Harrods

Harrods is the most famous department store in London, ‘the top people’s shop’, frequented by royalty, the wealthy as well as the ordinary shopper.

Located on the Brompton Road in the fashionable Knightsbridge area of west London just to the south of Hyde Park, Harrods has made its reputation over more than 150 years by selling the finest quality products and providing the highest standard of service with the store’s motto being ‘Everything for Everybody Everywhere’.

Harrods started business in 1834 when Charles Henry Harrod opened a wholesale grocer’s shop at Stepney in the East End of London. In 1849 Harrod moved his shop to its current location and over the coming years his son built up the business until it became a public company in 1889. The current store building was built in 1901 and today the six storeys have more than one million square feet of selling space spread over 4.5 acres, with over 5,000 staff working in its 330 different departments.

Harrods is known for its spectacular food hall (the store actually has over 20 restaurants inside), fashion and clothing, china and glassware, electronic goods, very expensive one off items and its annual sales which are always a media event with customers queueing outside for days to get some incredible bargains and the sale usually being opened by a Hollywood celebrity or famous entertainment figure.

Harrods is today owned by the controversial Egyptian billionaire Mohammed al-Fayed who also owns Premiership football club Fulham and the Ritz hotel in Paris. Mohammed al-Fayed is also the father of Dodi al-Fayed, Princess Diana’s boyfriend who died with her in the 1997 Paris car crash, and he’s had a long running legal campaign to try and prove the British Royal Family and MI6 where behind the deaths. Visitors to Harrods today can see two memorials al-Fayed has erected to Dodi and Diana.

Harrods used to operate a sort of dress code for customers where rolling up in say vest top, shorts and flipflops would have got you turned away by one of their doormen but I think that may have fallen by the wayside now. Today Harrods is on the to see list of many visitors to London even if they don’t end up buying anything there, although even walking out with a small bag with the distinctive Harrods logo on it can be something to show off.

Knightsbridge on the Piccadilly Line is the nearest Tube station to Harrods and the store is on the left hand side of Brompton Road as you walk down and is pretty hard to miss (Map). Below are the contact details and opening hours.

Address: 87-135 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London, SW1X 7XL
Tel:020 7730 1234
Fax:020 7225 6633
Opening Hours
Mon-Sat 10am-9pm(to end August)
Sun 12noon-6pm