Visual Merchandising and Store Design | VMSD.com

Irish Spring: Britain’s House of Fraser invests in Belfast 10 years after the end of “the troubles,” with its largest new store to date.

By John Ryan

For 30 years, Northern Ireland was in a state of near-civil war and its capital, Belfast, was starved of U.K. retail investment. Companies were never sure if or when their shops might fall prey to terrorism.

Today, 10 years after the “Good Friday Agreement” that marked the end of hostilities, retailers are flooding into Belfast. In March, London’s House of Fraser opened a 200,000-square-foot store as the anchor tenant of the $800 million Victoria Square shopping development in the city center.

This is House of Fraser’s largest new store-opening to date. Kinnersley Kent Design (KKD), the London-based consultancy, began planning the store in 2003. During that time, House of Fraser has gone from being a publicly traded company to a private entity, a move that has made a difference in the way things are done, according to KKD creative director Mick Kent. For one thing, ceo John King has said that the department store group will be moving more upmarket, and the Belfast store – and a 140,000-square-foot High Wycombe branch, north of London – are evidence of that.

House of Fraser acts, to all intents and purposes, as a house of brands (there are more than 500 of them in this branch), but Kent and his team have created a uniform template around the perimeters of the store so the shopper will always understand that this is a House of Fraser store. “We’ve worked with all the vendors in the store to help them work the way House of Fraser wants them to,” Kent says.

It is clear that time has been invested in creating destination areas, each with its own treatment. One of the more arresting of these is the shoe department, where a series of s-shaped fixtures was produced to soften the usual straight-line merchandising and encourage a more leisurely meander through the space. The jewelry department features glass cubes set between columns that have mirrored strips running down their length. Each area is also carpeted, contrasting with the cream terrazzo tiling on the rest of the floor. Fixture heights have been controlled to promote sightlines and to lessen the dependency on signage, which clutter too many department store interiors. Escalators sit within an airy atrium, with mannequins positioned on the balconies.

The first floor is totally womenswear, with branded islands and perimeter fixturing combining to foster a sense of homogeneity. The evening and occasion-wear department demands its own attention, however, with elongated silver mannequins standing on circular plinths, but masked from the hoi polloi by a fine metal mesh curtain.

Ba Mizu is a bar and restaurant on the top floor with an outdoor terrace offering views of the Belfast skyline. The setting is glamorous, with dark wood used throughout, low levels of ambient light and long lines washed in blue light and recessed into the ceiling. The dark leather banquette running the length of one of the walls is lit from behind by blue uplights and a bar forms the centerpiece of the room with a minimalist design that makes the considerable stock the center of attention. KKD associate Neil Speller says, “There is a club-like feel here. It’s House of Fraser’s first out-of-hours restaurant.” There’s also a champagne and oyster bar on the ground floor.

Client: House of Fraser Ltd., London

Design: Kinnersley Kent Design, London -- Paul McElroy, partner; Neil Speller, associate; Lindie Champion, head of marketing

General Contractor: PEL Interiors Ltd., London and Birmingham, U.K.; Havelock Europa Plc, Dalgety Bay, Scotland

Photography: Peter Cook, London