138-496: Henry Wood Hall is the name of two orchestral performance halls in the United Kingdom named after the conductor Sir Henry Wood : Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow Henry Wood Hall, London Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Henry Wood Hall . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
276-843: A ban on private vehicles during daytime hours on weekdays and Saturdays (in place since the 1970s), widened pavements and improved pedestrian crossings. Oxford Street runs for approximately 1.2 mi (1.9 km) and is entirely within the City of Westminster . The road begins at St Giles Circus as a westward continuation of New Oxford Street, meeting Charing Cross Road , Tottenham Court Road (next to Tottenham Court Road station ). It runs past Rathbone Place , Wardour Street and Great Portland Street to Oxford Circus , where it meets Regent Street . From there it continues past New Bond Street , Bond Street station and Vere Street , ending at Marble Arch . The route continues as Bayswater Road and Holland Park Avenue towards Shepherd's Bush . The road
414-460: A celebrated practical joke on musicologists and critics. "I got very fed up with them , always finding fault with any arrangement or orchestrations that I made ... 'spoiling the original' etc. etc.", and so Wood passed off his own orchestration of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor , as a transcription by a Russian composer called Paul Klenovsky. In Wood's later account, the press and the BBC "fell into
552-449: A centre of protest against the lack of suitable accommodation in central London. In 2015, building work began to convert it into residential flats, with development initially expected to finish in 2017. The restoration and conversion was completed in March 2018. Much as had been the case at its original opening, the refurbished tower remains largely empty, with few windows lit in the evenings,
690-462: A cluster of taller tower blocks provided office space. Begun in 1959 the work was largely completed within two years; it was one of the largest post-war redevelopment projects to be undertaken in the West End. From August 1963 until April 1968 part of Oxford Street had to be closed to traffic so that Oxford Circus tube station could be rebuilt to incorporate the new Victoria line , which began serving
828-474: A cruise to Morocco, missing the Proms concerts from 13 October to 8 November. In the early years of the Proms there were complaints in some musical journals that Wood was neglecting British music. In 1899, Newman unsuccessfully attempted to secure for Wood the premiere of Elgar's Enigma Variations , but in the same year Newman passed up the opportunity to introduce the music of Delius to London concertgoers. By
966-552: A financial success, and were not repeated in later years. In January 1897, Wood took on the direction of the Queen's Hall's prestigious Saturday afternoon symphony concerts. He continually presented new works by composers of many nationalities, and was particularly known for his skill in Russian music. Sullivan wrote to him in 1898, "I have never heard a finer performance in England than that of
1104-522: A flagship Next store was opened on the site. The principal Topshop store by Oxford Circus shut in late 2020 after its parent company, Arcadia Group went into administration. A year later, following the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant , the Government introduced new lockdown restrictions, which caused problems with businesses along Oxford Street, which had been hampered by the pandemic since
1242-573: A guinea an hour. He also worked as a répétiteur . According to his memoirs, he worked in that capacity for Richard D'Oyly Carte during the rehearsals for the first production of The Yeomen of the Guard at the Savoy Theatre in 1888. His biographer Arthur Jacobs doubts this and discounts exchanges Wood purported to have had with Sir Arthur Sullivan about the score. Jacobs describes Wood's memoirs as "vivacious in style but factually unreliable". It
1380-408: A large number of English pieces, Wood programmed works by composers as diverse as Bach and Stravinsky. He again conducted there in 1934. On his return to England from his first Hollywood trip, Wood found himself in the middle of a feud between the chairman of Chappell's, William Boosey, and the BBC. Boosey had conceived a passionate hostility to the broadcasting of music, fearing that it would lead to
1518-532: A light opera, Daisy (1890), and a one-act comic opera, Returning the Compliment (1890). Wood recalled that his first professional appearance as a conductor was at a choral concert in December 1887. Ad hoc engagements of this kind were commonplace for organists, but they brought little prestige such as was given to British conductor-composers such as Sullivan, Charles Villiers Stanford and Alexander Mackenzie , or
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#17328512912451656-527: A live music venue since 24 October 1942. It was thought to be safe from bombing threats because of its underground location, and played host to jazz musicians, including Glenn Miller . It was renamed the London Jazz Club in 1948, and subsequently the Humphrey Lyttelton Club after he took over the lease in the 1950s. Louis Armstrong played at the venue during this time. It became a key venue for
1794-457: A major coaching route, there were several obstacles along it, including the bridge over the Tyburn. A turnpike trust was established in 1721 to improve upkeep of the road. It became notorious as the route taken by prisoners on their final journey from Newgate Prison to the gallows at Tyburn. Spectators jeered as the prisoners were carted along the road, and could buy rope used in the executions from
1932-525: A musician of culture demands." On the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Newman, Wood and Speyer discussed whether the Proms should continue as planned. They had by this time become an established institution, and it was agreed to go ahead. However, anti-German feeling forced Speyer to leave the country and seek refuge in the US, and there was a campaign to ban all German music from concerts. Newman put out
2070-460: A new epoch in English musical life – Edward Elgar as composer, and Henry J. Wood as conductor." Later that year, overtaxed by his enormous workload, Wood's health broke down. Even though this was during the Proms season, Cathcart insisted that Wood should have a complete break and change of scene. Leaving the leader of the orchestra, Arthur Payne, to conduct during his absence, Wood and his wife took
2208-524: A range of composers from Albéniz to Vivaldi . Wood worked with his wife for many concerts, and was her piano accompanist at her recitals. In 1906, at the Norwich music festival he presented Beethoven's Choral Symphony and Bach 's St Matthew Passion , with his wife among the singers. In December 1909, after a short illness, Olga Wood died. Cathcart took Wood away to take his mind off his loss. On his return, Wood resumed his professional routine, with
2346-555: A release from his contract, and after a brief return to teaching he secured a better appointment as conductor for the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1891. For that company he conducted Carmen , The Bohemian Girl , The Daughter of the Regiment , Maritana , and Il trovatore . This appointment was followed by a similar engagement with a company set up by former Carl Rosa singers. When Signor Lago, formerly impresario of
2484-535: A retail location, with many British retail chains having their flagship stores on the street, and has a number of listed buildings . Unlike nearby shopping streets such as Bond Street , it has retained an element of downmarket trading alongside more prestigious retail stores. Generally speaking, the eastern end of Oxford Street features a higher proportion of more downmarket retailers, fast food restaurants and souvenir shops whilst more exclusive and upmarket stores can be found towards its western end which passes close to
2622-514: A series of Wagner concerts at the newly built Queen's Hall in London. The manager of the hall, Robert Newman , was proposing to run a ten-week season of promenade concerts and, impressed by Wood, invited him to conduct. There had been such concerts in London since 1838, under conductors from Louis Antoine Jullien to Arthur Sullivan. Sullivan's concerts in the 1870s had been particularly successful, because he offered his audiences something more than
2760-512: A song in the operetta The Lady Slavey and also conducted performances during its three month London run. With the exception of a season at the Opera Comique in 1896, Wood's subsequent conducting career was in the concert hall. In 1894, Wood went to the Wagner festival at Bayreuth where he met the conductor Felix Mottl , who subsequently appointed him as his assistant and chorus master for
2898-524: A statement declaring that German music would be played as planned: "The greatest examples of Music and Art are world possessions and unassailable even by the prejudices and passions of the hour." When Speyer left Britain, the music publishers Chappell's took on the responsibility for the Queen's Hall and its orchestra. The Proms continued throughout the war years, with fewer major new works than before, although there were nevertheless British premieres of pieces by Bartók , Stravinsky and Debussy. An historian of
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#17328512912453036-434: A story by one of his players who recalled that Wood "had everything planned out and timed to the minute ... at 10 a.m. precisely his baton went down. You learned things so thoroughly with him, but in the most economical time." Another feature of Wood's conducting was his insistence on accurate tuning; before each rehearsal and concert he would check the instrument of each member of the woodwind and string sections against
3174-474: A struggle. In 1904, Wood and Newman tackled the deputy system, in which orchestral players, if offered a better-paid engagement, could send a substitute to a rehearsal or a concert. The treasurer of the Royal Philharmonic Society described it thus: "A, whom you want, signs to play at your concert. He sends B (whom you don't mind) to the first rehearsal. B, without your knowledge or consent, sends C to
3312-468: A tuning fork. He persisted in this practice until 1937, when the excellence of the BBC Symphony Orchestra persuaded him that it was no longer necessary. To improve ensemble , Wood experimented with the layout of the orchestra. His preferred layout was to have the first and second violins grouped together on his left, with the cellos to his right, a layout that has since become common. Between
3450-418: A turn for the better, his domestic life started to deteriorate. During the early 1930s, he and his wife gradually became estranged, and their relationship ended in bitterness, with Muriel taking most of Wood's money and, for much of the time, living abroad. She refused to divorce him. The breach between Muriel and Wood also caused his estrangement from their daughters. In 1934 he began a happy relationship with
3588-450: A widowed former pupil, Jessie Linton, who had sung for him frequently in the past under her professional name of Jessie Goldsack. One of Wood's players recalled, "She changed him. He had been badly dressed, awful clothes. Jessie got him a new evening suit, instead of the mouldy green one, and he flourished yellow gloves and a cigar ... he became human." As Wood was not free to remarry, she changed her name by deed poll to "Lady Jessie Wood" and
3726-481: A workhorse". In 1936, Wood was in charge of his final Sheffield festival. The choral works he conducted included the Verdi Requiem , Beethoven's Missa Solemnis , Berlioz ' Te Deum , Walton 's Belshazzar's Feast , and, in the presence of the composer, Rachmaninoff's The Bells . The following year, Wood began planning for a grand concert to mark his fiftieth year as a conductor. The Royal Albert Hall
3864-626: Is certain, however, that Wood was répétiteur at Carte's Royal English Opera House for Sullivan's grand opera Ivanhoe in late 1890 and early 1891, and for André Messager 's La Basoche in 1891–92. He also worked for Carte at the Savoy as assistant to François Cellier on The Nautch Girl in 1891. Wood remained devoted to Sullivan's music and later insisted on programming his concert works when they were out of fashion in musical circles. During this period, he had several compositions of his own performed, including an oratorio , St. Dorothea (1889),
4002-458: Is not of the very finest quality. I like to win by two bars, if possible; but sometimes have to be content with a bar and a half. It is good fun, and I enjoy it as much as they. Among Wood's other works was his Purcell Suite , incorporating themes from Purcell 's stage works and string sonatas, which Wood performed at an orchestral festival in Zurich in 1921, and orchestral transcriptions of works by
4140-708: Is part of the University of the Arts London , formerly the London Institute. The Salvation Army opened Regent Hall , its first Central London venue, at Nos. 275–279 Oxford Street in 1882. It served as a base for poverty relief , street missions and a Salvation Army band . Rebuilt in 1959–1960, the hall remains in Salvation Army use. The cosmetics retailer Lush opened a store in 2015. Measuring 9,300 sq ft (860 m ) and containing three floors, it
4278-570: Is the company's largest retail premises. Two large hotels dominate the western (Marble Arch) end of the street: the red brick Mount Royal Hotel (now the Amba) was built in 1933–1934 to a design by Francis Lorne ; while the Portland stone -fronted Cumberland Hotel, by F. J.Wills, opened in 1933 (it was renamed the Hard Rock Hotel in 2018). Oxford Street has several Grade II listed buildings. In addition,
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4416-658: Is within the London Congestion Charging Zone . It is part of the A40 , most of which is a trunk road running from London to Fishguard (via Oxford , Cheltenham , Brecon and Haverfordwest ). Like many roads in Central London that are no longer through routes, it is not signposted with that number. Numerous bus routes run along Oxford Street, including the 55, 73, 94, 98, 159, 390 and Night Buses N8, N55, N73, N98 and N207. {{{annotations}}} Oxford Street follows
4554-562: The Berlin and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, but he regarded the Boston orchestra as the finest in the world. Nonetheless, as he told Boult, "it was hard to refuse, but I felt it was a patriotic duty to remain in my own country, at the present moment." After the war, the Proms continued much as before. The second halves of concerts still featured piano-accompanied songs rather than serious classical music. Chappell's, having taken over sponsorship of
4692-473: The London Symphony Orchestra . Wood bore no grudge and attended their first concert, although it was 12 years before he agreed to conduct the orchestra. Wood had great sympathy for rank-and-file orchestral players and strove for improvements in their pay. He sought to raise their status and was the first British conductor to insist that the orchestra should stand to acknowledge applause along with
4830-474: The Northern line thirty years later). Development continued through the first half of the 20th century, with Bourne & Hollingsworth opening in 1902. When Waring & Gillow opened their new store in 1906 it became the first West End store to occupy an entire city block . Selfridges opened on 15 March 1909 at No. 400; it promptly had a 'transformative influence on Britain's retail scene, elevating
4968-477: The Royal Academy of Music at the age of seventeen, studying harmony and composition with Prout, organ with Charles Steggall , and piano with Walter Macfarren . It is not clear whether he was a member of Manuel Garcia 's singing class, but it is certain that he became its accompanist and was greatly influenced by Garcia. Wood also accompanied the opera class, taught by Garcia's son Gustave . Wood's ambition at
5106-413: The Royal Academy of Music , he came under the influence of the voice teacher Manuel García and became his accompanist. After similar work for Richard D'Oyly Carte 's opera companies on the works of Arthur Sullivan and others, Wood became the conductor of a small operatic touring company. He was soon engaged by the larger Carl Rosa Opera Company . One notable event in his operatic career was conducting
5244-558: The Sex Pistols , the Damned and the Buzzcocks . The Flying Horse (formerly The Tottenham) is a Grade II* listed pub at No. 6 Oxford Street, near Tottenham Court Road. It was built in the mid-19th century and is the last remaining pub in the street, which once had 20. The London College of Fashion has an Oxford Street campus on John Prince's Street near Oxford Circus. The college
5382-508: The hangman in taverns. By about 1729, the road had become known as Oxford Street. Development began in the 18th century after many surrounding fields were purchased by the Earl of Oxford . In 1739, a local gardener, Thomas Huddle, built property on the north side. After Lord Oxford's death the estate was inherited by his daughter the Duchess of Portland ; it then passed down to successive dukes as
5520-615: The trad jazz revival, hosting gigs by Chris Barber and Acker Bilk . It was renamed the 100 Club in 1964 after Roger Horton bought a stake, adding an alcohol licence for the first time. The venue hosted gigs by several British rock bands, including the Who , the Kinks and the Animals . It was an important venue for punk rock in the UK and hosted the first British punk festival on 21 September 1976, featuring
5658-533: The 1920s, Wood had steered the repertoire entirely to classical music. When the Queen's Hall was destroyed by bombing in 1941, the Proms moved to the Royal Albert Hall . Wood declined the chief conductorships of the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestras, believing it his duty to serve music in the United Kingdom. In addition to the Proms, he conducted concerts and festivals throughout
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5796-514: The British premiere of Tchaikovsky 's Eugene Onegin in 1892. From the mid-1890s until his death, Wood focused on concert conducting. He was engaged by the impresario Robert Newman to conduct a series of promenade concerts at the Queen's Hall , offering a mixture of classical and popular music at low prices. The series was successful, and Wood conducted annual promenade series until his death in 1944. By
5934-438: The British public. Throughout the early part of the century, Wood was influential in changing the habits of concertgoers. Until then it had been customary for audiences at symphony or choral concerts to applaud after each movement or section. Wood discouraged this, sometime by gesture and sometimes by specific request printed in programmes. For this he was much praised in the musical and national press. In addition to his work at
6072-656: The Central London Railway (now the Central line of the London Underground), which runs under Oxford Street for part of its course, began in 1896, which necessitated the development of four new station buildings on or near the street, at Marble Arch , Bond Street , Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road . Of the three chief engineers of the project, only Benjamin Baker lived to see the railway completed. On 27 June 1900,
6210-522: The Imperial Opera Company of St. Petersburg, was looking for a second conductor to work with Luigi Arditi for a proposed London season, Garcia recommended Wood. The season opened at the newly rebuilt Olympic Theatre in London, in October 1892, with Wood conducting the British premiere of Tchaikovsky 's Eugene Onegin . At that time the operatic conductor was not seen as an important figure, but
6348-603: The Metropolitan Police, was killed while defusing a bomb planted by the IRA in the basement toilet of a Wimpy Bar on Oxford Street. The IRA also detonated a bomb at the John Lewis department store in December 1992, along with another in nearby Cavendish Square , injuring four people. The human billboard Stanley Green began selling on Oxford Street in 1968, advertising his belief in the link of proteins to sexual libido and
6486-613: The National Anthem ;... A few moments for the audience to settle down, then the Rienzi Overture, and the first concert of the new Promenades had begun. The rest of the programme comprised, in the words of an historian of the Proms, David Cox, "for the most part ... blatant trivialities." Within days, however, Wood was shifting the balance from light music to mainstream classical works, with Schubert 's Unfinished Symphony and further excerpts from Wagner operas. Among
6624-539: The Portland Estate, before becoming the Howard de Walden Estate in 1879 (by way of the 5th Duke 's sister). The Howard de Walden Estate progressively sold off its Oxford Street holdings (which lay on the north side between Marylebone Lane and Wells Street ) in the first half of the twentieth century. Other landowning estates held sway over the western end of Oxford Street: most of the northern side west of Duke Street
6762-462: The Portman Estate. The Pantheon , a place for public entertainment, opened at No. 173 in 1772. The street became popular for entertainment including bear-baiters , theatres and public houses . However, it was not attractive to the middle and upper classes due to the nearby Tyburn gallows and the notorious St Giles rookery , or slum. The gallows were removed in 1783, and by the end of
6900-574: The Prince of Wales (who became King Edward VII the following year) ceremonially opened the line and public services began on 30 July. The line's route below Oxford Street made it the first railway to provide a direct service to the theatre and shopping areas of the West End and the City. The Bakerloo line came to Oxford Circus on 10 March 1906, and the Hampstead line to Tottenham Court Road on 22 June 1907 (it became
7038-462: The Prom season. The BBC chose Wood for important collaborations with Bartók and Paul Hindemith , and for the first British performance of Mahler's vast Symphony No. 8 . But Jacobs notes that, in the general concert repertory, Wood now had to compete against well-known foreign conductors such as Bruno Walter , Willem Mengelberg , and Arturo Toscanini , "in comparison with whom he was increasingly seen as
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#17328512912457176-512: The Proms ", the lively concert marking the end of each season. It remained so under his successors, though often rearranged, notably by Sir Malcolm Sargent . A highlight of the Fantasia is the hornpipe ("Jack's the Lad"); Wood said of it: They stamp their feet in time to the hornpipe – that is until I whip up the orchestra to a fierce accelerando which leaves behind all those whose stamping technique
7314-416: The Proms and spent £35,000 keeping the Queen's Hall going during the war, wished to promote songs published by the company. The management of Chappell's were also less enthusiastic than Wood and Newman about promoting new orchestral works, most of which were not profitable. In 1921, Wood was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society, the first English conductor to receive the honour. By now he
7452-573: The Proms, Ateş Orga, wrote, "Concerts often had to be re-timed to coincide with the 'All Clear' between air raids. Falling bombs, shrapnel, anti-aircraft fire and the droning of Zeppelins were ever threatening. But [Wood] kept things on the go and in the end had a very real part to play in boosting morale." Towards the end of the war, Wood received an offer by which he was seriously tempted: the Boston Symphony Orchestra invited him to become its musical director. He had been guest conductor of
7590-470: The Queen's Hall to close. The last Prom given at the Queen's Hall was on 7 September 1940. In May 1941, the hall was destroyed by bombs. It was immediately agreed that the 1941 season of Proms should be held at the Albert Hall. It was twice the size of the Queen's Hall, with poor acoustics, but a six-week series was judged a success, and the Albert Hall remained the home of the Proms. Wood, aged seventy-two,
7728-755: The Queen's Hall, Wood conducted at the Sheffield, Norwich, Birmingham, Wolverhampton , and Westmorland festivals, and at orchestral concerts in Cardiff , Manchester, Liverpool , Leicester and Hull . His programming was summarised in The Manchester Guardian , which listed the number of each composer's works played in the 1911 Proms season; the top ten were: Wagner (121); Beethoven (34); Tchaikovsky (30); Mozart (28); Dvořák (16); Weber (16); J.S. Bach (14); Brahms (14); Elgar (14); and Liszt (13). The 1912 and 1913 Prom seasons are singled out by Cox as among
7866-551: The Tchaikovsky symphony under your direction last Wednesday". Seventy-five years later, Sir Adrian Boult ranked Wood as one of the two greatest Tchaikovsky conductors in his long experience. Wood also successfully challenged the widespread belief that Englishmen were not capable of conducting Wagner. When Wood and the Queen's Hall Orchestra performed at Windsor Castle in November 1898, Queen Victoria chose Tchaikovsky and Wagner for
8004-508: The UK's high streets. The frontage to Oxford Street was, on completion, the largest shop façade in London. Marks & Spencer has two stores on Oxford Street. The first, Marks & Spencer Marble Arch, is at the junction with Orchard Street; it was opened in 1930. The second branch, which opened eight years later, is between Regent Street and Tottenham Court Road, on the former site of the Pantheon. Both premises were significantly expanded in
8142-455: The West End, particularly Oxford Street. Many buildings were damaged, either from direct hits or subsequent fires, including four department stores: John Lewis, Selfridges, Bourne & Hollingsworth and Peter Robinson. George Orwell wrote in his diary for 24 September that Oxford Street was "completely empty of traffic, and only a few pedestrians", and saw "innumerable fragments of broken glass". John Lewis caught fire again on 25 September and
8280-485: The activity or ambience of its namesake; but in its central section a number of original 1840s stuccoed buildings have survived, providing a glimpse of its former character. Centre Point , at the corner of New Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road, was one of London's first skyscrapers; it was designed by property developer Harry Hyams and opened in 1966. It failed to find a suitable tenant and remained empty for many years before being occupied by squatters who used it as
8418-464: The axis of Oxford Street eastwards from St Giles Circus. Previously, the route into the City of London had deviated southwards at this point, to skirt around the ancient settlement of St Giles with its leper hospital . The building of the new street involved much slum clearance , but did not entirely eradicate the notorious old rookeries. Once a fashionable shopping street, a preponderance of office buildings has led to New Oxford Street no longer sharing
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#17328512912458556-407: The case until their withdrawal from the UK market in 2001). It is notable that all the aforementioned department stores were or are on the north side of the street. Whether this was down to a preference for south-facing shop fronts, or there being better access routes to the north for deliveries and services, or something akin to coincidence remains an open question. Some large stores were opened on
8694-490: The century, Oxford Street was built up from St Giles Circus to Park Lane , containing a mix of residential houses, shops and places of entertainment. Oxford Circus was designed as part of the development of Regent Street by the architect John Nash in 1810. It was later rebuilt (the four quadrants of the circus as seen today were designed by Sir Henry Tanner and constructed between 1913 and 1928). The Pantheon closed as an entertainment venue in 1814 (twenty years later it
8832-487: The concept of a department store as a social and cultural institution open to everyone, with innovative window dressing, exceptional customer service and masterly advertising'. Shoemakers Lilley & Skinner acquired the lease of 358–360 Oxford Street in 1914; they later expanded into Nos. 356–366, reputedly becoming the world's largest shoe store in 1921. In 1922 C&A purchased Nos. 376–384 (before long C&A had three stores on Oxford Street, which remained
8970-434: The concerts, and encouraged him and Wood to continue with their project of improving the public's taste. At the beginning of 1902, Wood accepted the conductorship of that year's Sheffield triennial festival. He continued to be associated with that festival until 1936, changing its emphasis from choral to orchestral pieces. A German critic, reviewing the festival for a Berlin publication, wrote, "Two personalities now represent
9108-428: The conductor. He introduced women into the Queen's Hall Orchestra in 1913. He said, "I do not like ladies playing the trombone or double bass, but they can play the violin, and they do." By 1918 Wood had 14 women in his orchestra. Wood conducted his own compositions and arrangements from time to time. He gave his Fantasia on Welsh Melodies and Fantasia on Scottish Melodies on successive nights in 1909. He composed
9246-545: The country and also trained the student orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music. He had an enormous influence on the musical life of Britain over his long career: he and Newman greatly improved access to classical music, and Wood raised the standard of orchestral playing and nurtured the taste of the public, presenting a vast repertoire of music spanning four centuries. Wood was born in Oxford Street , London, on 3 March 1869,
9384-487: The critics who chose to mention the conducting gave Wood good reviews. The work was not popular with the public, and the season was cut short when Lago absconded, leaving the company unpaid. Before that debacle, Wood had also conducted performances of Maritana and rehearsed Oberon and Der Freischütz . After the collapse of the Olympic opera season, Wood returned once more to his singing tuition. In 1894 he contributed to
9522-429: The critics. The promenade concerts flourished through the 1890s, but in 1902 Newman, who had been investing unwisely in theatrical presentations, found himself unable to bear the financial responsibility for the Queen's Hall Orchestra and was declared bankrupt. The concerts were rescued by the musical benefactor Sir Edgar Speyer , a banker of German origin. Speyer put up the necessary funds, retained Newman as manager of
9660-481: The dangers therein. He regularly patrolled the street with a placard headlined "less passion from less protein", and advertised his pamphlet Eight Passion Proteins with Care until his death in 1993. His placards are now housed in the British Museum . The opening of Britain's first out-of-town shopping centre at Brent Cross in 1976 prompted experiments with mall-style shopping precincts on Oxford Street. West One
9798-589: The destruction of the Palm Court Restaurant. The basement was converted to a communications base, with a dedicated line run along Oxford Street to Whitehall . The line allowed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to make secure and direct telephone calls to the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt . The store was damaged again on 6 December 1944 after a V2 rocket exploded on nearby Duke Street, causing its Christmas tree displays to collapse into
9936-460: The end of live concerts. He attempted to prevent anyone who wished to perform at the Queen's Hall from broadcasting for the BBC. This affected many of the artists whom Wood and Newman needed for the Proms. The matter was unresolved when Newman died in 1926. Shortly afterwards, Boosey announced that Chappell's would no longer support concerts at the Queen's Hall. The prospect that the Proms might not be able to continue caused widespread dismay, and there
10074-414: The end of the first decade of the new century, however, Wood's reputation in conducting British music was in no doubt; he gave the world, British or London premieres of more than a hundred British works between 1900 and 1910. Meanwhile, he introduced his audiences to many European composers. In the 1903 season, he programmed symphonies by Bruckner ( No. 7 ), Sibelius ( No. 1 ), and Mahler ( No. 1 ). In
10212-421: The entire block between that street and Marylebone Lane, and was housed (from 1870) in a new building designed by Horace Jones and Octavius Hansard. What would now be called department stores began to appear on Oxford Street in the 1870s (the rebuilt Marshall & Snelgrove being one of the first). John Lewis started in 1864 in small shop at No. 132; he took on an adjacent property in 1878, and over
10350-526: The exception that, after Olga's death, he rarely performed as piano accompanist for anyone else; his skill in that art was greatly missed by the critics. In June 1911, he married his secretary, Muriel Ellen Greatrex (1882–1967), with whom he had two daughters. In the same year he accepted a knighthood , and declined the conductorship of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in succession to Mahler, as he felt it his duty to devote himself to
10488-463: The finest of this part of Wood's career. Among those conducting their own works or hearing Wood conduct them were Strauss, Debussy , Reger , Scriabin , and Rachmaninoff . Schoenberg 's Five Pieces for Orchestra also received its first performance (the composer not being present); during rehearsals, Wood urged his players, "Stick to it, gentlemen! This is nothing to what you'll have to play in 25 years' time". The critic Ernest Newman wrote after
10626-510: The first and second season of promenade concerts, Wood did his last work in the opera house, conducting Stanford's new opera Shamus O'Brien at the Opera Comique. It ran from March until July 1896, leaving Wood enough time to prepare the second Queen's Hall season, which began at the end of August. The season was so successful that Newman followed it with a winter season of Saturday night promenade concerts, but despite being popular they were not
10764-460: The grand circle (reserved seats) three and five shillings. Newman needed to find financial backing for his first season. Dr George Cathcart, a wealthy ear, nose and throat specialist, offered to sponsor it on two conditions: that Wood should conduct every concert, and that the pitch of the orchestral instruments should be lowered to the European standard diapason normal . Concert pitch in England
10902-511: The instrument. Cooper died when Wood was seven, and the boy took further lessons from Cooper's successor, Edwin M. Lott, for whom Wood had much less regard. At the age of ten, through the influence of one of his uncles, Wood made his first paid appearance as an organist at St Mary Aldermanbury , being paid half a crown . In June 1883, visiting the International Fisheries Exhibition at South Kensington with his father, Wood
11040-419: The instruments from him. On 10 August 1895, the first of the Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts took place. Among those present who later recalled the opening was the singer Agnes Nicholls : Just before 8 o'clock I saw Henry Wood take up his position behind the curtain at the end of the platform – watch in hand. Punctually, on the stroke of eight, he walked quickly to the rostrum, buttonhole and all, and began
11178-400: The late 1830s, remarks that almost all the street, save for the far western end, was primarily retail. Peter Robinson opened his draper's shop at 103 Oxford Street in the 1830s; by the 1890s the shop had expanded to fill the entire block between Great Portland Street and Regent Street. Likewise Marshall & Snelgrove opened on Vere Street in 1837; within 40 years it had expanded to fill
11316-440: The latter brand was withdrawn. It remained Topshop's flagship store until 2021 when (the parent company Arcadia having gone into administration) it closed. From 1970 to 1991, the fourth floor of this building was occupied by AIR Studios recording production facilities. Ikea announced they would open a store on the former TopShop site in 2023. However, this was later pushed back to the following year. The music retailer HMV
11454-445: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Wood_Hall&oldid=758661418 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Henry Wood Sir Henry Joseph Wood CH (3 March 1869 – 19 August 1944)
11592-603: The most popular destinations in London for tourists, with an annual estimated turnover of over £1 billion. It forms part of a shopping district in the West End of London , along with other streets including Covent Garden , Bond Street and Piccadilly . The New West End Company, formerly the Oxford Street Association, oversees stores and trade along the street; its objective is to make the place safe and desirable for shoppers. The group has been critical of overcrowding and
11730-537: The next twenty years expanded further and began rebuilding. Dan Harries Evans opened a small draper's shop at No. 147 in 1879; as D H Evans the business swiftly expanded, taking in more than a dozen properties either side of Old Cavendish Street and becoming one of London's largest drapery establishments by the mid-1890s. At the same time, smaller independent retailers continued to thrive alongside their larger counterparts, specialising in all sorts of different goods, trades and services. Meanwhile, construction of
11868-450: The notional boundary between the areas of Fitzrovia and Marylebone to the north, with Soho and Mayfair to its immediate south. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and as of 2012 had approximately 300 shops. It is designated as part of the A40 , a major road between London and Fishguard , though it is not signed as such, and traffic is regularly restricted to buses and taxis. The road
12006-470: The only child of Henry Joseph Wood and his wife Martha, née Morris. Wood senior had started in his family's pawnbroking business, but by the time of his son's birth he was trading as a jeweller, optician and engineering modeller, much sought-after for his model engines. It was a musical household: Wood senior was an amateur cellist and sang as principal tenor in the choir of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate , known as "the musicians' church". His wife played
12144-473: The orchestra, moved to Bristol. The BBC withdrew not only the players, but financial support from the Proms. Wood determined that the 1940 season would nevertheless go ahead. The Royal Philharmonic Society and a private entrepreneur, Keith Douglas, agreed to back an eight-week season, and the London Symphony Orchestra was engaged. The season was curtailed after four weeks, when intense bombing forced
12282-448: The orchestral parts and marked them all with minutely detailed instructions to the players; secondly he developed a clear and expressive conducting technique. An orchestral cellist wrote that "if you watched him, you couldn't come in wrong." The violist Bernard Shore wrote, "You may be reading at sight in public, but you can't possibly go wrong with that stick in front of you". Thirty-five years after Wood's death, André Previn recounted
12420-528: The other symphonies Wood conducted during the first season were Schubert's Great C Major , Mendelssohn 's Italian and Schumann 's Fourth . The concertos included Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and Schumann's Piano Concerto . During the season Wood presented 23 novelties, including the London premieres of pieces by Richard Strauss , Tchaikovsky, Glazunov , Massenet and Rimsky-Korsakov . Newman and Wood soon felt able to devote every Monday night of
12558-411: The performance: "It is not often that an English audience hisses the music it does not like, but a good third of the people at Queen's Hall last Tuesday permitted themselves that luxury after the performance of the five orchestral pieces of Schoenberg. Another third of the audience was only not hissing because it was laughing, and the remaining third seemed too puzzled either to laugh or to hiss; so that on
12696-437: The piano and sang songs from her native Wales. They encouraged their son's interest in music, buying him a Broadwood piano, on which his mother gave him lessons. The young Wood also learned to play the violin and viola. Wood received little religious inspiration at St Sepulchre, but was deeply stirred by the playing of the resident organist, George Cooper , who allowed him into the organ loft and gave him his first lessons on
12834-451: The previous year. An analyst at GlobalData said the street "has been forever changed by the closure, or in some cases, downsizing of long-standing department stores". The House of Fraser store closed in January 2022 as a result. New Oxford Street was built in 1847, in accordance with a plan of James Pennethorne , to link the eastern end of Oxford Street with High Holborn . It extends
12972-407: The programme. Wood, who modelled his appearance on Nikisch, took it as a compliment that the queen said to him, "Tell me, Mr Wood, are you quite English?" In 1898, Wood married one of his singing pupils, Olga Michailoff, a divorcée a few months his senior. Jacobs describes it as "a marriage of perfect professional and private harmony". As a singer, with Wood as her accompanist, she won praise from
13110-423: The promenade concerts attractive to everyone led him to permit smoking during concerts, which was not formally prohibited at the Proms until 1971. Refreshments were available in all parts of the hall throughout the concerts, not only during intervals. Prices were considerably lower than those customarily charged for classical concerts: the promenade (the standing area) was one shilling, the balcony two shillings, and
13248-651: The quality of shops and has clamped down on abusive traders, who were then refused licences. Several British retail chains regard their Oxford Street branch as the flagship store. In 1919 Marshall & Snelgrove merged with Debenhams (which had opened in nearby Wigmore Street in 1778). The Oxford Street store continued to trade as Marshall & Snelgrove until 1972, when the rebuilt premises were reopened as Debenhams. (Debenhams' flagship Oxford Street store closed in 2021.) The London flagship store of House of Fraser began as D. H. Evans in 1879; its current premises were designed by Louis Blanc and opened in 1937. It
13386-454: The rest in darkness, despite at least half its units being sold. This has led to its being called one of London's "ghost towers". Oxford Street is home to a number of major department stores and flagship retail outlets, containing over 300 shops as of 2012. It is the most frequently visited shopping street in Inner London, attracting over half a million daily visitors in 2014, and is one of
13524-486: The rising generation of German star conductors led by Hans Richter and Arthur Nikisch . His first sustained work as a conductor was his 1889 appointment as musical director of a small touring opera ensemble, the Arthur Rouseby English Touring Opera. The company was not of a high standard, with an orchestra of only six players augmented by local recruits at each tour venue. Wood eventually negotiated
13662-641: The route of a Roman road , the Via Trinobantina, which linked Calleva Atrebatum (near Silchester , Hampshire ) with Camulodunum (now Colchester ) via London and became one of the major routes in and out of the city. Between the 12th century and 1782, it was variously known as Tyburn Road (after the River Tyburn that crossed it north to south), Uxbridge Road (the name still used for the road between Shepherd's Bush and Uxbridge ), Worcester Road and Oxford Road. Tyburn , near where Marble Arch now stands,
13800-559: The same year, he accepted the conductorship of the amateur Hull Philharmonic Orchestra, travelling three times a year until 1939 to rehearse and conduct its concerts. In 1925, Wood was invited to conduct four concerts for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl . Such was their success, both artistic and financial, that Wood was invited back, and conducted again the following year. In addition to
13938-399: The same year, he introduced several of Richard Strauss's tone poems to London, and in 1905 he gave Strauss's Symphonia Domestica . This prompted the composer to write, "I cannot leave London without an expression of admiration for the splendid Orchestra which Henry Wood's master hand has created in such a short time." Creating the orchestra admired by Strauss had not been achieved without
14076-423: The season principally to Wagner and every Friday night to Beethoven, a pattern that endured for decades. The income from the concerts did not permit generous rehearsal time. Wood had nine hours to rehearse all the music for each week's six concerts. To gain the best results on so little rehearsal, Wood developed two facets of his conducting that remained his trademark throughout his career. First, he bought sets of
14214-457: The second half of the 20th century. Topshop was conceived in the 1960s as a youth brand for Peter Robinson , and a sizeable Topshop department was opened within the flagship store on Oxford Street (which had been rebuilt in the 1920s as part of the Oxford Circus improvements). Gradually Topshop took over more of the premises, operating alongside Peter Robinson for a time in the 1970s before
14352-428: The second half were by Schubert, Quilter and Parry rather than ballads from Chappell's. For Wood, the greatest benefit was that the BBC gave him twice as much rehearsal time as he had previously enjoyed. He now had a daily rehearsal and extra rehearsals as needed. He was also allowed extra players when large scores called for them, instead of having to rescore the work for the forces available. In 1929, Wood played
14490-400: The second rehearsal. Not being able to play at the concert, C sends D, whom you would have paid five shillings to stay away." After a rehearsal in which Wood was faced with a sea of entirely unfamiliar faces in his own orchestra, Newman came on the platform to announce: "Gentlemen, in future there will be no deputies; good morning." Forty players resigned en bloc and formed their own orchestra:
14628-401: The south side of the street in the 20th century: Woolworths opened its first West End store at No. 311 in 1925, followed by a handful of others in the 1930s (for example Littlewoods , which opened its first Central London store at Nos. 207–213 in 1937, later expanding into Nos. 197–205; it was rebuilt in the early 1960s but closed in the early 2000s). By the 1930s the street
14766-459: The start of that year's season, he collapsed and was ordered to have a month in bed. Despite wartime vicissitudes, the 1943 season sold nearly 250,000 tickets, with an average audience of about 4,000 – many more than could have fitted into the Queen's Hall. Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London , running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus . It marks
14904-752: The station on 7 March 1969, its official opening. In September 1973 a shopping-bag bomb was detonated by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) at the offices of the Prudential Assurance Company , injuring six people. A second bomb was detonated by the IRA next to Selfridges in December 1974, injuring three people and causing £1.5 million worth of damage. Oxford Street was again targeted by the IRA in August 1975; an undiscovered bomb that had been booby trapped exploded without any injuries. On 26 October 1981 Kenneth Howorth , an explosives officer with
15042-429: The street outside. Damage was repaired, and the shop reopened the following day. After its main store was destroyed, John Lewis operated from properties on the other side of Holles Street (i.e. to the east) until the completion of its new store to the west. Relinquishing these properties then enabled it to purchase the whole of the west site. Subsequently the entire block between Holles Street and John Prince's Street
15180-413: The streetscape from the early 20th century, the most imposing of all being Selfridges (which opened in 1909). The street suffered heavy bombing during World War II , and several longstanding stores including John Lewis & Partners were completely destroyed and rebuilt from scratch. Despite competition from out-of-town shopping centres and online retailers , Oxford Street remains in high demand as
15318-626: The three London orchestras: the London Symphony, London Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestras. The concert raised £9,000 for Wood's chosen charity, providing health care for musicians. In the same year, Wood published his autobiography, My Life of Music . In September 1939, the Second World War broke out and the BBC immediately put into effect its contingency plans to move much of its broadcasting away from London to places thought less susceptible to bombing. Its musical activities, including
15456-486: The time was to become a teacher of singing, and he gave singing lessons throughout his life. He attended the classes of as many singing teachers as he could, although by his own account, "I possess a terrible voice. Garcia said it would go through a brick wall. In fact, a real conductor's voice." On leaving the Royal Academy of Music in 1888, Wood taught singing privately and was soon very successful, attracting "more singing pupils than I could comfortably deal with" at half
15594-422: The trap and said the scoring was wonderful, Klenovsky had the real flare [ sic ] for true colour etc. – and performance after performance was given and asked for ." Wood kept the secret for five years before revealing the truth. The press treated the deception as a great joke; The Times entered into the spirit of it with a jocular tribute to the lamented Klenovsky. As Wood's working life took
15732-505: The usual light music. He introduced major classical works, such as Beethoven symphonies, normally restricted to the more expensive concerts presented by the Philharmonic Society and others. Newman aimed to do the same: "I am going to run nightly concerts and train the public by easy stages. Popular at first, gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music." Newman's determination to make
15870-538: The wealthy Mayfair district. Some of adjacent Tottenham Court Road's famous electronics stores have spread onto its eastern extremity. The annual switching on of Christmas lights by a celebrity has been a popular event since 1959. As a popular retail area and main thoroughfare for London buses and taxis, Oxford Street has suffered from traffic congestion , pedestrian congestion, a poor safety record and pollution. Various traffic management schemes have been implemented by Transport for London (TFL) and others, including
16008-452: The whole it does not look as if Schoenberg has so far made many friends in London." However, when Wood invited Schoenberg himself to conduct the work's second British performance, on 17 January 1914, the composer was so delighted with the result, more appreciatively received than had been the premiere, that he congratulated Wood and the orchestra warmly: "I must say it was the first time since Gustav Mahler that I heard such music played again as
16146-523: The work for which he is most celebrated, Fantasia on British Sea Songs , for a concert in 1905, celebrating the centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar . It caught the public fancy immediately, with its mixture of sea-shanties, together with Handel 's "See the Conquering Hero Comes" and Arne 's "Rule, Britannia!" He played it at the Proms more than 40 times, and it became a fixture at the " Last Night of
16284-419: Was Malcolm Sargent , who appeared at the Proms as a composer-conductor in 1921 and 1922. Wood encouraged him to abandon thoughts of a career as a pianist and to concentrate on conducting. Wood further showed his interest in the future of music by taking on the conductorship of the student orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music in 1923, rehearsing it twice a week, whenever possible, for the next twenty years. In
16422-408: Was a general welcome for the BBC's announcement that it would take over the running of the Proms, and would also run a winter series of symphony concerts at the Queen's Hall. The BBC regime brought immediate benefits. The use of the second half of concerts to promote Chappell's songs ceased, to be replaced by music chosen for its own excellence: on the first night under the BBC's control, the songs in
16560-409: Was a place of public execution from 1388 to 1783 and a set of gallows stood here. On Ralph Aggas' "Plan of London", published in the 16th century, the road is described partly as "The Waye to Uxbridge" followed by "Oxford Road", showing rural farmland at the present junction of Oxford Street and Rathbone Place. By 1678 it was known as the "King's Highway", and the "Road To Oxford" by 1682. Though
16698-558: Was almost entirely retail, a state that still obtains today. However, unlike nearby streets such as Bond Street and Park Lane, there remained a seedy element including street traders and prostitutes. Gradually, as the century progressed, the independent retailers began to be replaced by chain stores . During the Second World War , Oxford Street was bombed several times. Overnight and in the early hours of 17 to 18 September 1940, 268 Heinkel He 111 and Dornier Do 17 bombers targeted
16836-594: Was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts , known as the Proms . He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences. After his death, the concerts were officially renamed in his honour as the "Henry Wood Promenade Concerts", although they continued to be generally referred to as "the Proms". Born in modest circumstances to parents who encouraged his musical talent, Wood started his career as an organist. During his studies at
16974-566: Was and is owned by the Portman Estate ; while facing it (on the southern side) most of the land west of Davies Street was and is part of the Grosvenor estate . John Rocque's Map of London , published in 1746, shows urban buildings as far as North Audley Street (on the south side) and Marylebone Lane (on the north side), but only intermittent rural property beyond. Further development to the west occurred between 1763 and 1793, when building began on
17112-582: Was beginning to find his position as Britain's leading conductor under challenge from rising younger rivals. Thomas Beecham had been an increasingly influential figure since about 1910. He and Wood did not like one another, and each avoided mention of the other in his memoirs. Adrian Boult, who, at Wood's recommendation, took over some of his responsibilities at Birmingham in 1923, always admired and respected Wood. Other younger conductors included men who had been members of Wood's orchestra, including Basil Cameron and Eugene Goossens . Another protégé of Wood
17250-531: Was chosen as the venue, having a far larger capacity than the Queen's Hall. The concert was given on 5 October 1938. Rachmaninoff played the solo part in his Second Piano Concerto , and Vaughan Williams , at Wood's request, composed a short choral work for the occasion: the Serenade to Music for orchestra and 16 soloists. The other composers represented in the programme were Sullivan, Beethoven, Bach, Bax , Wagner, Handel and Elgar. The orchestra comprised players from
17388-530: Was developed by the Grosvenor Estate on the corner of Davies Street as part of the rebuilding of Bond Street tube station for the Jubilee line in 1979; it opened the following year. In 1986 The Plaza shopping centre was opened within the walls of the former Bourne & Hollingsworth department store building (dating from 1925–1928), the latter having closed three years earlier. The Plaza itself closed in 2016 and
17526-429: Was erected in four stages over a twenty-two year period, having been designed by a combination of architects including D. H. Burnham & Company , Frank Atkinson , Sir John Burnet and Thomas Tait . Its construction was influenced by American high rise technology: steel framing and reinforced concrete were employed to create a large and adaptable retail space, and their use was subsequently widely adopted across
17664-439: Was generally assumed by the public to be Wood's wife. In his memoirs, Wood mentioned neither his second marriage nor his subsequent relationship. In his later years, Wood came to be identified with the Proms rather than with the year-round concert season. Boult was appointed director of music at the BBC in 1930. In that capacity he strove to ensure that Wood was invited to conduct a fitting number of BBC symphony concerts outside
17802-499: Was invited to play the organ in one of the galleries, making a good enough impression to be engaged to give recitals at the exhibition building over the next three months. At this time in his life, painting was nearly as strong an interest as music, and he studied in his spare time at the Slade School of Fine Art . He remained a life-long amateur painter. After taking private lessons from the musicologist Ebenezer Prout , Wood entered
17940-450: Was nearly a semitone higher than that used on the continent, and Cathcart regarded it as damaging for singers' voices. Wood, from his experience as a singing teacher, agreed. As members of Wood's brass and woodwind sections were unwilling to buy new low-pitched instruments, Cathcart imported a set from Belgium and lent them to the players. After a season, the players recognised that the low pitch would be permanently adopted, and they bought
18078-431: Was opened at No. 363 Oxford Street in 1921 by Sir Edward Elgar ; the premises were twice rebuilt by Joseph Emberton in the moderne style, first in 1935 and then again in 1938–1939 (following a fire). The Beatles made their first recording in London in 1962, when they cut a 78 rpm demo disc in the store. A larger store at No. 150 (site of the old Princess's Theatre) was opened in 1986 by Bob Geldof , and
18216-537: Was originally part of the Via Trinobantina, a Roman road between Essex and Hampshire via London. It was known as Tyburn Road through the Middle Ages when it was notorious for public hangings of prisoners at Tyburn Gallows . It became known as Oxford Road and then Oxford Street in the 18th century, and began to change from residential to commercial and retail use, attracting street traders, confidence tricksters and prostitution. Department stores began to dominate
18354-424: Was persuaded to have an associate conductor to relieve him of some of the burden. Basil Cameron undertook the task and remained a Prom conductor until his retirement, aged eighty, in 1964. The BBC brought its symphony orchestra back to London and resumed its backing of the Proms in 1942; Boult joined Cameron as Wood's associate conductor during that season. In early 1943, Wood's health deteriorated, and two days after
18492-518: Was reduced to a shell. It remained a bomb site for the remainder of the war and beyond, finally being demolished and rebuilt between 1958 and 1960. Peter Robinson partially reopened on 22 September, though the main storefront remained boarded up. The basement was converted into studios for the BBC Eastern Service. Orwell made several broadcasts here from 1941 to 1943. Selfridges was bombed again on 17 April 1941, suffering further damage, including
18630-922: Was reopened as a covered bazaar ); this prompted another bazaar (across the road at No. 150) to close, and in 1836 the Princess's Theatre opened on the site. Oxford Street changed in character from residential to retail towards the end of the 18th century. Recording an evening visit to the street in 1786, Sophie von La Roche described a multitude of shops lit by Argand lamps behind 'handsome glass windows': confectioners, fruiterers, watchmakers, silversmiths, 'spirit booths' (selling strong drink), glass shops, china shops, silk shops, lamp shops and others. There were also clothing retailers of various sorts, and furniture-makers (such as Gillow & Co. , established in 1769). Street vendors sold tourist souvenirs during this time. A plan in Tallis's London Street Views , published in
18768-525: Was sold by the Howard de Walden Estate to Land Securities for redevelopment: designed by T. P. Bennett & Partners, it would provide small units of retail accommodation either side of a central flagship department store (namely British Home Stores , until its closure in 2016). Atop the Oxford Street frontage a six-storey block was constructed to house the London College of Fashion , behind which
18906-465: Was the first department store in the UK with escalators serving every floor. It retained the D. H. Evans name until 2001, when it was rebranded as House of Fraser (the name of the parent company ). House of Fraser closed in 2022. Selfridges, Oxford Street , the second-largest department store in the UK and the flagship of the Selfridges chain, has been trading in Oxford Street since 1909. The building
19044-444: Was the largest music shop in the world, at 60,000 sq ft (6,000 m ). As well as music and video retail, the premises supported live gigs in the store. Because of financial difficulties, the store closed in 2014, with all retail moving to No. 363 (which itself closed in 2020). In November 2023 the store at No. 363 was reopened, branded as 'The HMV Shop'. The 100 Club , in the basement of No. 100, has been run as
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