London Insider: Concise History of “Harrods”

Harrods facade

London Insider:

A Concise History of “Harrods”

Currently Situated

Harrods is a brand name that springs up to mind allusions to: luxury, fine taste, high-end retailers, Christmas spirit and of course, the panic-laden Christmas Sales Rush. The luxurious, high- end retailer operates only in London, but its name is an international retail icon with influential awareness on a worldwide level.

Harrods Iconic Department Store is located on London’s East End, Knightsbridge, and Brompton Road. The premises of one of the Historical landmarks of the City are situated in one of London’s most prestigious and posh neighborhoods, commonly called the “Tiara Triangle”. Allegedly, the sixty per cent majority of the “Harrods” clientele are denizens of the surrounding area.

Harrods’ inside trip

Harrods irrefutably meets its ambitious expectation to the fullest as prescribed by its Latin motto: “Omnia Omnibus Ubique” translated into “All things for all people, everywhere”.

Up to this very day, the world-wide renowned Harrods is a synonym term for an infinite products and services variety, ranging from Homewares, Utensils, Grocery, Delicacies, Confectionery, Wine and Spirits, Home Decoration articles and Ornaments, Furniture, Bedding, Men, Women and Children, as well as Infantile Clothing and Underwear, Sporting gear, Bridal Trousseaus, Cosmetics, Perfumes, Gifts, Souvenirs, to name just a few. Upon a generous visit to Harrods one can lavish into a fairy-tale shopping experience. To cut a long story short, Harrods attracts roughly fifteen million customers on an annual basis.

Harrods, moreover, houses several restaurants addressed to different palatal groups. Name, for instance , the “Galvin Demoiselle at the Conservatory” , a light- filled mezzanine restaurant with an outside Terrace space offering awe- inspiring vies of Knightsbridge.

Let us pay tribute to the “Chai Wu”, the place that offers mouth-watering dishes within an environment that blends traditional and contemporary Chinese culture. The customer of the “Champagne Bar” is spoiled by an offer of the full collection of Harrods’ Champagne menu, complemented by a seasonal menu.

The afternoon tea might be savored in the “Georgian”, which stands for London’s finest destination for the afternoon tea. The “Georgian” guest can experience the epitome of elegant dining. The “LaDuree”, the Parisian tearoom is the venue for world-famous macaroons.

Harrod’s Confectionery

With regard to the visitor’s coffee break, the options span include “Café Godiva”, “Ca’puccino” a homage shrine to the classic cappuccino, and Italian gelato, “In-Q Café”, “The Urban Retreat Café”, as well as “Harrods Roast and Bake”, situated on Basil Street.

It is now high time that we payed a tribute to the Garment’s Department: Harrods’ Home Page presents a vast variety of Designers, from Alexander McQueen, Armani, Burberry, Calvin Klein, Corneliani, Emporio Armani, Givenchy, La Martina, Kingsland, Missoni, Moschino, Ralph Lauren, Stefano Ricci, Zilli, amongst the most illustrious and heatly desired. It is fair to acknowledge that Harrods is more than a mere department store that carries high- quality branded and designer merchandise: Harrods is a community, a status symbol, an awe-inspiring experience, equally for the celebrities and the commoners.

Harrods has strong cultural ties to England, and a quintessentially British finesse and aesthetic suggesting that the Harrods brand would resonate with the city’s culture. If one associates this view with the mentality known as “Consumer Behaviour”, the conclusions drawn would divulge that it is the status and that British-bound elegance that is desired most and secondarily the product or the service per se. According to the “Consumer Behaviour” mentality, connoisseurs of the marketing aim at the creation of a brand’s unique association with specific sensations. In the case of Harrods, it probably aspires to the generation of a belonging to the community of the aristocracy of spirit and the honor towards a long-preserved code of manners and etiquette that, to an extensive degree isn’t exclusively dependent upon money. This standpoint might be reinforced if we take a closer view to the “Visitor Guidelines”, --that is, a euphemism for the Dress Code Policy of Harrods that was introduced under the Al-Fayeds, since 1989, and attracted an interesting variety of public sensation.

In a concise manner, according to the humorous title of “The Independent” that offered the Dress Code policy a rather unfavorable standpoint, “Don’t Come as You Are: There is Only Harrods Dress Code”. The list of the forbidden Items enumerate the following garments: high-cut, crouch Bermuda or beach shorts, swimwear, athletic singlets, cycling shorts, flip-flops or thong sandals; to complete the list, please do not enter if vested in midriff or bare feet, in dirty or unkempt clothing. Also, beware that rucksacks should be carried in hand or on your front rather than on your back or your shoulder. The aforementioned are the specifics of the Dressing regulation yet, there prevails the more general spirit of the proper Dressing dictum that prescribes that visitors are required to refrain from wearing clothing which may reveal intimate parts of the body or which portrays offensive pictures or writing. Also, as a Harrods customer, one must not wear a crash helmet. It is worth to touch upon the fact that the Harrods Dress Code is blind to whether the violator is rich or not.

                                   

Flashback to Harrods’s Rise

Charles Henry Harrod, 1799-1885

The founder of the world-renowned department store was an English tradesman; Charles Henry Harrod was born in Essex, at Lexden and had received rudimentary education. Contrary to popular wisdom, the first business was not a tea and grocery selling store, but a draper’s.

In 1824 Charles Henry Harrod is the owner of a draper’s business in Southwark. He worked in his drapery and haberdashery business for around eight years in the frame of a partnership that was later to be dissolved, in the year 1826.

In 1825 Charles Henry’s store is stricken by some financial crash, and the market competition is cut-throat, unfavorable.

Luckily though, in the early 1839, tea trade in England begins to gain ground, as a consequence of the loss of the East India’s monopoly on the product.

Charles then, with his (by ten years younger) wife, Elizabeth Digby, sensed a business opportunity. The married couple settles upon the decision to move across the Thames to Shadwell in East London. The relocation turned out to be lucrative for the entrepreneur.

In 1831 or 1832, Charles Henry abandoned his Southwark drapery business and with his spouse Elizabeth, they now inaugurate a tea dealer and grocer’s shop in Cable Street.

In 1836, though, Charles Henry and Elizabeth’s attempts to establish a viable business underwent a significant setback, as a consequence of a close encounter with the Law.

After being caught red-handed to receive stolen goods, Charles Henry was sentenced to transportation to “Van Dieman’s Land” as was the name used by Europeans for Tasmania at the time. Penal consequences forced him to relinquish England and business for seven years. Thanks to intervention, petitions and call for appeal by Harrod’s friends and colleagues, that eventually gave fruit, Charles Henry was reunited with his family in 1837, after a year of transportation and time in the Millbank prison.

The year of 1837 is the year of his returning to business.

Trade gradually increased, and thereafter Charles Henry was able to start his own business in Eastcheap, creating, from that point on, a solid cornerstone for the Knightsbridge store of today that prides among the wonders of the shopping world.

The Knightsbridge store was established in 1849 by Charles Henry Harrod, in its infancy as a single room and employing two assistants and a messenger boy. Its dominant merchandise comprised of tea and groceries. This one-room grocery and tea-selling business was administered in conjunction with his city business. Back at that time, he used to employ two assistants and a messenger boy.

 Charles Henry Harrod retired in 1864, having sold his store to his son, Charles Digby Harrod in 1861 and by means of his hard work, having laid the groundwork for the later-known Harrods, the Jewel of the “Tiara Triangle” Crown. As a father, Charles Henry Harrod was scrupulously fair with his sons, bequeathing each of his two sons equal aid during his life time and equal shares in his estate on death. The Harrods were a close-knit family, despite the bereavement of two out of their four born children on account of children diseases.

Charles Digby Harrod, 1841-1905

Recognized for its celebrity-endorsed sales, food hall and signature green bags, Harrods seven-storey department that is situated in Knightsbridge was rebuilt to its current design after a fire in 1883. Charles Henry Harrod worn after many years of hard graft was succeeded by his innovative son, Charles Digby Harrod who took the reins and elevated the store and its fame. Henry Digby Harrod steadily, and alongside with the booming economic circumstances that existed in the city at the time, expanded the business and to be it rendered a thriving department store offering everything from merchandise and perfumes to clothing and food and was attracting well-off clientele.

Charles Digby Harrod brought with him the energy and the drive to take the shop from a successful local grocer’s to a remarkable and complex department store, patronized by the wealthy and the famous. Compared to the more conservative Charles Henry Harrod, his son, Charles Digby Harrod was a human dynamo. He was renowned as a hard yet fair task maker and able to elicit the optimum out of his loyal workers. New methods of advertising and trading were invented and employed, following the opening of new departments. The store, additionally, enjoyed significant success insisting on ready money and low prices, along the lines of co-operatives such as the Army & Navy Co-operative Society. It was Charles Digby who bought neighboring stores and gradually he formulated the footprint of the present store. Charles Digby Harrod’s business of the time was not founded upon the luxury goods and the high-brow clientele of today, but upon selling goods of quality at a low price to anyone who would buy. The department’s up-market business model would later ensue.

Harrods department suffered a devastating fire in 1883.During the build-up to the Christmas sales season, and calamity struck as the store was burnt to the ground. Yet, the jewel of the Tiara Triangle rose from its ashes. In typical fashion, Charles Digby turned the disaster into an opportunity in order to reconstruct a five-storey department afresh, extend the departments and modernize the layout. The new premises were built with a handsome façade and interior which opened to universal acclaim in 1884. Adding to Harrod Digby’s creativity and professionalism, he also fulfilled every Christmas order on time using temporary premises across the road in conjunction with hard work on the part of his staff. Both Charles Digby Harrod and the department’s fame were restored and enhanced.

1920s Harrods employees fit routine1

 The closing of the son’s era

By the turn of the nineteenth century, Charles Digby Harrod was the father of eight children. Despite that fact, there was no one entitled able to assume control of the business. As a consequence, Charles Digby decided to retire and the business was sold to a new limited liability company, “Harrod’s Store Ltd”. Forty years of Harrods control were coming to an end; a Limited company was formed with the first of a series of Burbidge family members in charge.

Times have changed, and initially William Stewart, a formerly floor manager was appointed general manager. This appointment was not successful and, in 1891 he was replaced by Richard Burbidge a manager with previous experience in the Army & Navy Co-Operative Society. Burbidge continued to expand the business. At the beginning of the 29^th century Harrods was undertaking a series of major renovation and building works in its Brompton Street Store. The range of merchandise on offer was immense.

In 1914, Harrods acquired Dickins & Jones, with its prestigious Regent Street Store. 

In 1914, though, the First World War broke out rendering challenging conditions for maintaining Service and Stock.

In 1917, Richard Burbidge perished and he was succeeded as managing director by his son Woodman Burbidge.

The post-war era

The Great War ended and trade recovered quickly, and in1919 Kendal Milne, with its large department store in Manchester was acquired. This signaled the Harrod’s first step in the creation of a network of provincial stores.

1920s was the year when Harrods changed its name to Harrods Ltd. whilst the 1920s brought challenging trending conditions, Harrods continued to acquire other businesses. 

Sadly, the challenging conditions continued in the 1930s and the ominous calamity of the World War II proved to be particularly detrimental to the store’s trade.

By hook or by crook, but mostly as it was destined to manage so, Harrods come through the war and embarked again on a fresh period of acquisitions. Since 1949 to 1955 Harrods itself was the target of takeover bids.

In 1959, the House of Fraser Ltd saw off competitive offers from Debenhams and United Drapery stores to acquire the company.

Richard Burbidge, who had succeeded his father as the managing director in 1935, left Harrods soon after the takeover and he was substituted by Alfred Spence under House of Fraser’s ownership, the investment in the development of the store premises and merchandise continued with renovations undertaken and new department emerged in the 1960s, 1970, and the 1980s.

Conclusion

Harrods culture in its functional and its symbolic role is multidimensional, up to the scale where it is risky to describe precisely in a single term, or even in a single narrative.

For what it’s worth, Harrods alludes to a million more notions more than a successful, high-flying and robust business. All the more, it is a brand name loaded with the senses quintessentially and traditionally British, as it unfolded through the times. It incorporates the British soul and the attitude of soberness, of low-maintenance that honorably stands the test of time.

Although Harrods addresses to the high-brow and the well-off of the society, it is groundbreaking in the sense that it achieves to disperse that very touch of luxury, the haute-couture and the utopic, to the middle stratum of the society.

Bringing radical notions into the well-sealed conventional modus Vivendi is defined as a traditional revolution and is one of the elements that render it unique at people’s consciousness.

Harrods Wine Department in to a jazzy style speakeasy where you can indulge in an old fashioned martini or a Hendricks cocktail served in China.

Caterham Seven, Harrods Edition.