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Honestly, London receiving game-changing, futuristic escalators was not on our 2025 bingo card. But why not? The mechanical step-savers are everywhere we look, from tube stations to tired office buildings, so it’s about time they got an upgrade. And Harrods is leading the way in doing just that.
Kiss goodbye to the run-of-the-mill straight escalator we’ve all all come to know and love, as London’s poshest department store is about to go round the bend. Yes, Harrods has just announced it’s installing Europe’s first-ever curved escalators.
In some ways, it’s not that surprising that the Brompton Road retail cathedral is ahead of the curve. As all true London escalator-heads know, back in 1898, Harrods brought the first escalator to Britain.
Soon Harrods will join a select few locations in the US and Asia, including iconic Las Vegas hotel and casino Caesars Palace, as the proud home of a curved escalator. Fun fact: the world’s only manufacturer of curved escalators is Japanese producer Mitsubishi.
Construction of the new curved escalators is expected to begin in 2026 as part of a multi-million-pound renovation to merge Harrods’ fine jewellery and watches departments. The transformation will also deepen the lower ground and sub-basement levels of the store to make way for a ‘first-of-its-kind vertical two-storey boutique concept’.
The reimagined design of the Grade II-listed building will create ‘an impressive sense of arrival, emulating the original Edwardian sales rooms’, says Katy Ghahremani, director at architects’ firm Make and the project lead.
Harrods director of store development Martin Illingworth has promised – rather thrillingly – that the new escalator is ‘undoubtedly one of the most complex and ambitious transformations we’ve undertaken within store in Harrods’ 175-year history’. Quite the claim, considering Harrods is no stranger to dazzling revamps. The store’s dining hall recently underwent a glitzy makeover that was completed in 2023.
Find Time Out’s guide to shopping at Harrods here.
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