Selfridges London

Selfridges London opened in 1909 on Oxford Street, founded by the American-born retailer Harry Gordon Selfridge, who set out to build a department store designed around open, dramatic retail spaces rather than the smaller counter-based shops typical of British retailing at the time. Its facade, begun to a design by the architect Francis Swales and largely completed under the direction of the Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, is dominated by a row of giant Ionic columns rising through several stories, a monumental classical treatment unusual for a commercial building of its scale in Edwardian London. Selfridge pioneered retail techniques still associated with the store, including elaborate street-level window displays designed to draw pedestrians inside and the free public display of new technology, such as an early demonstration of television in its windows in 1925. The building has been expanded several times since its original construction but retains its historic Oxford Street colonnade.