Harrods
Type	Private
Genre	Department Store
Founded	1834
Founder	Charles Henry Harrod
Headquarters	London, England
Industry	Retail
Products	Quality/Lifestyle
Owner	Mohamed al-Fayed
Employees	5000+
Parent	Harrods
Website	www.harrods.com

Harrods is a department store that specialises in luxury goods on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. A genre (ˈʒɑːnrə also /ˈdʒɑːnrə/ from French "kind" or "sort" from Latin: genus (stem gener-) is a loose set A department store is a Retail establishment which specializes in selling a wide range of products without a single predominant merchandise line. An entrepreneur is a person who has possession over a company enterprise, or Venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome Charles Henry Harrod (1799–1885 was a Businessman involved in Retail trade who founded the highly popular Harrods store in London. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland For other uses of this term see Industry (disambiguation An industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent industrious" In Marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a Market that might satisfy a want or need Ownership is the state or fact of exclusive rights and control over Property, which may be an object, land/real estate, Intellectual property Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. A holding company is a company that owns part all or a majority of other companies' outstanding Stock. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages A department store is a Retail establishment which specializes in selling a wide range of products without a single predominant merchandise line. Brompton Road is a street in Knightsbridge, London. It starts from Knightsbridge tube station and runs south-west through an extremely wealthy residential Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of Central London. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Casino, Harrods Aviation, and Air Harrods. A brand is a collection of Images and ideas representing an economic producer more specifically it refers to the descriptive verbal attributes and concrete symbols such as a Harrods Bank Limited is a private personalized Banking service which operates from the Harrods store in Knightsbridge. Harrods Estates are a London based Estate agents which offer services for buying renting and managing Property. Harrods Casino was a Computer software based Online gambling service operated by Envy Entertainment N Harrods Aviation Limited (formerly known as Metro Business Aviation Ltd) is a service provider for business aviation in the United Kingdom. Air Harrods Limited is the aircraft charter arm of the Mohamed Al-Fayed owned Harrods company

The store occupies a 4. 5 acre site and has over one million square feet of selling space in over 330 departments. This makes Harrods the largest department store in the world (a tie with New York's Macy's) and by far the largest in the United Kingdom (the UK's second-biggest store, Oxford Street's Selfridges is a little over half the size with 540,000-square-foot (50,000 m²)^[1] of selling space). Macy's is a chain of mid-range American Department stores Its Flagship store in Herald Square, New York City has been billed Selfridges is a chain of Department stores in the United Kingdom.

The Harrods motto is Omnia Omnibus Ubique —- All Things for All People, Everywhere. Several of its departments, including the seasonal Christmas department and the Food Hall are world famous. The nearest tube station to the store is Knightsbridge. The London Underground is a Metro system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire Knightsbridge tube station is a London Underground station in Knightsbridge. An entrance to the station is positioned adjacent to the store.

History

Fashion plate of 1909 shows upper-class Londoners walking in front of Harrods

Harrods was established in 1834 in London’s East End, when founder Charles Henry Harrod set up a wholesale grocery in Stepney,^[2] with a special interest in tea. Charles Henry Harrod (1799–1885 was a Businessman involved in Retail trade who founded the highly popular Harrods store in London. Stepney is an inner-city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. In 1849, to escape the filth of the inner city and to capitalise on trade to the Great Exhibition of 1851 in nearby Hyde Park, Harrod took over a small shop in the district of Knightsbridge, on the site of the current store. The Great Exhibition, also known as Crystal Palace, was an international exhibition that was held in Hyde Park, London, England, from 1 Hyde Park is one of the largest Parks in central London, England and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of Central London. Beginning in a single room employing two assistants and a messenger boy, Harrod’s son Charles Digby Harrod built the business into a thriving retail operation selling medicines, perfumes, stationery, fruit, and vegetables. Charles Digby Harrod (1841–1905 was an English Merchant who expanded Harrods in London into a Department store after his father Harrods rapidly expanded, acquired the adjoining buildings, and employed one hundred people by 1880.

However, the store’s booming fortunes were reversed in early December 1883, when it burnt to the ground. ^[3] Remarkably, in view of this calamity, Charles Harrod fulfilled all of his commitments to his customers to make Christmas deliveries that year — and made a record profit in the process. In short order, a new building was raised on the same site, and soon Harrods extended credit for the first time to its best customers, among them Oscar Wilde, legendary actresses Lilly Langtry and Ellen Terry, Noël Coward, Sigmund Freud, A. A. Milne, and many members of the British royal family. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900 was an Irish Playwright, Novelist, poet and Author of Lillie Langtry ( 13 October 1853 &ndash 12 February 1929) born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, was a highly successful British Dame Ellen Terry GBE ( 27 February 1847 &ndash 21 July 1928) was an English stage actress. Sir Noël Peirce Coward ( 16 December 1899 26 March 1973) was an English Actor, Playwright Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded Alan Alexander Milne (ˈmɪln (18 January 1882 &ndash 31 January 1956 was an English Author, best known for his Books about the Teddy bear The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom.

In 1898, Harrods installed what is claimed to be the world's first moving staircase (escalator); nervous customers were offered brandy at the top to revive them after their 'ordeal'. An escalator is a Conveyor transport device for transporting people consisting of individual linked steps that move up or down on tracks which keep the treads Brandy (from brandywine, derived from Dutch brandewijn — “burnt wine” is a spirit produced by distilling Wine ^[4]

Significant events in Harrods history

• 1834: Charles Henry Harrod (1799-1885) founds a wholesale grocery in Stepney, East London
• 1849: Harrods moves to the Knightsbridge area of London, near Hyde Park
• 1861: Harrods undergoes a transformation when it was taken over by Harrod's son, Charles Digby Harrod (1841-1905)
• 1883: On December 6, fire guts the shop buildings, giving the family the opportunity to rebuild on a grander scale
• 1889: Charles Digby Harrod retires, and Harrods shares are floated on the London Stock Exchange under the name Harrod's Stores Limited
• 1905: Begun in 1894, the present building is completed to the design of architect Charles William Stephens. Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of Central London. Events 1060 - Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary 1240 - Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev The London Stock Exchange or LSE is a Stock exchange located in London, England. ^[5]
• 1912: Harrods opens its first and only foreign branch in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Buenos Aires is the Capital and largest city of Argentina. It is geographically located on the southern shore of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Argentina topics. It became independent of Harrods in the late 1940s but still traded under the Harrods name.
• 1914: Harrods purchases the Regent Street department store Dickins & Jones. Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London 's West End. Dickins & Jones was a Department store that had operated between 1835 and 2006 (tracing origins as early as 1803 in London, United Kingdom.
• 1919: Harrods purchases the Manchester department store, Kendals; It took on the Harrods name for a short time in the 1920s, but the name was changed back to Kendals following protests from staff and customers. Kendals, Kendal Milne & Co, Kendal Milne & Falkner or Watt's was the name of a Department store in Manchester, England. ^[6]
• 1959: The British department store holding company, House of Fraser, buys Harrods. House of Fraser is a British Department store group with 63 stores (April 2008 across the United Kingdom and Ireland.
• 1983: A high-profile Provisional IRA bomb outside the Knightsbridge store kills six people. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Óglaigh na hÉireann ( IRA; also referred to as the PIRA, the Provos, or by some of its supporters as the
• 1985: The al-Fayed brothers buy the store for £615 million. ^[7]
• 1994: The relationship between House of Fraser and Harrods is severed. Harrods remains under the ownership of the Al-Fayed family, and House of Fraser is floated on the stock exchange. A stock exchange, share market or bourse is a Corporation or Mutual organization which provides "trading" facilities for Stock
• 1997: The British court issues an injunction to restrain the Buenos Aires Harrods store from trading under the Harrods name. ^[8]
• 2006: The Harrods "102" store opens opposite the main store on Brompton Road; it features concessions like Krispy Kreme and Yo! Sushi, as well as florists, a herbalist, a masseur, and an oxygen spa. Krispy Kreme is a chain of Doughnut stores Its parent company is Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc YO! Sushi is a British restaurant chain which was started by British entrepreneur Simon Woodroffe in 1998 and is part of the YO! Company. ^[9]
• 2006: Omar Fayed, Mohamed's youngest son, joins the Harrods board.

Products and services

The store's 330 departments offer a wide range of products and services. Products on offer include clothing for every sort of customer (women, men, children, and infants), electronics, jewellery, sporting gear, bridal trousseau, pets and pet accessories, toys, food and drink, health and beauty items, packaged gifts, stationery, housewares, home appliances, furniture, and much more.

Harrods at Christmas

A representative sample of store services includes 28 restaurants, serving everything from high tea to tapas to pub food to haute cuisine; a personal shopping-assistance programme known as "By Appointment"; a watch repair service; a tailor; a dispensing pharmacy; a beauty spa and salon; a barbers shop; Harrods Financial Services; Harrods Bank; private events planning and catering; food delivery; a wine steward; bespoke "picnic" hampers and gift boxes; bespoke cakes; and bespoke fragrance formulations. Depending on a country's customs tea can refer to any of several different meals or mealtimes For the spritual concept see Tapas (Sanskrit; for the Spanish film see Tapas (film. Haute cuisine (literally "high cooking" in French) or grande cuisine refers to the cooking of the grand restaurants and hotels of Bespoke is usually a British English term for Tailored clothing (including coats suits and shirts made at a customer's request and exactly to the

Up to 300,000 customers visit the store on peak days, comprising the highest proportion of customers from non-English speaking countries of any department store in London. More than five thousand staff from over fifty different countries work at Harrods. A fleet of fifty delivery vehicles make up to 225,000 deliveries every year. Approximately 11,500 energy-efficient light bulbs turn Harrods into a beacon of light each night, 300 of which are replaced every day.

There are also a number of concessions opposite the main store on Brompton Road in 'Harrods 102' such as Turnbull & Asser, HMV, Waterstones, Krispy Kreme and David Clulow Opticians. Turnbull & Asser is a British clothier established in 1885 In addition to its flagship store on Jermyn Street in London, England, it also Waterstone's is a United Kingdom –based chain of bookshops. Krispy Kreme is a chain of Doughnut stores Its parent company is Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc

Sale of Fur

Harrods and Mohamed Al-Fayed have been criticised for selling real animal fur with regular protests organised outside Harrods^[10]. Harrods is the only department store in the UK to still sell real fur. ^[11]

Royal warrants

The opulent Egyptian-style clothing department at Harrods, London. Ancient Egyptian art refers to the style of painting sculpture crafts and architecture developed by the Civilization in the lower Nile Valley from 5000 Many places in the store's interior have an Ancient Egyptian theme, to reflect the owner's heritage. Al Fayed has had the decor listed so it can never be removed or altered with.

Harrods was the holder of royal warrants from:

• Queen Elizabeth II for Provisions and Household Goods
• The Duke of Edinburgh as Outfitters
• The Prince of Wales as Outfitters and Saddlers
• The Queen Mother, now deceased, for China and Glass

Harrods had held The Duke of Edinburgh's warrant since 1956, but it was rescinded by Prince Philip on 21 December 2001 because of a "significant decline in the trading relationship" between the duke and the store. History The earliest recorded British Royal Charter was granted to the Weavers’ Company in 1155 by Henry II of England. For the ship see RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Context States headed by Elizabeth II Prince of Wales (Tywysog Cymru is a title traditionally granted to the Heir Apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom (and formerly the Kingdom Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (Elizabeth Angela Marguerite 4 August 1900 &ndash 30 March 2002 was the Queen Consort of King George Events 69 - The end of the Year of the four emperors: Following Galba, Otho and Vitellius, Vespasian Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar.

Al-Fayed then pre-emptively removed all the royal coats of arms that had been prominently displayed by the business, even though other warrants were yet to expire or be withdrawn. None of the royal grantors of warrants had spent any money at Harrods since 1997, the year Diana, Princess of Wales, died.

Egyptian Cobra

On 10 September, 2007, Harrods hired a live Egyptian cobra to protect the shoe counter, guarding a £62,000 (€84,880) pair of haute couture ruby-sapphire-and diamond-encrusted sandals launched by designer Rene Caovilla. Events 506 - The Bishops of Visigothic Gaul meet in the Council of Agde. The Egyptian cobra ( Naja haje) commonly confused with the Snouted cobra ( Naja annulifera) is a type of venomous Snake native A shoe is an item of Footwear. Shoes may vary from a simple Flip-flop to a complex Boot. In Digital logic and Computing, a counter is a device which stores (and sometimes displays the number of times a particular event or process A Ruby is a pink to blood-red Gemstone, a variety of the Mineral Corundum ( Aluminium oxide) Sapphire (antique greek hyacinthos refers to gem varieties of the mineral Corundum, an Aluminium oxide (Al2O3 when it is a color other than In Mineralogy, diamond is the allotrope of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in ^[12]

The first of two memorials to Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Al-Fayed in Harrods.

Memorials

"Innocent Victims", the second of two memorials in Harrods.

Since the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Al-Fayed, Mohamed Al-Fayed's son, two memorials commissioned by Al-Fayed have been erected inside Harrods to the couple. On 31 August 1997, Diana Princess of Wales died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed ( Arabic عماد الدين محمد عبد المنعم الفايد) ( April 15, 1955 &ndash The first, unveiled on April 12, 1998, consists of photographs of the two behind a pyramid-shaped display that holds a wine glass still smudged with lipstick from Diana's last dinner as well as what is described as an engagement ring Dodi purchased the day before they died. Events 467 - Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) ^[13]

The second memorial, unveiled in 2005 and located by the Egyptian escalator at door three is titled "Innocent Victims", is a bronze statue of the two dancing on a beach beneath the wings of an albatross. The albatross is a bird that is said to symbolise the "Holy Spirit". ^[14] The sculpture was created by 80 year old Bill Mitchell who is a close friend of Al-Fayed and has been the artistic design advisor to Harrods for 40 years.

Mr Al Fayed said he wanted to keep the pair's "spirit alive" through the statue. ^[15]

Further reading

• Chris Bennett and Colin Cameron (2000-02-07). 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. Events 457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1074 - Battle of Montesarchio in which the Prince Behind the Scenes at Harrods. Andre Deutsch. ISBN 0-233-99617-6.  
• Tim Dale (November 1986). Harrods: The Store and the Legend. Pan. ISBN 0-330-29800-3.  

References

Notes:

References:

External links

• Harrods website
• Harrods Aviation
• Harrods Estates
• Harrods store elevation
• Mohamed al-Fayed interview Harrods Owner