Harrods

About Harrods

British department store

Harrods is the most famous store in London and one of the most famous department stores in the world, standing on Brompton Road in upmarket Knightsbridge. The present building was designed by C. W. Stephens for Charles Digby Harrod and opened in 1905, replacing the first store founded on the site by his father Charles Henry Harrod in 1849, which burned down in 1881. With about 100,000 square metres of selling space it is the largest department store in Europe and one of the largest in the world, receiving 15 million visitors a year as of 2023, and its terracotta building with its famous night-time illumination of thousands of lights has been Grade II* listed since 1969. The original company traded on the London Stock Exchange from 1889 and was merged into the House of Fraser in 1959; the Fayed brothers acquired it in 1985, split it off as a private company in 1994 and formed the present Harrods Group in 2006, before selling it in 2010 to the Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, so that the store is today owned by the State of Qatar. For decades it has been a favourite destination of visitors from the Gulf and the Arab world as well as the British establishment. The store holds departments of luxury fashion, jewellery, perfume and toys, the famous Food Halls with their historic decor, dozens of restaurants and cafes including halal options, and a large section of Harrods-branded gifts and teas.

Where:

London, United Kingdom