Letter

Typescript letter dated 11 March 1936 addressed to the London Museum from Miss C.E.L. Chapman of Selfridge & Company Ltd concerning the history of ashtrays. The letterhead is printed with illustrations of the Oxford Street department store. Chicago businessman Harry Gordon Selfridge opened Selfridge's Department Store at the unfashionable end of Oxford Street in 1909. By the 1920s the premises, covering eleven acres, were the largest of their kind in Europe. The store introduced American marketing techniques to Britain such as promotions, luxurious décor and eye-catching window displays. Selfridge gained a place at the heart of the English establishment. Nicknamed the 'Earl of Oxford Street', he tried to buy the 'Times' in 1922 and counted most of the British government among his friends.