Selfridge's, Oxford Street W1

The clock over the main entrance of Selfridge's was one of the last parts to be completed, for the eastern end was built first in 1909, the western end in 1920, the middle in 1926 and the clock installed in 1931.
Known as the Queen of Time, it is by Gilbert Bayes, who mined a lifetime's development of polychromatic techniques to create this gold and blue bronze, a stunning and rich effect. It is a superb composition, noble, confident and lovely.
The Queen looks superficially like Athena, holding little figure of Nike (Victory) in her right hand and a sprig of laurel (also a symbol of victory) in her left. But unlike Athena she wears no armour, and Nike stands on an orb, a regal attribute. She is also winged (time flies, geddit?) and stands on the prow of a ship. Her supporters are mermaids holding phases of the moon controlling the tides, and of course the Queen of Time and Tides waits for no man.
The model was Leopoldine Avico, one of the three Avico sisters who were something of an institution at the Slade between the wars.
The clock behind supports an Elizabethan ship, recalling the early days of the exploration that would lead to the industrial revolution, trade and commerce, globalisation and the rise of shopping as the principal hobby of most of the western world except, of course, for eating, drinking and sex.