Harrods: from a Knightsbridge grocery to a global luxury store
In 1849 Charles Henry Harrod, a wholesale grocer and tea merchant, took over a small shop in Knightsbridge, then a village on the edge of London. His son, Charles Digby Harrod, expanded the business into a department store.
After a fire in 1883, the store was rebuilt, and the red terracotta building on Brompton Road was completed in the early 1900s. Its motto, Omnia Omnibus Ubique, means “all things for all people, everywhere.”
Firsts and food halls
Harrods installed one of London’s first escalators in 1898 and offered brandy to nervous riders. Its food halls, with their tiled walls, became a tourist attraction in their own right.
Owners
Mohamed Al Fayed bought Harrods in 1985 and owned it for 25 years. In 2010 he sold it to Qatar Holding, part of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. After his death in 2023, Harrods faced allegations of abuse against him from former employees, and the company set up a compensation scheme.
The store today
Harrods is one of the biggest department stores in Europe. It depends heavily on international shoppers, especially from the Middle East and Asia. Changes in tax-free shopping rules for tourists in Britain have been a concern for the store and other West End retailers.
