Selfridges & Co.

I took a wander along Oxford Street in the bitter cold at dusk today.  The Selfridges department store, at the swankier Marble Arch/Park Lane end of the famous London shopping street, has featured in my personal history a little bit over the time I've worked in the West End.  In the early 80's, during the Jane Fonda workout mania, I pulled on glittery legwarmers and went to aerobics classes at the newly-opened Danceworks in Balderton Street directly opposite the Selfridges clock.  In the 1990's I paid a then eye-watering £100 in the Selfridges sales for a tote bag which was the envy of every lady who saw it.  I used it for years until it literally fell apart.  And in the early 2000's I met up with a group of my old schoolfriends under the brightly lit Selfridges canopy below the clock for the first time in 25 years.  We went on to have a long and noisy lunch reminiscing together in one of the store's restaurants, and very nearly got thrown out.  I've never dared to eat there ever since.

Here's another view showing off the striking illumination of the ornate Selfridges building.