The launch of a giant Selfridges shoe department in Manchester proves good things happen outside London, but little noise is made about it.

A big shoe shop has opened in Manchester. More accurately, Selfridges has opened the largest women’s shoe department outside London as a shop-in-shop at its Exchange Square store.

Yet, news of the £3m that has been splashed on creating the space has gone almost unremarked by press and pundits, other than local media.

The fact that central Manchester has been deemed worthy of being home to what is said to be the second largest women’s shoe department in the country is noteworthy in itself. But still not much noise about it.

There is, of course, a reason for this. UK fashion retail beyond the capital doesn’t count.

All of the fashion press is based in London, as are the majority of those who finance new stores and if you believe what you read, not a heel, slash neck top or cigarette leg trouser is worthy of consideration unless it was designed within the M25.

Retailers not promoting their stores

Then there’s the business of going on a ‘shopping trip to town’. For many people that means just one thing, jumping on the train and heading for Oxford Street, Regent Street, Bond Street, Knightsbridge et al.

The smallest shops that open on the big shopping streets in London tend to have launch parties, an army of PR helpers and journalists doing the rounds and writing about them.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, except that after the brouhaha dies down, many of these much-reported ‘game-changers’ shut up shop, to be replaced by the next big thing.

“Even the retailers can be dilatory about singing the praises of their new stores”

John Ryan

Yet, as the new shoe department in Selfridges demonstrates, good stuff does happen outside London. And here’s the kicker. Even the retailers can be dilatory about singing the praises of their new stores if they happen to be more than a few miles north of King’s Cross or south of Victoria.

Everybody knows that the development at New Street in Birmingham, which will include a full-line John Lewis is a big deal, both in terms of retail and of raising the profile of the UK’s ‘second city’. But things are pretty quiet at present.

The London-centric nature of almost everything in the UK ensures that this status quo will be maintained pretty much until the ribbons are cut and shoppers get a look at what’s been done.

A little more focus on new stores and refurbishments outside London might therefore pay dividends for retailers and the cities that play host to them.