Return to List

SELFRIDGE'S DEPARTMENT STORE
400 Oxford Street, W1

If you are thinking, "What on earth does one of London's biggest and best-known department stores have to do with American history?" I'll tell you: Its founder, whose name was Harry Selfridge, was an American from Chicago!

If you've seen the TV series, "Mr. Selfridge," you'd know that already, but if you didn't, here's a brief biography.

Harry Gordon Selfridge was born in 1858 in Ripon, Wisconsin, but raised in neighboring Michigan. Before coming to England and founding the world-famous department store that bears his name, he worked 25 years for Marshall Field's equally famous department store in Chicago, Illinois. He started as a stock boy. When he left, he waa a partner in the business.

In 1906, following a retirement trip to London, Selfridge put up £400,000 to build his namesake store, which opened to wide aclaim in 1909. One of its pioneering features was situating the ladies cosmetics section just inside the front doors. Over the next three decades, Selfridge and his store were practically synonymous and from all accounts, he was loved and admired by customers and staff alike. Unfortunately for Selfridge, who became a widower in 1918 when his wife, Rose, died, his extravagant spending habits, the effects of the Great Depression, and the enormous debt he ran up over time, led in 1941 to the store's board of directors pushing its founder out and taking over management. He died six years later, at Putney. He is buried next to his wife at St. Marks Churchyard at Highcliffe, in Dorset.

Several well-known quotes are attributed to Selfridge, such as "The customer is always right" and "The boss says I, the leader we."

Today, Selfridge's continues to be one of London's most popular big stores, attracting customers from not just all over London, but from all over the world.

Public domain picture of Harry Selfridge courtesy Wikipedia.