Selfridges

Construction History

This department store was built in four main phases between 1906 and 1928. The eastern nine bays were constructed first, from 1906 to 1909, designed by D H Burnham and Co, Francis Swales, and Frank Atkinson, with the Waring-White Building Company acting as builders. The remaining sections were designed by Sir John Burnet and Thomas Tait, with Albert Millar of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White: the north-west section in 1919 to 1922, the south-west section in 1923 to 1924, and the central entrance section in 1927 to 1928. F D Huntington Ltd were the main builders for the north-west and south-west sections, though several contractors worked on the central section.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed of Portland stone ashlar on a steel frame, with cast-iron framed windows and panels finished in bronze. The centrepiece Queen of Time sculpture is made of gilt bronze with faience, stoneware and mosaic accoutrements.

Layout

A square entrance hall opens into expansive retail spaces across six floors. Original marble staircases are positioned around the building's periphery, with three main banks of escalators running along the central axis. The sub-basements contain storage areas and the original vaults. Later additions from the 1950s onwards occupy the roof, forming a fifth floor with offices, meeting rooms, a staff café, photographic studios, a bar and restaurant.

Exterior Design

The building exemplifies American commercial Beaux-Arts architecture designed as a giant colonnade. The main façade facing Oxford Street spans 21 bays, making it Britain's largest shop front when completed. Portland stone ashlar (supplied by F J Barnes and Bath Stone Ltd) conceals the steel structural frame, with cast-iron window frames by Walter Macfarlane and Company of the Saracen Foundry, Glasgow, finished in bronze.

The ground floor forms a podium featuring enormous plate glass display windows separated by pilasters supporting a plain frieze and projecting stone course. Above rises a giant order of engaged Ionic columns spanning three storeys, flanking each bay which contains three tiers of tripartite windows. These windows are set back to create depth, allowing the columns to appear at three-quarters profile. The columns have moulded bases and cabled fluting enriched with bundles of fasces breaking into leaf, with festoons dropping from the volutes of the Ionic capitals. This carving was executed by sculptors William B Fagan and J Arrowsmith from models by Joseph Else. The window frames feature decorative enrichment including garlands, festoons, linenfold and geometric motifs. The third floor windows in the end bays also have solomonic columns with Ionic capitals supported on elaborate corbels decorated with lions' heads.

Square Ionic columns mark the building's corners. On the pilasters beneath them are bronze plaques cast with the letters SELFRIDGE & CO LIMITED, cartouches surrounded by garlands and linenfold decoration, and corbels carved with masks supporting the street names. Above the colonnade runs an architrave, then an attic storey containing tripartite windows flanked by cartouche panels enriched with wreaths, ribbons and masks, finished with a bracketed and dentilled crowning cornice and balustraded parapet.

The central entrance bay receives particularly grand treatment, incorporating sculptural design by (Sir) William Reid Dick. This elevation is recessed further back and features an elaborate cast bronze ground floor entrance beneath a projecting canopy, two freestanding columns flanking a central sculpture in front of a great window, and a bell by Gillet and Johnston set in the attic storey.

In front of the entrance, a marble floor contains a bronze plaque by Gilbert Bayes dedicated to Gordon Selfridge, depicting Pegasus with the inscription: 'LAID BY MEMBERS OF THIS HOUSE IN ADMIRATION OF HIM WHO CONCEIVED & GAVE IT BEING. 1909-1930'. The entrance contains five bronze-framed fully-glazed doors: two double doors and three central revolving doors, enriched with egg and dart, linenfold and geometric motifs, garlands, paterae and scallops by George Alexander. Flanking the revolving doors are ornate bronze lamps with foliage and palm leaf decoration supplied by Walter Gilbert. Set either side of the entrance are bronze figures of Art and Science standing beneath reliefs of putti, designed by Reid Dick and cast by the A B Burton foundry at Thames Ditton, Surrey.

Above the entrance, elaborate decoration continues at the great window, which has a cartouche at the centre and putti to each side, along with fasces, garlands, palm leaves and other enrichment. In front of the window stands the Queen of Time sculpture in gilt bronze with faience, stoneware and mosaic accoutrements, designed by Gilbert Bayes and installed in October 1931. Standing upon a ship's prow and attended by nereids representing the tides and winged figures representing the hours, the golden queen holds an orb with a figure symbolizing Progress in her right hand while raising an olive branch in her left. Behind her rises a clock with two faces upon which is a merchant ship.

The side elevations—seven bays to the east and eight to the west—receive the same architectural treatment as the main façade. Entrances have been inserted in one ground floor bay of each elevation. Additional office space and plant rooms were added to the roof from the 1950s onwards.

Several later additions were built to the rear of the original store: the SWOD block constructed in 1931 to 1933 with upper floors added between 1955 and 1976, a multi-storey parking garage built in 1957 to 1959, Selfridges Food Hall built around 1965 to 1966, Selfridge Hotel built in 1971 to 1973, and a link block rebuilt in 2016 to 2018. None of these buildings are included in the listing, though works affecting the character of the listed building may still require Listed Building Consent.

Interior Spaces

The main entrance leads into a square hall with marble floors, square marble piers and plaster panelled ceilings decorated with ceiling roses, cable, egg and dart, and bead and reel ornament (originally a double-height hall). The inside of the bronze entrance doorway is cast with similar decoration to the exterior but has a clock crowning it at the centre. The doorway was originally steam-heated.

On the opposite side of the hall are three doorways leading into the store with elaborate cartouches set into a frieze above them, whilst to the sides are further doorways and two banks of lifts. One pair of original lift shafts remains but the lifts have been replaced together with their gilded panel facing, now in the Museum of London. The new lifts were installed in 1978 but feature etchings loosely based on decoration from the originals.

The retail space throughout the store—including the lower ground, ground, first, second, third and fourth floors—contains modern counters, display cases, shelving, clothes stands, units and seating. Modern false ceilings conceal the mechanical ductwork system with attached speakers, lights and cameras. The fourth floor eateries are fitted out with modern kitchens, serveries and other fittings.

Across the retail spaces, the internal structural elements such as dropped beams and steel uprights are encased in plasterwork, with the highest decorative treatment generally reserved for the principal spaces. The ground floor has fluted Ionic columns enriched with foliage and plaster panelled ceilings decorated with egg and dart, cable, and bead and reel ornament. The first floor has fluted Ionic columns with festoons dropping from the volutes of the capitals in the central and west sections of the store, but Roman Doric columns in the earlier east section. The plaster panelled ceilings on the first floor are enriched with bundles of fasces. Above the entrance at the front of the store are square marble piers and decorative plasterwork in keeping with the scheme below. The second and third floors have Roman Doric columns and decorative plasterwork whilst the fourth floor and lower ground floor have plainer Tuscan columns.

Around the periphery of the ground floor are original marble staircases that led down to the lower ground floor (the 'bargain basement' until 1946) and up through the storeys. These have marble and terrazzo floors, marble walls, brass balustrades decorated with medallions and topped by wooden handrails, and several original brass light fittings. The north-west staircase has an original hand-painted sign: 'ONE TELLS ANOTHER of the marvellous offerings in our GREAT BARGAIN BASEMENTS – this is one reason why these great salesrooms are always thronged'. The south-west staircase leads down to the original vaults at sub-basement level which retain a range of original fittings such as the original vault door and enamelled safety deposit boxes. Fixed to the wall next to the staircase are two huge inscribed brass roundels enriched with mosaic depictions of sailing ships (probably moved from their original location).

Running along the central axis of the store are three banks of modern escalators. Adjacent to the central escalators are two tall Ionic plaster columns with similar detailing to those forming the entrance portico. There is also a bronze sculpture of the French entertainer and activist Josephine Baker by sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi, installed in 1999.

The rooftop buildings forming the fifth floor were added from the 1950s onwards. These include staff offices, meeting spaces, a staff café, photographic studios, a rooftop bar and restaurant, and plant rooms. They are fitted out with modern interiors. The sub-basement houses stores, contractor's cages and IT server rooms, largely with modern fixtures and fittings.