4 min read
When Harry Gordon Selfridge opened his Oxford Street department store in 1909, he hid the window displays behind silk curtains and unveiled them like a theater premiere. His whole idea was that shopping should feel like a major event. More than a century later, Selfridges is making that same bet once again. Only now, the curtain is rising on a 25,000-square-foot private destination set above the shop floor. The space, called 40 Duke, has its own entrance, its own art collection, and its own scent—but it’s only accessible to the London department store’s most engaged loyalty members.
Open today, 40 Duke is part personal shopping suite, part restaurant, part gallery, part private club, all under one roof. Inside, there are 24 shopping studios (private appointment rooms for one-on-one sessions with the Selfridges team), a 64-cover lounge with an 18-seat bar, a covered outdoor terrace, a private dining room, and flexible spaces for exhibitions and brand activations.
Access isn’t granted through an obscure membership process. It’s instead reserved for the store’s V.I.C.s (or Very Important Clients). In this case, that’s members of the upper tiers of Selfridges Unlocked, the retailer’s loyalty program where customers earn status through spending and in-store engagement. Top-tier members get full run of the place; the next level down can book appointments and dining.
Lucia Bell-Epstein
The Salon.
“Personal shopping is the heart of 40 Duke, and it also expands the scope of the service in a way Selfridges has never before been able to offer—and in a way I don’t think anywhere else can,” says Judd Crane, Selfridges’ executive director of buying and brand. “We know how our customers and brands want to engage—with more time, more service, and more flexibility.”
The architecture revolves around a day-to-night flow. Guests can arrive through a discreet entrance on Duke Street, bypassing Oxford Street entirely, enter from the third floor of the main store, or come directly from private parking. Once inside, the layout moves intuitively between shopping, socializing, and culture. Morning appointments may give way to lunch on the terrace, an afternoon in the lounge, and an evening at the bar.
Lucia Bell-Epstein
The Club Lounge.
Simone McEwan and Sacha Leong of Nice Projects designed the interiors. The London-and-Sydney studio has made its name through hospitality work—restaurants like Singapore’s Odette and London’s Bistrotheque—and a look that’s defined by warmth without fuss. 40 Duke’s material palette moves from cork and stainless steel to ash burl, marble, and travertine, calibrated to differentiate one zone from the next, while still keeping everything connected.
Bespoke rugs by Christopher Farr, textiles by Pierre Frey, and a custom kinetic light installation by the Belgian practice Studio Élémentaires layer in texture and movement. In the private suites, furniture—which is all available for purchase—spans eras and sensibilities, including Tecta, Finn Juhl, De Sede, Tacchini, and Arflex.
Lucia Bell-Epstein
The Salon.
For the communal spaces, Selfridges brought in David Alhadeff and The Future Perfect, the gallery he founded in Williamsburg in 2003 and has since expanded into residential formats in the West Village, Beverly Hills, and Miami. This is The Future Perfect’s first permanent U.K. presence and its first placement inside a retail environment at this scale.
“Partnering with Selfridges felt both natural and ambitious,” Alhadeff says. “Their openness allowed us to move beyond a traditional retail format into something more immersive and expressive.”
The anchor piece, according to Alhadeff, is a dining table by Dutch designer Floris Wubben. It’s nearly 13 feet long and fabricated in three sections, making it the largest table he’s ever made. Around it are one-of-a-kind and limited-edition design objects—furniture, lighting, and textiles—by Michael Anastassiades, Piet Hein Eek, Bocci, Axel Chay, and others, which are also all available for acquisition.
Matt Williams, formerly of the Institute of Contemporary Arts and now at Camden Art Centre, curated over 30 artworks for the space. Pieces span sculpture, photography, and painting, all by a younger generation of London artists including Turner Prize winner Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, and Okiki Akinfe.
Lucia Bell-Epstein
The Club Room, featuring a 13-foot table by Floris Wubben.
On The Terrace—a covered outdoor restaurant and café—Cassina supplies archetypal pieces by Gio Ponti and Charlotte Perriand. Selfridges partnered with Cellar Society, the London caterer known for working with houses like Cartier, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton, to run all dining across 40 Duke, its first permanent home. Menus reinterpret familiar classics, and tableware includes Georg Jensen, Waterford, Wedgwood, Iittala, Serax, and Alessi, all of which are also shoppable.
Lucia Bell-Epstein
The Club Room.
In the Beauty Studios, Skin Design London offers personalized treatments led by founder Fatma Shaheen, the go-to facialist for models and celebrities. Even the scent is bespoke—Perfumer H created a signature fragrance for the space. Plus, Paris-based DJ PAM built out the sonic identity with playlists and live programming that shift across genres and eras.
“We really want people to come to 40 Duke, to spend time and feel at home, with us and with each other,” Crane says. “We actively want to encourage longer, more relaxed engagement.”
Julia Cancilla is the social media & news editor at ELLE Decor, where she oversees the brand’s socials and covers design, pop culture, and emerging trends. She also authors the monthly ELLE Decoroscope column. Her work has appeared in Inked magazine, House Beautiful, Marie Claire, and more.
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