Liberty
THERE’S NO DEPARTMENT STORE in London quite like Liberty. There never has been, not since its foundation way back in 1875. Somehow, the hundreds of thousands of disparate objects it purveys coalesce to produce a style uniquely its own. If glitz, ostentation, and homogenous pseudo-luxury are your tickets, I’d advise you to look towards the retail giants of Knightsbridge and Oxford Street. They’ll be perfectly calibrated to your needs. On the other hand, if it’s charming idiosyncrasy you’re after – the quirky and offbeat but beautifully and amusingly designed – Liberty is the place for you.
On the basis of architecture alone, there aren’t many stores as distinctive as this one, with its mock-Tudor façade and atrium constructed from the creaking timbers of two superannuated battleships. Liberty customers, be they ever so affluent, are somewhat… artsy. In the first generation, they would have been described as ‘greenery-yallery’, after a lyric from Patience, Gilbert and Sullivan’s satire on the Victorian Aesthetic Movement. Today, we’d call them hipsters. I won’t pretend that the majority of the menswear available is anything other than outré. Cordings, this ain’t. Still, the fragrance, fabric and homeware sections are top-notch, yielding fun combinations of colours, patterns and textures you’re unlikely to encounter anywhere else.
See also: Drake’s, David Mellor, Pentreath & Hall
