Harrods
— — the terracotta block that lights up at dusk.
Not only on a wall.
“A department store the size of a city block, in pale terracotta, with green awnings and a name spelled in lights along the parapet. The building covers about five acres of selling floor across seven storeys, and the food halls near the centre are the part most regulars come back for. After dark the facade carries roughly twelve thousand bulbs, which is when the building looks most like the painting of itself. The traffic on Brompton Road does not stop for it. The building stops the traffic.
Harrods, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Harrods occupies a single block on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, about a half mile west of Hyde Park Corner. The store traces back to 1834, when Charles Henry Harrod opened a small tea and grocery on the Strand and moved the business to its present site in 1849. The current terracotta building, designed by Charles William Stephens, was completed in stages between 1894 and 1905. The selling floor covers roughly five acres across seven storeys, with around 330 departments inside. Knightsbridge tube station opens directly onto the corner.
The facade is the part everyone photographs, and the reason is the lighting. The exterior carries about twelve thousand bulbs traced along the cornices, parapets and dome, and they come up around dusk year round. The terracotta is a warm pinkish-orange in daylight and turns gold under the bulbs. The building reads as a single lit object from the south side of Brompton Road, especially in the wet months when the road surface holds the reflection. The store keeps the lights on through the late evening even when the doors are closed.
The store is open seven days a week, generally 10:00 to 21:00 Monday through Saturday and 11:30 to 18:00 on Sunday, with a browsing hour either side of trading. Entry is free. There is a dress code, gently enforced at the door — no beachwear, no bare feet, no exposed midriff. The Food Halls on the ground floor are the easiest first visit and the busiest part of the building, especially around midday. The Egyptian Escalator, installed in 1997, runs through the centre of the store and is the simplest way up to the upper floors.