Pentreath & Hall
ONCE A GENERATION, a decorator or designer comes along who almost single-handedly redefines the English Look. In the second half of the 20th century, it was John Fowler, then Sir Terence Conran. In the early 21st century, it’s Ben Pentreath. You know his name, of course. Across any number of channels – his seductive Instagram account, his beguiling blog, his luscious coffee-table tomes, and the acres of coverage accorded him by leading interiors magazines – he’s the sun around which so many other creative planets, from illustrators to plaster casters, revolve. One could be forgiven for assuming that his instantly recognisable and much-emulated style has been that little bit over-exposed.
The briefest of visits to his delectable little shop on Rugby Street, at the heart of the most villagey part of Bloomsbury, will disabuse you of your cynicism. Essentially a classicist, with a yen for the simple, robust and timelessly handsome, Ben eschews the pompous, pretentious and over-adorned. Fresh and fun, the items he purveys – brightly coloured and boldly patterned paper weights, candlesticks, cushions, stationery, sundry pieces of furniture and all manner of tableware – owe much to the aesthetic legacies of John Soane, Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden, yet are, in the final analysis, enchantingly his own. Invest in a piece or several now, and the chances are you’ll have a sought-after collectable on your hands in 30 years’ time.
See also: Drake’s, Liberty, David Mellor
