All photos: © Make Architects
London department store Harrods has long walked a fine line between serious luxury and outrageous excess. One of former owner Mohamed Al-Fayed’s additions to the store (created by director of design William Mitchell) was the rather incongruous sounding ‘Egyptian Escalator’, which, while a bit rich for some tastes, is certainly eye-catching.
Now owned by Qatar Holdings, the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, the famous Knightsbridge store is modernising (within reason), and the latest addition is a rather less ostentatious, but none the less stylish set of escalators designed by Make Architects.
According to the designers, the concept celebrates and respects the store’s rich heritage and architectural history.
The redesigned space is located behind the Basil Street frontage of Harrods, and includes 16 new escalators over eight floors, careful restoration of the original 1928 listed staircase, upgrade of all interior finishes and the creation of a dramatic new rooflight.
According to Make Architects, the renovation ‘creates a unique sense of place with handcrafted materials’.
Bespoke escalators, with British-made fluted bronze cladding, were drawn from the details and proportion of the historic external façade of Basil Street. The listed Art Deco staircase was restored by reintroducing cast metal newel lights and sourcing the last remaining blocks of the original Slovenian marble.
Make Architects also re-opened large windows that were previously covered and extended the hall to roof level with an elegant new rooflight. Visual merchandising screens, framed with polished black granite, have been integrated into the scheme and at the ground floor grand hall entrance, a six-metre long Dale Chihuly hand-blown glass chandelier has been commissioned and will be installed in the New Year.
