Shopping: Fortnum & Mason
Everyone knows the Knightsbridge Two – Harrods and Harvey Nichols. But for my money, particularly if you’re food shopping, Fortnums is much more fun.
The shop’s reputation rests on its food hall. And the food really is tremendous. Of course nowadays you can get chorizo in every supermarket and canned olives from the corner shop. But peruse any of Elizabeth David’s cookery books and you’ll get a feel for how difficult it used to be to get such things in England – in one of them she actually gives the addresses of the two (only two!) shops in Soho where you can get some of the ingredients. So Fortnums must have stood out from the crowd.
And it still does, thank goodness. This isn’t ever going to be my source of regular supplies, but for a touch of luxury, it’s unparalleled.
Potted stilton. Fine teas. Picnic hampers for Glyndebourne or Henley. Fortnums own relish. A fine bakery. Even an ice cream parlour, with a rather art deco feel (and by the way, here’s a nice bit of trvivia: Fortnum’s was the first store in London to serve knickerbocker glories).
Don’t forget though that this is a department store – the food is just part of it. But the food is, I’ve always felt, the most accessible part of the shopping experience, unless you have serious amounts of money to spend.
However, those who remember the old Fortnums with its neo-Georgian opulence, its red carpets and chandeliers, may be disappointed. Thouh some of the carpets and chandeliers have been kept, the store’s recent makeover has taken away some of its distinctiveness and replaced it with modern upmarket mall style – as Jonathan Glancey complains in the Guardian.
Even if you don’t want to go shopping, the store has an amusement for you – the huge clock over the shop entrance. Every hour, on the hour, carillon music tinkles and the eponymous Mr Fortnum and Mr Mason, who founded the store 300 years ago, come out and bow formally to each other.
Where: 181 Piccadilly (Green Park or Picadilly tube)
When: 10-8 Mon-Sat, 12-4 Sundays.
Photo credit: Kathleen Conklin on Flickr
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