The Harrods — The World's First And The Most Beautiful Supermarket.

Founded as a family shop in East London in the early 19th century, the Knightsbridge department store Harrods has grown into a brand recognised all over the world. But it wasn't always plain sailing.

In 1824, a man named Charles Henry Harrod opened a shop in Southwark, London – a business which (contrary to perceived wisdom) was not a tea and grocery shop but a draper’s. After brushes with the law and more than a few dramatic setbacks, he would later go on to found Harrods store in Knightsbridge, widely viewed as one of the wonders of the shopping world.

Charles Henry Harrod was born in Essex in 1799, his parents’ third child. During Charles’ childhood, the Harrod family did not have a settled home and had to move several times because of his father’s job. William Harrod worked as a taxman or collector, collecting excise tax for the government, inspecting taxable bulk merchandise and preventing smuggling.

In 1825, Charles Henry’s draper’s shop was hit hard by a financial crash. Additionally, there was a lot of competition and the business began to struggle. However, in the early 1830s, the tea trade in Britain was beginning to open up, as the East India Company had lost its monopoly on the product. Charles Henry decided to try something new and to move across the Thames to Shadwell in East London, where the building of new docks allowed a much-improved method of unloading goods. This opened up prospects for an entrepreneur. In 1831 or 1832, Charles Henry gave up his Southwark drapery business and he opened a tea dealer and grocer’s shop in Cable Street.

In 1836, Charles Henry attempts to establish an apparently viable business suffered a considerable set back – a scarily close encounter with the law. After being targeted by a police operation, Charles Henry was caught red-handed receiving stolen goods. He was sentenced to transportation to Tasmania (Australia), as one of more than 160,000 prisoners that were transported to Australia between 1788 and 1868. This punishment would have seen him forced to leave England – and his shop – for seven years.

Following his sentencing, Charles Henry’s wife and friends made several appeals against his transportation, based on his good character and bad health. A total of 190 of Harrod’s friends and colleagues – including numerous shopkeepers – signed various petitions asking for his sentence to be commuted.

Fortunately for Charles Henry, the appeals proved successful and he was reprieved from transportation. He was sent to Millbank prison for a year and was reunited with his family in the spring or summer of 1837, eventually returning to continue with his business.

Charles Henry learned his lesson and trade gradually increased. He was able to start his own wholesale business in Eastcheap, creating a solid base that some years later enabled him to lay the foundations for the Knightsbridge store of today.

The move to Brompton Road was a speculative but brilliant move at a time that the city was rapidly sprawling westwards, partially aided by The Great Exhibition of 1851 held in Hyde Park. Harrod was able to take over an existing grocer’s shop on the Brompton Road on the site of the present building. It was run by a client of his wholesale business who had got into financial difficulties and allowed Charles Henry to gradually take over in lieu of his debts.

Charles Henry Harrod consolidated his position and progressively expanded the shop and business activity.

Charles Digby Harrod was a human dynamo compared to his more careful father. A hard but fair taskmaster, he got the best out of his loyal workers. Competitors were seen off, new methods of advertising and trading were used and new departments followed. Charles Digby bought up neighbouring shops as they became available and gradually the footprint of the present store began to be formed.

His business was based not on the luxury goods and clients of today, but on selling good quality at a low price to anyone who would buy. The store’s up-market business model would follow later.

In 1883, during the build-up to the busy Christmas sales season, calamity struck as a fire burnt the store down to the ground. The response in the press suggested that all was lost. For many, this would have been an enormous setback.

Yet in typical fashion, Charles Digby turned the disaster into an opportunity to build the shop afresh, extend the departments and modernise the layout. He fulfilled every Christmas order on time using temporary premises across the road together with the hard work of his staff. His reputation – and that of the store – was enhanced.

By the end of the century, Charles Digby was the father of eight grown-up children. Despite this, there was no one able to take over the reins. Charles Digby decided to retire and the business was sold. Forty years of Harrod control of the store came to an end and a Limited Company was formed, with the first of a series of Burbidge family members in charge.

The current building was constructed between 1901 and 1905. It was commissioned by Richard Burbidge, who had previously installed one of the first escalators in the former building in 1898.

Animals have long had an association with the store. Playwright Noel Coward once bought a pet alligator there for Christmas. Another time, a cobra was used to guard a pair of sandals worth £62,000 due to the diamonds and sapphires embedded in them. In 1967, a baby elephant was bought at Harrods and given to Ronald Reagan.

The store also had a zoo in 1917 that started off with chickens and goats and later added exotic animals. Fictional animals also have a great history with Harrods, as author A.A. Milne bought a teddy bear there for his son Christopher Robin, a bear that became famous as Winnie the Pooh.

On an average day, approximately 100,000 people come to shop at Harrods. On peak days, especially during the Christmas season, this number can jump up to 300,000.

Mohamed Al-Fayed and his brother Ali bought Harrods in 1985 from House of Fraser in a bitter battle with mining conglomerate Lonrho.

Mr. Al-Fayed has put a few personal touches on the store since then, including the Egyptian Room, which features several busts of himself, and two memorials to his son Dodi and Diana, Princess of Wales, following their tragic deaths in 1997.

In 2000, he chose not to renew his royal warrants, citing that the Queen and Prince Charles had not shopped there in several years and it would be hypocritical for him to continue to display the seal. In 2010, he sold Harrods to Qatar Holdings for £1.5 billion.

The Toy Department of Harrods from 1904 to 2018: