Whole Foods Market Kensington
The Grade II-listed Art Deco building at 63-97 Kensington High Street in London, originally built for Barkers department store and now housing Europe's first Whole Foods Market, took nearly 30 years to complete. Designed by architect Bernard George, construction began in the 1930s, paused during World War II, and finally opened in September 1958. Today, the 80,000-square-foot flagship store retains historical details, including its ground-floor Provision Hall.
London · from the walk “Kensington High Street: Shop, Eat & Explore” · audio ~3 min · Generated
63-97 Kensington High Street, London W8 5SE
- John Barker and James Whitehead opened the original Barkers drapery shop on Kensington High Street in 1870.
- By 1892, Barkers covered an entire city block with 42 departments and employed over 1,000 staff members.
- Architect Bernard George served as the in-house designer for Barkers department store from 1928 to 1962.
- On June 6, 2007, Whole Foods Market opened its 80,000-square-foot European flagship inside the historic Kensington store.
When was the Art Deco Barkers department store building on Kensington High Street completed?
Look up at this sweeping curve of cream stone and glass... and you're standing before one of Kensington's most extraordinary buildings. Today it's a Whole Foods Market, but this Grade Two Listed Art Deco masterpiece has a story that stretches back more than a hundred and fifty years.......... It all began in eighteen seventy, when a man named John Barker and his partner James Whitehead opened a modest little drapery shop right here on Kensington High Street. But Barker was no ordinary shopkeeper. He'd been a star salesman at Whiteley's famous emporium in Westbourne Grove, quickly promoted to departmental manager. He'd hoped to be made partner... but when Whiteley refused, Barker left and struck out on his own.......... And what happened next was Relentless. By eighteen seventy one, he'd bought the shop next door. Then the one after that. By eighteen eighty, he'd swallowed up an ironmonger's on Ball Street. And by eighteen ninety two, his empire stretched across the entire block... forty two departments and workshops! Over a thousand staff worked here, handling more than two thousand parcels a day.......... But Barker wasn't just a merchant. He served as an Alderman on the very First London County Council, became a Liberal Member of Parliament, and was awarded a baronetcy in nineteen oh eight. Sir John Barker... draper turned knight.......... Now, the building you see today is Not his original shop. That was replaced thanks to architect Bernard George, who worked as Barkers' in-house designer from nineteen twenty eight to nineteen sixty two, crafting both this building and the neighboring Derry and Toms in his signature Art Deco style. Construction on Barkers began in the nineteen thirties, but was only two thirds complete when war was declared in nineteen thirty nine. Work didn't resume until April nineteen fifty five, and the new store finally opened in September nineteen fifty eight. That's a building nearly Thirty years in the making.......... And did you know that at its peak, this single stretch of Kensington High Street housed Three department stores under the same ownership? Barkers, Derry and Toms, and Pontings... all side by side. Many thought they rivaled the grand shops of Oxford Street.......... Then on June sixth, two thousand and seven, Whole Foods Market opened its flagship United Kingdom store right here... the first Whole Foods in Europe, spanning eighty thousand square feet. When you walk in, the ground floor is still called "Provision Hall," a name borrowed from the original Barkers store.......... So whether you're here for artisan cheese or organic sourdough... take a moment to look UP at those sweeping Art Deco lines and remember... you're shopping in what was once the beating heart of Kensington retail royalty.