Escalator to Heaven
The Guardian has an article on the completion of renovations to London’s Peter Jones department store in Chelsea.
The old store was one of these mish-mash buildings (”an amalgam of five buildings constructed between 1895 and 1965″) with lots of internal logistical and layout problems. However, the “easy” solution of just closing and doing major renovations was ruled out in order to avoid losing staff and customers to rival stores…so they had to do it all while staying open. (Shades of Boston’s Big Dig.)
Usable selling floor space is up 20%, and the store now features “a vast, bright, six-floor atrium criss-crossed with smoothly operating escalators. At its peak is a new 270-seat self-service cafe offering big views of the west London cloudscape.”
I’m looking forward to seeing it on our next visit to London.
(Also, the Sloane Square station on the Underground has a river running over the platform, in a pipe. Where else will you see that?)
