My Mum worked at Harrods in these days. Back then she earned enough money to get a mortgage for a 3 bedroom house in Walthamstow (alone) and still live decently. How times have changed

The elevator gent was priceless. What a gem these men were.

Watching how much goes into Harrods 40 years ago is an amazing snap shot of British culture - pre internet. All the workers were so earnest - they really worked to make it live up to its name

My wife worked for Fortnum & Mason, they and Harrods staff would play practical jokes on one another. One that F&M played was to call Harrods Food Hall saying they were the Natural History Museum and that a dinosaurs bone had been broken. They explained the bone was very near the same shape as a ham bone, the cold meats sales person said they did not have a carved bone ready but would slice one and send it round. A bone duly arrived at the museum by cab. F&M called back to say Gotcha.

I worked at Harrods during this period and remember Joe, the lift operator. He was a real character, a lovely gentleman with a great sense of humour. I spent 5 wonderful years there, but I left Harrods once Al-Fayed took over. Under Al-Fayed's management, the staff were spied upon with hidden cameras and sound recording devices, I hated the whole atmosphere under this new management.

I worked in Harrods in 77/78, straight out of school. I remember using the tube system to transfer payments made in foreign currency to finance. Change would come back in the foreign currency concerned. Amazing service.

I‘m German and from 79-80 i lived in London The good old England ! I loved it soooo much !

Now that's a Harrods I'd visit. Not the dreadful vulgar brash money obsessed tacky supermarket it is now.

I worked as a traineee buyer at Harrods in the 1970’s when it was House of Fraser owned and still truly British. I worked there the day we were bombed by the IRA. Never to be forgotten. Also those hideous months of power rationing when we worked alternate days with portable gas lamps on the counters. But people still shopped !

I bought some coleslaw in Harrods once, it's ingrained in my memory for how delicious it was

Late seventies lived and worked in Stanmore Middx : While shopping in central London , my first stop after 10.30 AM at Harrods fish hall for freshly opened oysters and a glass of dry white wine while standing up next to the spectacular daily fresh fish display it was a unic work of art. then some time later salt beef sandwich with rye bread , sweet pickles ,good old english mustard and a beer at the Brass Rail Selfridges. those were the days. love from Algeria

It's very striking how the store has gone downhill in the years since this was filmed, offering only a fraction of the merchandise and services that it used to provide. Most of its floorspace is now given over to big brand concessions renting space from the store, not very different to a Westfield mall.

That was when it still belonged to the Scottish Owners. I was a regular shopper in the 50's absolutely loved it .My England . Sadly disappeared.

ah, the 'arrods of the 70s and 80s, the upper circle restaurant, the Olympic way, the supermarket in the basement, way in, being slapped on the backside by a cheerful doorman....happy days

Jean Michel Jarre "Equinox" as the backing music - nice.

Now the store is 90% rented space for name brands

Standards have gone down. The folk working for Harrods here looked immaculate like finely tuned solders and take pride in their work. I love the narrator accent just like my teachers back then.

And the Harrods country club for staff in Barnes and the furniture depository is now luxury housing.....Al Fayed even stopped the free tea in the canteen after I left in 91 !! You're much better off as staff working for John Lewis..way better off!!

My Dad worked in the piano department selling pianos, he left because his skill set was pianos but was asked to sell other musical instruments for which he felt uncomfortable doing so. Harrods once had a whole floor dedicated to just pianos before creating just one floor for all musical instruments. How times change. I remember visiting the store with my sister being shown around the different departments by my Dad, sometimes after the store had just shut or per-opening, we would see my dads colleagues and friends who were thrilled to show me and my sister the new toys or the cakes and sweets plus which horrified me the poultry and farm animals hanging from hooks. I also recall the Christmas parties for children of the employees great memories.

It's nothing like that now....:(

I went to London with my nan in 1985 to visit her sister for the first time since WW2 (her sister being married to a RAF pilot). She couldn’t speak a word English and I was five at the time. Her sister translated everything for her but she wanted to visit Harrods with me on her own. I can remember some shopworkers trying to speak German because next to French and her native Dutch it was the only foreign language she could speak. How offended she was when people mistook us for Germans 😂. Harrods was overwhelming to me, as if they sold everything you could want. My nan held on to her plastic shoppingbag from Harrods till the day she passed in 2004. We all brought back Harrods bags for our nan when we grandchildren started to travel to London on our own (or on a school excursion).

They should make a Harrods museum of all the old stuff and machinery .

the woman smoking at 12.25 screwing up her face is my auntie! a right old sloane in her day. still is.

I have watched this video at least six times now. I love how it was made

Analog version of what Amazon is trying to become today. Early 1980s. 4 Green Men down from 10. Things were already unraveling. It’s a shame.

Arriving in London from Francis by euro train 🚞 on holiday, the first request to my accompanying daughter Was *please let’s go to Harrods , my first ever visit there , we bought nice roll sandwiches an desert An the headed to Hyde Park for our picnic , we had purchased bus 🚌 tickets to see the city of London Only to fine the traffic jams especially by Piccadilly caused us to forgo our seats to asking the Conductor to let us off , he explained back in the day the horse an cart went at 6miles an hr , an Now *2004 , the bus was slower than the horse an cart. We alighted the platform an took the tube I really enjoyed this vlog on Harrods of the original days ..fascinating thank you for this . Mary Canada 🇨🇦

I actually miss those days, where people spoke to each other, you had to go places to get things done, and more people had jobs because the computers and reductions, economic inequality took over....corporations. sadly are gone

That really is england of a different era!

I used to work years ago for a Saudi Business man who had a house in Montpelier Walk round the corner from Harrods. It was basically furnished from there. He was a British educated Anglophile with extremely good taste. I stayed there a few times when in London and it was surreal for a young lad from Scotland.

But any one noticed quality of documentaries make in Britain then? If you compare quality of these documentaries with what todays BBC produce... Britis journalism was at highest level in the world

Went to the UK in the late ‘80’s and bought a smashing bottle of wine from Harrods. Amazing store.

Fascinating. Thanks for upload.

Some of those hats look like Phillip Treacy 👒. Interesting video I'm going on an 80s cruise this year. So many happy memories 💓

That was lovely, the golden age, it certainly isn't like that now. The cheese counter is so tiny you have to ask where it is. There isn't a pet department. It is now some tiny thing operated by a third-party and zero animals. I am just so glad I remember it from a time when it was glorious.

Battery powered truck. Used heat from electric generators to make hot water. How eco friendly they were.

I loved this! A topic I would have NEVER seeked out off my own back but my god they knew how to make seemingly the most mundane subjects back them become interesting. And for some reason I LOVE the slightly melancholic music at the end!

This is fantastic. Thanks so much for uploading

makes me want to watch "Are You Being Served" : )

'addock. Lovely. Cheers Tel, see ya in the mornin'

What a wonderful insight into how things were done and I wish , still were.

In 2014, I visited from Australia. Harrods food hall was awesome, but lunch for Two came to 40 something pounds, but it was a great lunch 👏🏼👏🏼

Amazing store-- its like a world in it self

I worked in harrods in the beauty department late 80,s 90,,s i ❤ it there❤

Very interesting!

Before it transformed into dubai airport

I was Impressed with Hat Season :) QC

My dad worked in export bereau in the late 1970’s and my mum worked in switchboard in 1981 at harrods. They have very fond memories their and remember Joe how funny he was!

Moved from Ireland in 1989 and Worked in a diner called West side Express up the stairs from the Green Man in Harrods .Was totally blown away by everything in the store

A 3-course lunch for £8.50 in Harrods. My kids spend more than that in McDonald's on shite.

Visited there last April. Impressive food court. I also love Fortnum and Mason

Great channel old school London!

£3.40 in todays money for an egg. Absurdly expensive.

Harrods library - now that is interesting.

Give me Fortnum & Mason . . . a veritable treat.

Better times. Before the greed for Chinese money ruined the place.

I really enjoyed that. I worked at Harrods for about a year. The fellow staff members gave me the best laughs. The worst time, at least for me, was the crashing boredom of Monday mornings.

I love this, I remember it so well as a frequent visitor in the 70's & 80's. We got our school uniforms from there, and we had the Harrods van come to our school every Thursday for uniform top ups. Loved the toy department, always end up getting something there each week, the food hall was yummy, I'd buy mazipan fruits and scoff the lot lol. I'd remember walking through the perfumery dept and there was a mirror on each wall and play about there for ages whilst my mother had a nose round there. I proper rinsed it in the 80's, wads of cash, clothes shopping there and Harvey Nicks, I go Harrods, lunch in the Georgian restaurant and spend like a demon in Newman dept next to the restraint on the top floor, via the food hall, some cold meats, cakes and sweeties, and back the the car via the tunnel lol. Lovely days! Later on in life, got a nod to go to the Chairmans office on a Saturday with both my children, mega queue jump to the front to see Santa, that went on a for a few years lol.... Lovely I'd showing how I remembered it as a kid

Wow!!!!!!!! What a great video 👏👏👏

Love that this is a vintage clip

When people could have a banter, without someone being offended!

And now it's a foreign store for foreign money;) In the end money wins, wherever it comes from.

Very appropriate for the Hat Show, music from “My Fair Lady”. 👍🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

I worked there for a brief moment in time. It's a shame they didn't show the tunnel under Brompton road and the Harrods Shoe factory.

Bit of Jean Michell Jarre music.

I remember the chaps operating the lifts in the seventies and eighties. The lifts in the middle of the store had concertina doors; like trellis. So exciting as a child.

everyone had purpose back then - people were real, life was real. now it's all... well, shit frankly.

15:48 "or door 3 dogs and royalty"

A symbol of the way England used to be. England used to have a clear identity. But like Harrods they sold out, and now all that’s left is a cheap knock off version that caters to foreign customers.

The past was better than now and the future looks grim.

As a teen living in the UK, I cant help feel like this is the Britain i would have wanted to live in, gone are the days of englishness, class, sophistication etc Makes me sad to see how bad it has become.

My husband and I visited in August. The only ones buying were Saudi women in burkas. There were mobs of them in the handbag shoes, fragrance, and jewelry. It was crazy. The food area didn’t look to great. Many items on display in the cases looked old and wilted.

Very interesting to hear the man say. No manners, no please or thank you. He was well ahead of his time..

It will be cool to see what’s it’s like today I really want to know if they got the power station still?

Wow 😁 I love this

Go to Harrods today and the food halls are still impressive, but nothing like as spectacular as they once were. A lot of the original food hall area has been lost to jewellery sales and dining space. I suppose they are trying to wring as much money out of every square foot as they can. Pity.

The Northern guy at 7:24 made my day 😂😂😂😂

I reckon the reporter definitely claimed for his haircut on expensives.

Love the background music

Classic Britisch tradition ! I love it

Modern-day Harrods: Friends on holiday purchased a fine china dinnerware set to be sent to their home in the States. But even after repeated calls, it never arrived until after they called the office of a London acquaintance who was an MP.

Was great.

Great snap shot of when times were better. Who would have though 50yrs down the line, we are all worse off and cant afford to eat,

the synth score is incredible

I like harrods but would rather have the old harrods any day

Amazing

Harrods was amazing

0:23 Cheeky sod ! wiping his hands on the other guys coat and had to laugh at the guy picking his nose on the escalator at 18:06 😆

The store was bombed the year after this was filmed.

The world is yours...

1/4lb wine gums and an Asterix book… it was a wild jungle of fun! c.1979

"Last year at the royal wedding" AWW! I was at her son's wedding in 2011 a few years ago.

I used to go to Harrods a lot in 1981 while my father was producing "KRULL" at Pinewood Studios.

Love the Jean Michel Jarre music in the background!

I bet those folk loved their jobs too, not like nowadays, all you hear is folk moaning about being short staffed, over-worked, under-paid, treated like crap!

Harrods is nothing like this now this is really luxury, would have loved to see all this stuff but now it’s JUST a retail shop making profits. Still a nice place but look at this video and go now no comparison

love the guy on the escalator at 18:05 mins

Going by the W reg harrods delivery vans its probably around 1980 81

Thankfully, Harrods pet department closed.

What’s the song at the very end? Very haunting

They don’t do 24hr deliveries anymore after a lady phoned in and fell asleep taking up the entire reel? OMG!