From award winning Christmas windows to a 43ft high tree in the centre of St Pancras Station, no-one does Christmas quite like Fortnum’s.

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Each year, five retail floors, staircases, the external canopy and the central atrium of the prestigious building are filled with an abundance of trees, lights, decorations and ornaments unlike anything seen at other London stores.

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And the Christmas spirit didn’t end there. The Fortnum's Christmas experience extended to encompass the brands remote stores in St. Pancras, Heathrow, Dubai and Lane Crawford, Hong Kong, and the entire West Wing of Somerset House, London.

During his time as Head of Visual Presentation, the design and co-ordination of this enormous feat was the responsibility of Paul Symes and his team. Commencing early in the year with in-house concepts and early design briefs, all Christmas windows and interior decorations were meticulously planned to project a single visually powerful message across Fortnum's impressive retail estate. 

Meticulous planning, creative flair and a great sense of humour were essential requisites of the team, given the many night shifts necessary to ensure no disruption to trading and genuine surprise and delight for visiting customers.

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The Piccadilly building wasn’t designed to cope with such major installations, and some ingenious methods were employed to complete the installation, out of store hours in just one weekend!, The central atrium decoration for example, required a team of abseilers to assemble the colossal suspended decoration from sections produced ’off site’, working long hours and following strict health & safety regulations.

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Excellent project management, budget control and creative inventiveness were essential in delivering the Fortnum's Christmas experience on time, within budget, time after time..

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Shown here are a selection of images of various schemes, epitomising the Fortnum's spirit.