Omnia Omnibus Ubique – the terracotta palace of everything, food halls’ Doulton tiles and the night facade’s 12,000 bulbs.
At a glance
- Type
- Department store
- Period
- Rebuilt 1894-1905
- Style
- Edwardian Baroque terracotta
- Location
- Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London, UK
- Coordinates
- 51.4994, -0.1632
- Architect
- Charles William Stephens
Overview
Harrods’ terracotta cliff runs Brompton Road under the motto Omnia Omnibus Ubique – all things for all people everywhere – the 1905 rebuilding’s salmon-pink baroque housing retail’s legend: the Doulton-tiled food halls’ peacock ceilings, England’s first escalator (1898, brandy offered at the top for nerves), and departments that once sold lion cubs and alligators.
History
Charles Henry Harrod’s 1849 grocery grew through fire and rebuild to Edwardian empire; the Christmas grotto invented the genre. Fayed decades added the Egyptian halls’ pharaonic kitsch and the Diana-Dodi shrines; Qatari ownership’s renovations polish the brand’s palace. The night illumination – 12,000 bulbs tracing the facade – is Knightsbridge’s constellations.
Architecture and Design
Stephens’ dome and cupolas crown bays of Royal Doulton terracotta; WJ Neatby’s 1902 food-hall tiles – hunting friezes, peacocks – rank with Victorian ceramic art’s best rooms. The Egyptian escalator descends in pharaonic theatre.
Cultural significance
Harrods is retail as monument – the department store’s world synonym – and London iconography’s green-bag ambassador.
Visiting today
Open daily; food halls reward even windowless budgets. Dress codes relaxed but bags searched; the facade’s lights photograph from Hans Crescent.
Getting there
Knightsbridge station’s Harrods exit names itself.
Sources and resources
Find it on the map
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