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Selfridges flagship store
The Selfridges flagship store is a Grade II listed department store on Oxford Street in Marylebone, London, England, and is also the headquarters of the Selfridges department store chain. It was designed by Daniel Burnham for Harry Gordon Selfridge, and opened in 1909. The store spans 540,000 square feet (50,000 m2) of selling space, making it the second-largest department store in the United Kingdom, after Harrods. It was named the world's best department store in 2010, and again in 2012.
In 1906, Harry Gordon Selfridge travelled to England on holiday with his wife, Rose. Selfridge had made his fortune as an executive for the Marshall Field's department store in Chicago. Unimpressed with the quality of existing British retailers, he noted that London's large stores had not adopted the latest selling ideas used in the United States. Determined to create something new, he invested the then-staggering sum of £400,000 to build his own department store. To secure the desired site, he gradually acquired a series of Georgian buildings located on the block bounded by Somerset, Wigmore, Orchard, and Duke Streets—an area that was, at the time, considered an unfashionable end of Oxford Street.
When Selfridges opened in 1909, it introduced several features that framed shopping as a form of leisure rather than solely a commercial activity. Among the facilities added at different times were a library, reading and writing rooms, and a designated "silence room". These were intended to extend the duration of visits while also broadening the store's functions beyond retail. The expansion of department stores during this period paralleled wider social changes, particularly the greater independence of women, who were increasingly able to shop without a chaperone. Department stores consequently became venues where women could spend time outside the home, engage in social activity, and encounter goods that represented contemporary ideas of taste and luxury.
Selfridges department store was designed by American architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham, a classical Beaux-Arts proponent combined with modern building technique, who was also respected for his department store designs. He created Marshall Field's, Chicago, Filene's in Boston, Wanamaker in Philadelphia, and Gimbels and Wanamaker's in New York City. The building was an early example in the UK of the use of a steel frame, five storeys high with three basement levels and a roof terrace, originally laid out to accommodate 100 departments.
American-trained Swedish structural engineer Sven Bylander was engaged to build the structure's steel frame. As the building was one of the early examples of steel frame in the UK, Bylander had to first agree to appropriate building regulations with the London County Council, requiring amendments to the London Building Act 1844. Using as a basis the regulations which covered the similarly-designed London docklands warehouses, Bylander then agreed changes which enabled greater spans within lesser beam dimensions due to the use of steel over stone. Bylander designed the entire supporting structure which was approved by the LCC in 1907, with a steel frame based on blue brick pile foundations, supporting a steel frame which holds all of the internal walls and the concrete floors. Bylander designed in additional supported internal walls, as LCC would not approve store areas above 450,000 cubic foot (13,000 m3) due to the then approved fire safety regulations, many of which were removed 20 years later in light of new legislation. Bylander submitted a 13-page fully illustrated account of the design of the building to Concrete and Constructional Engineering, which was published in 1909. The work of Burnham and Bylander with LCC led to the passing of the LCC (General Powers) Act 1909, also called the Steel Frame Act, which gave the council the power to regulate the construction of reinforced concrete structures.
American architect Francis Swales, who trained at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, was briefed to design the frontispiece. Aided by British architects R. Frank Atkinson and Thomas Smith Tait, the final design was highly influenced by John Burnet's 1904 extension to the British Museum. The steel supporting columns are hidden behind Ionic columns, to create a facade which presents a visually uniform, classical, Beaux-Arts appearance. The distinctive polychrome sculpture above the Oxford Street entrance is the work of British sculptor Gilbert Bayes. The final frontage, through use of cast iron window frames to a maximum size of 19 feet 4 inches (5.89 m) by 12 feet 0 inches (3.66 m), means that both the Oxford Street and Duke Street frontages are made up of more glass than stone or iron works.
Opened on 15 March 1909, the store was built in phases. The first phase consisted of the nine-and-a-half bays closest to the Duke Street corner, a site of 250 feet (76 m) wide on Oxford Street by 175 feet (53 m) along Duke Street. The floor heights averaged 15 feet (4.6 m), and the initial structure contained nine passenger lifts, two service lifts and six staircases.
The main entrance and all of the bays to its left were added some 18 years after the store first opened, using a modified construction system. The complete building opened fully in 1928, and resultantly through the use of supporting spandrel steel panels, the scale of the glass panes within the main entrance could be greatly enlarged.
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Selfridges flagship store
The Selfridges flagship store is a Grade II listed department store on Oxford Street in Marylebone, London, England, and is also the headquarters of the Selfridges department store chain. It was designed by Daniel Burnham for Harry Gordon Selfridge, and opened in 1909. The store spans 540,000 square feet (50,000 m2) of selling space, making it the second-largest department store in the United Kingdom, after Harrods. It was named the world's best department store in 2010, and again in 2012.
In 1906, Harry Gordon Selfridge travelled to England on holiday with his wife, Rose. Selfridge had made his fortune as an executive for the Marshall Field's department store in Chicago. Unimpressed with the quality of existing British retailers, he noted that London's large stores had not adopted the latest selling ideas used in the United States. Determined to create something new, he invested the then-staggering sum of £400,000 to build his own department store. To secure the desired site, he gradually acquired a series of Georgian buildings located on the block bounded by Somerset, Wigmore, Orchard, and Duke Streets—an area that was, at the time, considered an unfashionable end of Oxford Street.
When Selfridges opened in 1909, it introduced several features that framed shopping as a form of leisure rather than solely a commercial activity. Among the facilities added at different times were a library, reading and writing rooms, and a designated "silence room". These were intended to extend the duration of visits while also broadening the store's functions beyond retail. The expansion of department stores during this period paralleled wider social changes, particularly the greater independence of women, who were increasingly able to shop without a chaperone. Department stores consequently became venues where women could spend time outside the home, engage in social activity, and encounter goods that represented contemporary ideas of taste and luxury.
Selfridges department store was designed by American architect and urban planner Daniel Burnham, a classical Beaux-Arts proponent combined with modern building technique, who was also respected for his department store designs. He created Marshall Field's, Chicago, Filene's in Boston, Wanamaker in Philadelphia, and Gimbels and Wanamaker's in New York City. The building was an early example in the UK of the use of a steel frame, five storeys high with three basement levels and a roof terrace, originally laid out to accommodate 100 departments.
American-trained Swedish structural engineer Sven Bylander was engaged to build the structure's steel frame. As the building was one of the early examples of steel frame in the UK, Bylander had to first agree to appropriate building regulations with the London County Council, requiring amendments to the London Building Act 1844. Using as a basis the regulations which covered the similarly-designed London docklands warehouses, Bylander then agreed changes which enabled greater spans within lesser beam dimensions due to the use of steel over stone. Bylander designed the entire supporting structure which was approved by the LCC in 1907, with a steel frame based on blue brick pile foundations, supporting a steel frame which holds all of the internal walls and the concrete floors. Bylander designed in additional supported internal walls, as LCC would not approve store areas above 450,000 cubic foot (13,000 m3) due to the then approved fire safety regulations, many of which were removed 20 years later in light of new legislation. Bylander submitted a 13-page fully illustrated account of the design of the building to Concrete and Constructional Engineering, which was published in 1909. The work of Burnham and Bylander with LCC led to the passing of the LCC (General Powers) Act 1909, also called the Steel Frame Act, which gave the council the power to regulate the construction of reinforced concrete structures.
American architect Francis Swales, who trained at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, was briefed to design the frontispiece. Aided by British architects R. Frank Atkinson and Thomas Smith Tait, the final design was highly influenced by John Burnet's 1904 extension to the British Museum. The steel supporting columns are hidden behind Ionic columns, to create a facade which presents a visually uniform, classical, Beaux-Arts appearance. The distinctive polychrome sculpture above the Oxford Street entrance is the work of British sculptor Gilbert Bayes. The final frontage, through use of cast iron window frames to a maximum size of 19 feet 4 inches (5.89 m) by 12 feet 0 inches (3.66 m), means that both the Oxford Street and Duke Street frontages are made up of more glass than stone or iron works.
Opened on 15 March 1909, the store was built in phases. The first phase consisted of the nine-and-a-half bays closest to the Duke Street corner, a site of 250 feet (76 m) wide on Oxford Street by 175 feet (53 m) along Duke Street. The floor heights averaged 15 feet (4.6 m), and the initial structure contained nine passenger lifts, two service lifts and six staircases.
The main entrance and all of the bays to its left were added some 18 years after the store first opened, using a modified construction system. The complete building opened fully in 1928, and resultantly through the use of supporting spandrel steel panels, the scale of the glass panes within the main entrance could be greatly enlarged.
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