Selfridges seeking £300m revamp

PLANS for a £300m revamp of Selfridges's flagship store that include a spectacular public viewing gallery rivalling the London Eye have been revealed. The store, which shot Oxford Street to world shopping fame at the turn of the 19th/20th century, plans a redevelopment it hopes will reverse nearly a decade of decline in London's best known thoroughfare.

While its listed facade will stay untouched, the drab Sixties office blocks, the hotel and the car park which make up much of its hidden rear will be flattened.

In their place will be extra retail space, plus a new 12-storey 'contemporary-design' five-star hotel, complete with spa and swimming pool. At the top will be a restaurant, bar and viewing area that will provide some of the best vistas from the West End since the Post Office Tower shut in the Seventies.

'Apart from being on the London Eye there is nowhere else you can get this kind of view,' said chief executive Vittorio Radice, the Italian who is credited with the store's image change in recent years.

An application for planning permission was submitted to Westminster council on Tuesday, after nearly 18 months on the design board at architects Foster and Partners. If it gets the go-ahead - Westminster rejected a previous design for a 20-storey hotel - it could be built by about 2007.