Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge
is irredeemably snobbish, revelling in its reputation as the swankiest
shopping area in London, with designer stores all the way down
Sloane Street
, and its
pretty little mews streets, built to house servants and stables, but now inhabited by the
rich themselves. However, most people come to Knightsbridge for just one reason: to
visit Harrods, London's most famous department store.
Belgravia
, over to the east and
strategically close to Buckingham Palace, is London's chief embassy land, with at least
25 scattered among the grid-plan stuccoed streets. All in all, it's a pretty soulless place,
although there are one or two lovely pubs hidden in the various mews.
18
Harrods
87-135 Brompton Rd • Mon-Sat 10am-8pm, Sun noon-6pm •
T
020 7730 1234,
W
harrods.com •
!
Knightsbridge
Housed in a grandiose 1905 terracotta building, which turns into a palace of fairy lights
at night,
Harrods
has come a long way since it started out as a family-run grocer's in
1849. Nowadays, it is the UK's largest shop, spread over seven floors, five acres, with
over 5000 staff, and over 15 million customers a year. If you are coming to visit, note
that a “clean and presentable”
dress code
is enforced and backpacks either have to be
carried in the hand or placed in the store's left luggage (£3). Once here, however, you
can avail yourself of the first-floor “luxury washrooms” and splash on a range of
perfumes for free.
Even if you don't want one of the distinctive olive-green Harrods
carrier bags, the store
has a few sections on the ground floor that are sights in their own right. Chief among
these is the
Food Hall
, with its exquisite Arts and Crafts tiling. There's also an Egyptian
Hall, with pseudo-hieroglyphs and sphinxes, and an Egyptian Escalator, with a
Di and
Dodi fountain shrine
. Here, to the strains of Mahler (and the like), you can contemplate
photos of the ill-fated couple, and, preserved in an acrylic pyramid, a used wine-glass
from the couple's last evening and the engagement ring Dodi allegedly bought for Di
the previous day. Another memorial has been erected at Door Three, a life-size bronze
statue entitled
Innocent Victims
, depicting the couple dancing on a beach and clutching
an albatross. Dodi's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed, sold Harrods to the Qatari royal family
for £1.5 billion in 2010, but so far the memorials are still
in situ
.
Chelsea
Until the sixteenth century,
Chelsea
was nothing more than a tiny fishing village on
the banks of the Thames, centred around Chelsea Old Church. It was Thomas More
who started the upward trend by moving here in 1520, followed by members of the
nobility, including Henry VIII himself. In the eighteenth century, Chelsea acquired its
riverside houses along Cheyne Walk, which gradually attracted a posse of literary and
intellectual types. However, it wasn't until the late nineteenth century that the area
began to earn its reputation as London's very own Left Bank.
In the 1960s, Chelsea was at the forefront of “Swinging London”, with the likes of
David Bailey, Mick Jagger, George Best and the “Chelsea Set” hanging out in the
boutiques and coffee bars. Later, the
King's Road
became a catwalk for hippies and in
the late 1970s it was the unlikely epicentre of the punk explosion. Nothing so risqué
goes on in Chelsea now, with franchise fashion rather than cutting edge couture the
order of the day, though some of its residents like to think of themselves as a cut above
the purely moneyed types of Kensington. The area's other aspect, oddly enough
considering its reputation, is a
military
one, with the former Chelsea Barracks, the
Royal Hospital and the National Army Museum.
Sloane Square
A leafy nexus on the very eastern edge of Chelsea,
Sloane Square
is centred on a
modern Venus fountain, featuring a relief of Charles II and Nell Gwynne. On the east
