Luxurious, Quirky Liberty London
Liberty’s splendid 1875, Tudor-revival building houses an intriguing array of high-end fashion, luxury homeware and cozy nooks full of treasures! Located on Regent Street, it’s a place known for its “enviable street style”; it even has its own fabric line. Feeling like touring somebody’s grand home, wandering through its beautifully carved wood interior and six floors of specialty paper, fashion, beauty, jewelry, antique and handmade housewares, a café, and even a florist shop and such is a feast for the eyes. Definitely not like any department store I’ve ever seen – totally crazy about it and its unique and charming personality!
Swanky Selfridges Department Store
Oxford Street boasts home to 2X “world’s best department store” winner in 2010 and 2012, Selfridges. It has over 540,000 square feet of retail space which makes it the second largest store in the UK (Harrods is larger) and was opened in 1909.
“George Selfridge (an American businessman) believed that it was the ‘duty of the great business house to unify beauty with its effort’ and his architects provided him with a colossal exercise in Edwardian Baroque grandeur, which took years to complete. . . . Occupying an entire block of Oxford Street it was the West End’s biggest department store and the façade, with its massive and richly decorated neoclassical columns and imposing main entrance, has been described as an ‘extraordinary temple of the retail business’.”* wikipedia
Originally, Selfridges boasted retail fashion and home goods, but also had a post office, a theatre booking office, a library, an information bureau, galleries displaying works of art, restaurants and a roof garden. There was even a trained nurse on hand to assist if need be.
Today, its iconic front still is imposing, but I found most of its interior to be sleek, trendy and high end. Quite the place!
Harrods Haven
I know I already introduced you to Harrods quite a while back, but I can’t mention London shopping and not mention the world-famous, eye-popping Harrods Department Store again! Owned by the state of Qatar, it’s a 5-acre sight and features 330 different departments and over 5,000 brands (whaaaat?!?!) in 1.1 million square feet of retail space. Gotta love its motto: “All things for all people, everywhere.” And truly, it appears they pretty much have that covered.
Particular highlights for me continue to be the incredible themed areas (Egyptian and monument to Princess Diana), an overwhelming toy department, a phenomenally richly decorated and detailed food hall featuring almost anything you could want to eat displayed in amazing fashion, their festive Christmas department and vast electronics area. Their window displays are one-of-a-kind, too! It’s quite the experience – a cacophony of luxury brands!
This elaborate shopping emporium even has a dress-code for customers!
Located in Piccadilly, London, and established in 1707, Fortnum & Mason department store is one of my favorite bits of elegant London. Their building’s beautiful green “Eau de Nil” colored exterior, elegant interior complete with sweeping spiral staircase, bold chandeliers and colorful displays beckons shoppers inside with their famous teas, biscuits, lemon curd, sweet preserves and honeys, as well as their fresh market, plentiful flowers and hampers (picnic baskets to the tune of 120,000 hampers around the world each year starting back in 1730) made-to-order from delectable taste treats.
Wandering through this unique, brightly-lit, multi-floored establishment to shop the incredible hat department, writing papers and pens area, or clothing sections makes you feel refined and posh. They’re internationally renowned for their stunning selection of teas, food and china, and bill themselves as “. . . home to extraordinary food, joy-giving things and unforgettable experiences. . .”
One of our very favorite English foods is the Scotch Egg! It was actually invented at Fortnum & Mason and is a scrumptious combination of a hard-boiled egg (or soft-boiled) wrapped in sausage meat. Also interesting, is that their roof is home to its famous bees which produce delicious honey that is sold in-store and to its own salmon smokery and a space where they grow herbs and vegetables used in their restaurants!
“Fortnum & Mason is fabulously redolent of a time when luxury meant the highest degree of comfort rather than ostentation” says TimeOut magazine. Time there is a rare treat to be sure!
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