Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of upscale department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited, part of the Selfridges Group of department stores. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1908
 
Harry Gordon Selfridge, fresh from success at Marshall Field’s in Chicago, invested £400,000 to build the store on what was then an unfashionable stretch of Oxford Street near Marble Arch. Designed by architect Daniel Burnham, the neoclassical building spans 540,000 square feet across multiple phases, with high ceilings, nine passenger lifts, and grand features like the “Queen of Time” sculpture above the entrance.
 
Interesting facts...
The store features an extensive basement complex beneath its lower-ground floor, divided into “sub” and “sub-sub” levels that plunge about 60 meters (200 feet) below street level. These areas split further into “dry” sections under the rear SWOD building (named for the surrounding streets: Somerset, Wigmore, Orchard, Duke) and damper “wet” zones beneath the 1909 core near Duke Street.
The dry SWOD basements served as a secure hub for 50 US Army Signal Corps soldiers during the war, equipped with rare telex lines safe from bombs and near the US Embassy. High-profile visits included Eisenhower and Churchill