When the first section was opened on a snowy March day in , the exterior was festooned in laurel and the flags of all nations. A bugle sounded at nine in the morning as the doors were unlocked and a crowd of interested visitors surged in.
Some , personal invitations had been sent out in the previous days and newspaper advertisements had asked everyone in the country to come to see the new store in its opening week. Selfridge's principle was that shopping should be enjoyable rather than a chore and The Times reported that the interior that first day was filled with masses of flowers and greenery as well as 'myriads of tiny globules suspended on threads, which reminded one of the snow that was falling outside'.
Orchestras were playing music 'apparently at every corner' and the showrooms were 'more airy and spacious - owing to the absence of dividing walls and partitions than those which are familiar to London eyes'. Everything anyone could conceivably want to buy seemed to be on display and The Times commented on 'the pleasant habit of the shop assistants in refraining from asking what they could do for one'.
As well as a post office, a theatre booking office, a library and an information bureau, there were galleries displaying works of art, a comfortable 'silence room' for resting, restaurants and a roof garden. 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 the best establishments, employees were expected to visit the hairdressers every morning and wait in line for their hair to be perfectly curled before they were deemed fit to greet customers.
Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridges, c As early as , the government commandeered department stores for military purposes and often arrangements were ambitious, with entire floors being used as hospitals and walls reinforced with steel supports.
During air raids, department store employees took it in turns to fire watch and be on the lookout for incendiary bombs.
Concern was also raised in the staff magazine about the fragility of workers and the state of their nerves after the traumatic experience of living through the war. It enabled extremely large windows to be placed around the outside of the store where products could be displayed to entice Oxford Street Shoppers to come inside. More importantly because the weight of the building was being taken by the iron beams there was no longer a need for a lot of internal supporting brick walls.
This meant that the amount of unobstructed space inside where products could be displayed was double that of any other store in London at that time. What I find interesting is that the exterior of Selfridge's store was clad in stone and plaster to give an imposing neo-classical design using a mixture of Greek and Roman columns to make it fit in with the many Georgian neo Classic buildings that can be found all over London.
This choice of style gave the shopper the impression that this imposing new building had in fact been built one to two hundred years ago. The store was opened on 15th March following an elaborate advertising campaign. The London press had been running reports on the buildings progress over the previous year. Excitement had bee escalating. Thirty police officers were drafted in to hold back the crowds. This type of scene was unheard of in London for the opening of a shop.
Selfridges department store on opening day 15th March customers queued up around the streets - photo ITV.
To maintain the excitement surrounding the opening of the store he used the power of the celebrity to keep on attracting the crowds back to Selfridge's. On 25th of July Louis Bieriot's fragile monoplane, that he had used to enter the record books by become the first pilot to fly over the English Channel, was on public display in the store.
Over the four days of the event over , shoppers visited the store. He continued to use the theatre of retail to draw in the crowds. If there was some new and exciting event occurring or record broken, Selfridge's department store would put on a display.
The building's roof garden was often the venue for special events. He introduced many new and fascinating exotic product lines that had never been on sale in London before. Harry Selfridge is recorded to have said "I am prepared to sell anything from an aeroplane to a cigar". For the first time ladies cosmetics and perfumes were put on display at the front of the store. In many other London stores at that time these products were sold in side rooms or areas hidden by blinds. This product placement idea was soon copied as it was a great success with the ladies.
Selfridges also boasted a large fleet of delivery vans. At first they were horse drawn vehicles but were later powered by petrol and electric engines. The company livery was emblazed on the outside of every van and they soon became a common site all over London. Customers liked the fact that they could order big bulky items of furniture and arrange for them to be delivered to their homes, with the added advantage that the their neighbours might see that they shop at the new Selfridges store.
During to the Bargain Basement concept was introduced to attract customers from all walks of life not just the elite of London. Merchandise that could be purchased by thrifty housewives was mixed with more expensive items. Next to be introduced was a book department that expanded to become the biggest book store in the world.
Harry Selfridge was a dog lover. He liked little pug dogs.
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