Must-see shopping in London

  • Mary's Living & Giving Shop

    North London

    This is not your average Save the Children charity shop: the boutique is done up beautifully and the quality of the clothes on offer is top-notch. Allow …

  • Gay’s the Word

    The West End

    The UK's first and only specifically gay and lesbian bookstore, this London institution has been selling LGBT+ works since 1979. It has a superb selection…

  • Apple Store

    The West End

    A white and roomy temple for Mac geeks to warm their faces on the soft glow emanating from slick banks of Apple Watches, iPads, MacBook Airs and desktops…

  • Royal Trinity Hospice

    Notting Hill & West London

    For designer labels and top-end items in men's clothing and accessories, it's well worth a browse through this well-supplied charity shop on Kensington…

  • Taylor of Old Bond Street

    The West End

    Plying its trade since the mid-19th century, this shop supplies the ‘well-groomed gentleman' with every sort of razor, shaving brush and scent of shaving…

  • Honest Jon’s

    Notting Hill & West London

    Flogging old-school reggae, jazz, funk, soul, dance, jazz and blues vinyl to Notting Hill's musical purists since 1974, with a large volume of CDs. Check…

  • Cambridge Satchel Company

    The West End

    Colourful Cambridge Satchel Company is the perfect place to pick up a British-made leather bag, passport holder or steamer trunk for your next adventure…

  • Utobeer

    South Bank

    This beer shop inside Borough Market stocks hundreds of international bottled beers, with a large selection of American and European brews that are hard…

  • Gosh!

    The West End

    Gosh! pack a big pow into this small space filled with prints, graphic novels, manga and children’s books and games. Comics have taken over the basement,…

  • Westfield Stratford City

    East London

    Right by Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, this is Britain's third-largest mall – a behemoth containing more than 250 shops, 70 places to eat and drink, a 17…

  • Burberry Outlet Store

    East London

    This backstreet outlet shop has excess international stock from the luxury British brand’s current and last-season collections. Prices are around 30%…

  • Folk

    The West End

    Independent London-based brand offering simple but strikingly styled casual clothes, often in bold colours and with a handcrafted feel. Head for No 49 for…

  • Beyond Retro

    East London

    A riot of colour, frill, feathers and flares, this vast store has every imaginable type of vintage clothing for sale, from hats to shoes. There's another…

  • Pringle of Scotland Outlet Store

    East London

    There are proper bargains to be had at this excellent outlet store that stocks seconds and end-of-line items from the Pringle range. Expect high-quality…

  • Marylebone Farmers Market

    The West End

    Founded in 2003, this weekly farmers market is the largest in town, with as many as 50 producers coming from within a 100-mile radius of the M25. It’s…

  • Peter Jones

    Kensington & Hyde Park

    An upmarket department store housed in a Grade II–listed 1930s building that occupies an entire block, Peter Jones's fortes are china, furnishings and…

  • Glitterati

    East London

    If you're the kind of person who likes to wear 1930s couture and costume jewellery while reading original Penguin books and sipping gin poured from a…

  • Lovely & British

    South Bank

    This gorgeous Bermondsey boutique prides itself on stocking prints, jewellery and London-themed pieces of home decor created by British designers. It's an…

  • Algerian Coffee Stores

    The West End

    Stop for a shot of espresso (£1) or cappuccino (£1.20) while choosing your freshly ground beans from over 80 varieties of coffee and 120 teas at this…

  • Phonica

    The West End

    Uber-cool, yet a fairly chill vinyl store stocking mainly house, electro and hip hop. Dig deeper and there's re-mastered reggae, dub, jazz and rock…

  • Orsini

    Notting Hill & West London

    One of the most appealing women's vintage designer collections in town, Orsini is very small but worth the effort to get to if you’re looking for a gem…

  • Housmans

    North London

    If you're searching for hard-to-find tomes on a progressive, radical, pacifist, feminist, socialist, communist or LGBTQ+ theme, this long-standing, not…

  • Tin Lid

    South Bank

    Lovely boutique store packed with beautifully designed high-quality wooden toys, games and cuddlies for kids. Also stocks a range of women's clothes and…

  • Article

    Brixton, Peckham & South London

    Snappy Article (there's a branch up in Hoxton) is a cool addition to Brixton, with a sharp line of up-to-the-minute men's togs and shoes. Very trim and…

  • Meet Bernard

    Greenwich

    Who is Bernard? We’re not sure. But his shop in Nelson Rd is crammed full of carefully selected designer clothes for hip, young men about town.

  • Southbank Centre Shop

    South Bank

    This eclectic shop stocks quirky London books, 1950s-inspired homewares, original prints, toys, cards, jewellery and creative gifts.

  • Waterstones Bloomsbury

    The West End

    Beautiful branch of the giant bookshop chain in a gorgeous 19th-century terracotta building in the heart of London university land.

  • Beyond Retro

    East London

    A huge selection of vintage clothes, including wigs, shoes, jackets and sunglasses, expertly slung together in a lofty warehouse.

  • Stanley Gibbons

    The West End

    This mecca for stamp- and coin-collectors has more than three million stamps.

  • Brick Lane Street Sign

    Brick Lane Market

    Clerkenwell, Shoreditch & Spitalfields

    Every Sunday, the stretch of Brick Lane between Buxton St and Bethnal Green Rd is closed to traffic so stallholders can set up shop. Stands of fried…

  • London Silver Vaults

    London

    For one of London's oddest shopping experiences, pass through security and descend 12m into the windowless subterranean depths of the London Silver Vaults…

  • Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9¾

    North London

    Pottermania refuses to die down and Diagon Alley remains impossible to find, but if you have junior witches and wizards seeking a wand of their own, take…

  • Monocle Shop

    The West End

    Run by the people behind the design and international current affairs magazine Monocle, this tiny (and attitudy) shop stocks very costly clothing, bags,…

  • Cadenhead's Whisky Shop & Tasting Room

    The West End

    Scotland's oldest independent bottler of pure, non-blended whisky from local distilleries, this shop is a joy for anyone with a passion for uisge-beatha …

  • Minamoto Kitchoan

    The West End

    Walking into this Japanese sweet shop is a mind-blowing experience. Wagashi (Japanese sweets) are made out of all sorts of rice and sweet red-bean paste …

  • Bermondsey Antiques Market

    Brixton, Peckham & South London

    Old-fashioned antiques markets are a dying breed in London, but this resurrected weekly event makes a good stab at it. Old ad posters, vintage jewellery…

  • Labour & Wait

    Clerkenwell, Shoreditch & Spitalfields

    Dedicated to simple and functional, yet scrumptiously stylish, traditional British and European homewares, Labour & Wait specialises in items by…

  • British Red Cross

    Kensington & Hyde Park

    The motto 'One man's rubbish is another man's treasure' couldn't be truer in this part of London, where the 'rubbish' is made up of designer gowns,…

  • Atika

    Clerkenwell, Shoreditch & Spitalfields

    One of the capital's biggest vintage clothing stores, Atika has more than 20,000 hand-selected items for men and women covering the last four decades. The…

  • Arty Globe

    Greenwich

    The unique fisheye-view drawings of various areas of London (and other cities, including New York, Paris and Berlin) by architect Hartwig Braun are works…

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