Shopping spree! Harrods given a £200m makeover
New floors: Aisles have been clad in marble
Harrods is close to unveiling the first phase of a £200 million overhaul ordered by its new Qatari owners.
They hope the refurbishment will shake off the remnants of the vast department store’s “Grace Brothers” legacy from the Seventies and Eighties and resecure its reputation with wealthy shoppers from all over the world.
A spectacular new escalator is the centrepiece of the development, linking all seven floors of the Knightsbridge institution, and this will be officially opened on November 4.
Top footing: a peek at the new shoe departmentSeveral major departments, including the former Way In younger fashion floor and the jewellery and gifts sections, have been revamped by leading designers and a new watch department has been created.
A vast new shoe department on the fifth floor — claimed to be the biggest of its kind in Europe — was one of the last projects of revered interior designer David Collins who died in July and this will be opened next August.
The Knightsbridge institution’s new owners — the Qatari royal family’s sovereign fund Qatar Holding — have dramatically raised their planned budget for upgrading the 1.2 million sq ft store since they bought it from Mohamed Fayed for £1.5 billion in May 2010.
Makeover: HarrodsAt the time, they said they merely wanted to “ upgrade the monument”. But accounts show the capital expenditure budget leaped from £20 million to £30 million a year during the Fayed years to more than £50 million a year under the new ownership. Exact figures are not released but it is thought that about £210 million has already been spent since the takeover.In addition, concession holders are investing about £25 million a year, making it likely that nearly £300 million has been lavished on modernising, upgrading and repairing the interiors and exteriors of the grade II*-listed building.
In his 25-year stewardship of Harrods, Mr Fayed spent around £400 million on the store, a figure likely to be dwarfed by the Qataris.
The listed building status meant that Harrods executives had to consult English Heritage on almost every aspect of the restoration, down to the width of the glazing bars in a new skylight.
Revamp: A new escalator in HarrodsMartin Illingworth, Harrods director of store development, said: “Old buildings like this need to have a lot of spending. It is effectively a heritage site and a lot has to be spent to maintain it. We couldn’t close the store to the refurbishment work, so it is a bit of a juggling act.“We wanted to take the old features and bring them back to life, but with all the newness as well — that’s a wonderful combination. English Heritage wants to see old buildings brought back to life and used properly, otherwise they start decaying.”
The upgrade follows several other recent major refurbishments at rival stores including Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason and John Lewis. However, Harrods has enlisted some of the top names in design for its makeover. The luxury jewellery department on the ground floor — formerly the soft accessories room — has been designed by Czech-born architect Eva Jiricna and decorated with handmade gold “moon glass”.
The fine jewellery department next door has still to be fitted out with back-lit onyx panels hand selected from quarries in Italy. The overhaul of the listed Twenties-style room will also see the restoration of original features such as columns, display cabinets and Travertine marble cladding.
The luxury gifts room on the second floor has also been given a new look, with Belgian blue marble walkways, distressed antique glass columns and gold wallpaper from China. The range of gifts has also been upgraded, including a gold-plated wine holder from Aston Martin costing £22,000.
The former Way In fashion section, which dates to the late Sixties, has been reinvented as a 30,000 sq ft “Fashion Lab” by architects Found Associates, with an urban industrial look of cast concrete floor tiles, crackle-glazed wall panels, steel and metal grid ceiling.
The former diner is being replaced with a salad and smoothies bar, while names such as French Connection and Warehouse have been replaced by niche brands such as The Kooples, Zadig & Voltaire and Wildfox. The installation of the escalator by Make architects has allowed windows to be reopened that had been bricked up since the Eighties. The striking set of 16 escalators are clad in British-made fluted bronze that matches the fluted columns on the outside of the building. A huge chandelier by Californian artist Dale Chihuly will hang in the lobby at the base.
Millions of pounds have also been spent on the store’s porous terracotta exterior, which is under attack from traffic fumes and other pollution.
Even smaller details are getting an overhaul, including the store’s war memorial — which is finally having the last 21 names of “fallen” staff added to the plaque.
