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Jeremy Piven as Harry Selfridge and Frances O'Connor as Rose, his wife, in the ITV drama Mr Selfridge Picture courtesy of ITV Drama of courtesy Picture 16 DORSET February 2014 dorsetmagazine.co.uk MR SELFRIDGE Mr Selfridge’s DORSET DREAMS Harry Gordon Selfridge spoiled women in his personal life the same way he did the female customers in his department store. But his love of dance girls, his ostentacious plans and lavish spending in Dorset heralded the start of his sad demise into penury WORDS BY JEREMY MILES PHOTOGRAPHS BY HATTIE MILES illions of viewers and fame. He was a hopeless have been tuning adrenalin junkie, a risk-taker who in for the second always wanted more. While his Mseries of Mr devoted wife Rose and their children Selfridge, the enjoyed the genteel country life in glossy ITV drama about the Highcliffe, Harry would race to town flamboyant self-made American to entertain the glamorous young retail giant who taught the British French singer and dancer Gaby how to love shopping. Deslys. Gaby - one of a series of lovers But how many of them know that - was extremely high-maintenance. Collection' Ian Stevenson 'The of courtesy Picture Harry Gordon Selfridge - the man Harry, who had leased a big Georgian who founded Selfridges department townhouse in Kensington for her, store and coined the phrase “The sent a Selfridges van each day bearing customer is always right” - lived for flowers and gifts. Meanwhile the years right here on the Dorset coast? singer had the run of the Oxford Between 1916 and 1922 he rented the Street store, helping herself to imposing cliff-top Highcliffe Castle whatever took her fancy. Jewellery, near Christchurch. furs, fine silks… they all went on It was the start of a new era in the Harry’s personal account. life of this extraordinary self-made Highcliffe historian Ian Stevenson man who had clawed his way up from says: “Everybody says Selfridge came a 14-year-old stockroom boy in to Highcliffe because he was worried Chicago to become an inspirational about his family being in London international retail entrepreneur. It with the First World War Zeppelin would also mark the point when his raids but the other half of the story is reckless spending, womanising and that he was having this affair.” gambling began to spiral completely Stevenson, a former Fleet Street out of control. journalist, is an expert on Highcliffe, Selfridge had made millions and its castle and Selfridge’s time there. established a world-beating He also helped author Lindy department store that had finally Woodhead research her best-selling made shopping sexy. It had turned book Shopping, Seduction & Mr him into a superstar. But the boy they Selfridge which inspired the TV had called ‘Mile-a-Minute Harry’ series. He reckons the real-life Harry back in Chicago was never able to Gordon Selfridge was even more Above: The Stars and Stripes flying over Highcliffe Castle, simply sit back and enjoy his wealth remarkable than the character > circa 1916, when Harry Selfridge was living there dorsetmagazine.co.uk DORSET February 2014 17 MR SELFRIDGE Pictures courtesy of 'The Ian Stevenson Collection' Ian Stevenson 'The of courtesy Pictures Above: Harry Selfridge on his steam ship 'Conquorer' Right: Jeremy Piven as Harry Selfridge in the second series of the ITV drama Below: Rose Selfridge in the grounds of Highcliffe Castle - picture dates from 1916 - 1918 portrayed in the TV show by actor Jeremy again in 1914 and if, as is hoped, a third is would meet premature deaths. His family Piven. eventually commissioned, it will take the made a big impact on Highcliffe during the Stevenson isn’t particularly impressed show into the Highcliffe years. “We’re First World War, flying the Stars and Stripes with the TV version. “Frankly it plays fast keeping our fingers crossed,” says castle from the castle roof and establishing a and loose with the facts,” he says. “They’ve manager David Hopkinson. Convalescence Camp for wounded made Selfridge so much younger than he Meanwhile Stevenson says people are servicemen on the nearby recreation really was. He was 53 when he opened eager for new stories about the charismatic ground. After Rose’s death from Selfridge’s. There’s nothing in the Mr Selfridge and his time at Highcliffe. It pneumonia in 1918, Harry devoted even programme to indicate that.” was a period of change for Harry during more time to playing the grand showman. However, Stevenson does concede that which both Gaby Deslys and his wife Rose His Whitsun Fete at the castle in 1920 everyone else - Lindy Woodhead and Highcliffe Castle management included - While his devoted wife Rose and their children seem delighted with the series. Not surprising perhaps. Visitor numbers and enjoyed the genteel country life in Highcliffe, Harry book sales have soared since the first series would race to town to entertain the glamorous young of Mr Selfridge hit the TV screens in early 2013. The second series picks up the story French singer and dancer Gaby Deslys 18 DORSET February 2014 dorsetmagazine.co.uk cEverybody says Selfridge came to Highcliffe because he Picture courtesy of ITV Drama of courtesy Picture was worried about his family being in London with the First World War Zeppelin raids but the other half of the story is that he was having an affaird attracted 5,000 people with special trains laid on from Bournemouth and Southampton ferrying the crowds to and from the station at nearby Hinton Admiral. Selfridge was set on a path of outrageous displays of wealth and grandeur at Highcliffe. He would play high-stakes poker with society friends like the tea magnate and keen yachtsman Sir Thomas Lipton and Royal financial advisor Sir Edward Cassel, who had a holiday home at Branksome. Later Harry himself would keep a huge steam yacht, Conqueror, Harry Selfridge moored at Southampton. with his dog in the grounds of Like most of his interests it cost a Highcliffe Castle fortune. But gradually the money was circa 1916 running out. The Wall Street Crash > Collection' Ian Stevenson 'The of courtesy Picture dorsetmagazine.co.uk DORSET February 2014 19 MR SELFRIDGE The singer had the run of the Oxford Street store, helping herself to whatever took her fancy. Jewellery, furs, fine silks… they all went on Harry’s personal account combined with a reckless relationship with often catch the bus to Oxford Street just to customary gusto that he was going to build gambling-addicted showgirls, The Dolly stand and look at the great store that “the biggest castle in the world” at Sisters, proved financially fatal. The girls continued to thrive without him. Shabby Hengistbury Head. - identical twins who specialised in mirror and ill-dressed, he was once even arrested Plans were drawn up for a massive dancing - laid waste to Harry’s fortune with as a suspected vagrant. His simple 250-room Neo-Classical palace, a Gothic glee. Apparently oblivious of the gravestone now stands alongside those of fortress with four miles of ramparts, its consequences, Selfridge would buy his wife and mother in St Mark’s own theatre, a huge ballroom and a diamond necklaces to cheer them up when Churchyard in Highcliffe just a few Versailles-style Hall of Mirrors. At one point they lost his money on the tables in Monte hundred yards from his grand former he even planned to include a 300-foot Carlo. By the late 1930s his £60 million home. Just a mile or two away is the beauty tower. It was never too be. Eventually he fortune was gone. He owed the taxman spot Hengistbury Head, the site of one of had no option but to sell Hengistbury to tens of thousands and Selfridges could no his more bizarre plans, to build a massive Bournemouth Council. longer afford to pick up the tab. In a castle of his own. Ian Stevenson, like many other locals, is boardroom showdown Harry was forced Selfridge could stand at the bottom the hugely relieved that this nature reserve and out of the business he loved. Highcliffe grounds and see the ancient centre for environmental research was Harry Gordon Selfridge would die, aged headland. When he eventually managed to spared the worst excesses of Selfridge’s 90, in relative poverty. A tragic down-at- buy it from Bournemouth landowner Sir imagination: “It’s a blessed relief that he heel figure in his final years, he would George Meyrick, he announced with frittered his money away,” he tells me. 20 DORSET February 2014 dorsetmagazine.co.uk Left: Some of the cast of the ITV drama Mr Selfridge Pictured L-R: Gregory Fitoussi as Henri, Aisling Loftus as Agnes, Katherine Kelly as Lady Mae, Jeremy Pevin as Harry Selfridge, Zoe Tapper as Ellen Love, Francis Connor as Rose and Samuel West as Frank Below: Sunflowers laid on Harry Selfridge’s simple grave at St Mark’s Churchyard at Highcliffe Picture courtesy of ITV Drama of courtesy Picture “Nobody would have been able to afford to keep that building up and ‘The Head’ would now be littered with the ruins of his castle.” Highcliffe Castle today One final tale from Stevenson perhaps Visiting Highcliffe Castle speaks volumes about how Harry Gordon Selfridge, despite fabulous wealth, would Highcliffe Castle has been described as medieval French masonry was shipped never be admitted into the elite circle of one of the most important surviving across the Channel for use in its British Society. The 1921 wedding of his houses of the Romantic and Picturesque construction and it is this Norman and daughter Violette to French Viscount style of architecture, which flourished at Renaissance carved stone, along with the the end of the 18th century and the Castle’s Gothic revival features and Jacques de Sibour was a huge social event beginning of the 19th century.