oxford Street Is Being Pushed Rapidly". Chicago Daily Tribune. 9 February 1909. p. A2.
  16. ^ Kathryn A. Morrison (2003). English Shops & Shopping: An Architectural History. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10219-4.
  17. ^ "Selfridges". Dictionary of Scottish Architects. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
  18. ^ Nick Collins (14 June 2010). "Selfridges named world's best department store". The Daily Telegraph. London: telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  19. ^ Jonathan Glancey (1 September 2003). "Top of the blobs". The Guardian. London: guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  20. ^ "Birmingham Selfridges named must see sight". The Daily Telegraph. London: telegraph.co.uk. 26 September 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  21. ^ Mark Sinclair (2 February 2012). "Wordplay in Selfridges' windows". Creative Review. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  22. ^ "Sir Roger Moore appears in campaign to stop shoppers buying foie gras". The Daily Telegraph. London: telegraph.co.uk. 6 November 2009. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  23. ^ "Foie gras protesters go topless". BBC News. bbc.co.uk. 12 February 2009. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  24. ^ Martin Hickman (2 April 2008). "Vegetarian aristocrats and their campaign against the cruelty of Selfridges' foie gras". The Independent. London: independent.co.uk. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  25. ^ "Selfridges Drops Foie Gras From Shelves–Geese Dance Everywhere". Vegetarian Star. 16 November 2009. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  26. ^ Suzannah Hills (20 February 2012). "Celebrity butcher sacked after selling banned foie gras under the counter to customers who knew secret codeword". Daily Mail. London: dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  27. ^ Ruthie Friedlander (9 July 2010). "Selfridges Hangs Alexander McQueen… Again". styleite.com. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  28. ^ "Coty Denies Lady Gaga Scent Deal... Selfridges Says Sorry..." Women's Wear Daily. wwd.com. 15 July 2010. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  29. ^ Booth, Robert (17 September 2013). "Selfridges assistant suspended for refusing to serve EDL leader's friend". The Guardian. theGuardian.com. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
  30. ^ "No action after EDL leader's friend refused Selfridges service". BBC News. bbc.co.uk/news. 18 September 2013. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
  31. ^ "Selfridges installs 'inhumane' anti-homeless spikes outside Manchester store". The Independent. London. 16 February 2015.
  32. ^ Hale, Mike (28 March 2013). "Fogging Up the Windows of a Big Store". The New York Times. NYTimes.com. Retrieved 1 April 2013.

Further reading

  • Honeycombe, Gordon. Selfridges, Seventy-Five Years: The Story of the Store 1909–84. London, 1984. ISBN 0902935275.
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