Liberty
Regent Street Soho London W1B 5AH
The grande dame of London’s department stores, opened in 1875, Liberty has long been the go-to shopping destination for arty fashionistas and design junkies alike. The store has had a long relationship with the Arts and Crafts movement, and the building itself, with its mock-Tudor frontage and iconic signage dates from the 1920s. Though it looks traditional and cosy, from its earliest days it has been known for combining the offbeat and cutting-edge with classic items – an Aladdin’s Cave of carpets, home furnishings and objets d’art, gifts, jewellery and clothes, all of them bound by one failsafe rule: good design. William Morris’s mantra ‘Have nothing in your house which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful’ rings loud and true at this unique, stunning shop.