Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Charles Henry Harrod opened a single room shop, where the department store is located
now, after the Great Exhibition in 1851. At its start, the shop only had two assistants, in-
cluding Harrod's son Charles Digby Harrod, who expanded the small store and by 1880
employed over 100 people, taking up several buildings on the block. Like all good things
in London's history, the building burnt down in December 1883, but was too well-known to
let a fire end its reign. They re-opened with a new building on the same site soon after and
became the shopping spot for world celebrities at the time, such as Oscar Wilde, Charlie
Chaplin and the Royal Family.
Harrods is where the first escalator debuted on November 16, 1898 and people had to be
given brandy to actually work up the nerve to try it out. The department store is now owned
by Qatar Holdings and its greatest symbol is its reusable green shopping bags sold in store.
Harrods is open Monday-Saturday, 10am-8pm; Sunday, 11:30am-6pm. Visit their website
at
www.harrods.com
.
If Harrods isn't in your picnic lunch budget
, visit Sainsbury's Local or Waitrose, which
have locations on Brompton Road, just before Harrods on the opposite side of the road
