How old is selfridges london store

For s British shoppers it was a revelation. The goods were beautifully presented; there was entertainment, restaurants and services. Customers were invited to spend the day inside at their leisure and buy at their pleasure.

They ended up doing both. For the first time they could go out alone and still be respectable and comfortable. Soon the suffragettes, campaigning for the female vote, found a key ally in Selfridge and his store.

Selfridge also broke down entrenched British class barriers. His innovation of discounts and the bi-annual sale are taken for granted now.

In it had upper class ladies and working women scrambling for the same goods. Selfridge was a visionary. But behind his progressive business there hid a world of family secrets and vice. Obsessed by his climb up the British class ladder and taken by a taste for night-life, he began to slip. When his store really needed him, the genius of Selfridge was absent.

It would lead to the ultimate betrayal. Skip to Main Content. Use System Theme. Dark Theme. Light Theme.

The company expanded after World War One. Business was good. The London store was extended and new shops were obtained outside London. The swinging 's were good for the retail trade. All the new fashions were catered for every department. These ranged from red lipstick, long necklaces, to pogo sticks.

The store continued to promote special events. In inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated the first television. Later the BBC would transmit live music broadcasts from the store's roof. The depression of the 's had an effect on the ability of the consumer to carry on spending as they had been in the 's. Selfridges managed to weather the economic storm. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the shopping empire's leader. After his wife died in he continued to spend his vast fortune as if it was a never ending pot of money.

He had many expensive affairs, indulged in high living and lost a lot of money gambling. At the age of 83 he was forced to resign as he was deeply in debt. The apostrophe was removed from the departments store's name. It was now just known as Selfridges. The roof was damaged three times by German bombs but this did not stop the shop or staff from trading. The introduction of rationing had a marked effect on sales. It was only after the war and the gradual withdrawing of rationing books did the company start to see good profits again.

With peace came a new prosperity. Family incomes gradually increased and that meant they had more disposable income to buy the new electronic consumer goods that were becoming available; washing machines, televisions, radios, hovers, refrigerators and cars were on the top of most peoples lists. In with the increasing use of the motor car, Selfridges built a new modern multi-storey car park at the rear of the store with Valet parking services and a heated car ramp for cold icy wintery days.

Customers could walk from their car straight into the store, via a link way into the Orchard restaurant, without having to go into the street. This was a first in London. In the Company had new owners again. Miss Selfridges was opened with its own entrance in Duke Street, to cater for the younger teenage fashion demands of the 's.

It had its own coffee bar and pop music was played from speakers. It was an instant hit. In December the IRA terrorist bombed the store. Luckily only a few members of staff and customers were injured.

Foreign visitors were provided with interpreters, and a trained nurse was on hand to administer first aid if it was needed. Gordon Selfridge was 51 when his store opened. A dynamic American businessman who all his life thought big, he was born in Ripon, Wisconsin in and was denied his intended career in the US Navy by an accident of birth — he was fractionally too short to be admitted to the Annapolis naval academy.

In his early twenties Selfridge joined what would become America's most famous department store, Marshall Field's in Chicago, as a junior clerk. He rose swiftly to managerial level, was made a junior partner and was sent frequently on trips abroad. After one of them he tried to coax Marshall Field into opening a store in London, but Field was not persuaded and in Selfridge left the firm.

Another quote attributed to Selfridge is: 'People will sit up and take notice of you if you sit up and take notice of what makes them sit up and take notice. Selfridge and his wife Rosalie and their children arrived in London in He paid high wages to attract British and American executives and buyers and brought a window-dressing expert over from Marshall Field's. By the time the store opened, Selfridge was employing 12, people.