Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The old Roman road to Oxford has been London's main
shopping
mecca for the last cen-
tury. Today, despite successive recessions and sky-high rents, this aesthetically unremark-
able two-mile hotchpotch of shops is still one of the world's busiest streets. East of Oxford
Circus, it forms the northern border of Soho; to the west, the one great landmark is
Sel-
fridges
, a huge Edwardian pile fronted by giant Ionic columns, with the Queen of Time rid-
ing the ship of commerce and supporting an Art Deco clock above the main entrance. The
store was opened in 1909 by Chicago millionaire Gordon Selfridge, who flaunted its 130 de-
partments under the slogan, “Why not spend a day at Selfridges?”; he was later pensioned
off after an altercation with the Inland Revenue.
