Whiteleys

Whiteleys stands in Bayswater, a district of Westminster, London. The building once housed one of Britain’s earliest department stores, opened in 1911 on Queensway. It replaced an earlier store founded in 1863 by William Whiteley, who expanded from drapery into food, decorating and household services. The 1911 building was designed by John Belcher and John James Joass and claimed to be the largest shop in the world at the time. After a fire in 1887 destroyed the original premises, Whiteleys rebuilt and later moved to Queensway. The store suffered bomb damage during the Second World War and changed hands several times. The site is now a mixed-use complex owned by Meyer Bergman and CC Land. It contains 139 apartments, the UK’s first Six Senses hotel and ground-floor shops. The redevelopment, led by Norman Foster, preserved parts of the façade and some interior features from earlier schemes. The building was listed Grade II in 1970 and has appeared in novels and plays, including George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. Dr A. J. Cronin worked there as medical officer in the late 1920s before rival store Selfridges bought the business. Visitors find a modern shopping and living space inside the historic shell. The ground floor holds retail units arranged around a central mall. Above, the upper levels contain apartments and a hotel with spa facilities. The exterior still shows the grand Queensway frontage designed in the 1920s. Inside, remnants of the original staircases and railings remain, while new lifts and services serve the residential floors. The mixed programme brings together daily shopping, dining and residential life in one building.