England may have endured World Cup failure, but for the polyglot masses thronging Oxford Street, there is still everything to play for. Which is perhaps where Selfridges scores with its pop-up stadium located in the basement of its central London flagship.

England may have endured World Cup failure, but for the polyglot masses thronging Oxford Street, there is still everything to play for. Which is perhaps where Selfridges scores with its pop-up stadium located in the basement of its central London flagship.

This has all the elements that you’d expect of a pop-up, with a distinctly temporary feel about almost everything. That said, the generosity of devoting a 3,500 sq ft space to something that is almost entirely non-commercial, marks the department store out as having done something unusual.

Selfridges has teamed up with Nike for this one, which makes perfect sense as along the street, at Niketown Oxford Circus, those wishing to buy football-related paraphernalia can worship at a World Cup shrine: a football players sculpture just inside the store entrance.

However, this space is about watching. Visitors descend a long staircase decked out with graphics that seem to mimic large parts of the Brazilian flag and then arrive in a space with chairs, a large screen and free vitamin drinks.

England were not playing on the evening of visiting, yet the ‘stadium’ was reasonably busy and at half-time the audience decamped to play table football, in an adjoining room, or to take a look at a related World Cup exhibition. And everybody seemed happy. As an exercise in capturing the zeitgeist, this has had few equals of late and Selfridges reinforces its reputation for understanding what will make people sit up and take notice.

Less store and rather more event then, and just in case you think it’s all over, it will be by Sunday.