Shopping in England
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Topshop & Topman
Topshop is the it-store when it comes to high-street shopping. Encapsulating London’s supreme skill at bringing catwalk fashion to the youth market affordably and quickly, it constantly innovates by working with young designers and celebrities. It’s the store that famously runs the popular Kate Moss collection. It also does manicure/pedicure and hair-styling sessions, and you can have a consultation with a personal stylist and get tips from a shopping guru.
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Camden Market
Although this market remains a top attraction, its heyday is a distant memory. Commercial tat has long taken over from the truly inventive, although you might find some good retro pieces. The place is busiest at weekends, especially Sunday, when the crowds elbow each other all the way north from Camden Town tube station to Chalk Farm Rd. It’s composed of several separate markets, which tend to merge.
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Primark
Despite some recent bad press about its manufacturing methods, the flagship store of Primark is still crammed to the rafters with women hunting for bargain fashions that look like haute couture. They don’t call it ‘Primani’ for nothing.
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Harrods
A pricy but fascinating theme park for fans of Britannia, Harrods is always crowded with slow tourists.
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Louis Patisserie
One of London's oldest coffee and cake shops, Louis Patisserie was started by Hungarian immigrant Louis Permayer in 1963 and it hasn't changed a bit since. Eclairs, almond pretzels, marzipan cookies, cream slices and macaroons wink at you from the window, and they're packed in a pretty striped box for you to take away. You can also sit down in the breathtaking little tearoom, best on Sundays when Hampstead's old-skool Eastern European ladies and gentlemen come here for coffee and cake.
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Coco Ribbon
Coco Ribbon is so girly, even Barbie might feel a tad butch when walking into this award-winning boutique. There are chiffon dresses and faux-fur gilets, Calypso Rose's customisable Clippy Kit handbags, light-hearted words of wisdom for newlyweds or new parents and, for your broken-hearted gal pals, 'boyfriend replacement' kits (sugar pills and chocolate, of course).
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Absolute Vintage
If you don’t mind shoes that have been worn by other feet, enter this huge barn full of stilettos, peep-toes, ankle-/knee-high boots and glittery vintage Manolos. Men’s shoes are stocked, too, and there are frocks and suits at the back. It’s handily close to Spitalfields Market.
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Abercrombie & Fitch
It’s hard to know if Abercrombie & Fitch is a clothing store or a disco – music blasts out at 90 decibels, and staff are handpicked for their chiselled good looks. Prices are pretty steep for what is essentially casual jeanswear but it’s certainly a novel retail experience.
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Agent Provocateur
For women’s lingerie that is to be worn and seen, and certainly not hidden, pull up to Joseph (son of Vivienne Westwood) Corre’s wonderful Agent Provocateur. Its sexy and saucy corsets, bras and nighties for all shapes and sizes exude confident and positive sexuality.
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Books for Cooks
All the recipe books from celeb and non-celeb chefs you can imagine are sold here. Perfect for some of the more adventurous cooks among you, or those looking for ‘exotic’ cookbooks. The cafe has a test kitchen where you can sample recipes at lunch and teatime.
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Cabbages & Frocks Market
Although it’s nothing to rival Camden Market or Borough Market, Marylebone’s Cabbages & Frocks Market does sell some particularly fine designer frocks, along with arts and crafts and gourmet foodstuffs.
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Columbia Road Flower Market
London’s most fragrant market shouldn’t be missed. Merchants lay out their blooms, from everyday geraniums to rare pelargoniums, between Gosset St and the Royal Oak pub.
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Ridley Road Market
Massively enjoyed by the Afro-Caribbean community it serves, this market is best for its exotic fruit and vegetables, as well as specialist cuts of meat.
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Meet Bernard
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.
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Algerian Coffee Stores
Stop and have a shot of espresso made in-store, while you select your fresh-ground coffee beans. Choose among dozens of varieties of coffees and teas.
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Forbidden Planet
On a different planet to our lonely one, populated by comic-book heroes, sci-fi figurines, horror and fantasy literature.
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Roman Road Market
This market along Roman Rd between St Stephen’s and Parnell Rds has pretty standard fare on offer, though some people rave about the low prices.
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Hamleys
Reportedly the largest toy store in the world and certainly the most famous, Hamleys is a layer cake of playthings. Computer games are in the basement, the latest playground trends at ground level. Science kits are on the 1st floor, preschool toys on the 2nd, girls’ playthings on the 3rd and model cars on the 4th, while the whole confection is topped off with Lego world and its cafe on the 5th.
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Portobello Road Market
Perhaps because it’s less crowded and littered than Camden, Londoners generally prefer this market. Though shops and stalls open daily, the busiest days are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There’s an antiques market on Saturday, and a flea market on Portobello Green on Sunday morning. Fruit and veg are sold all week at the Ladbroke Grove end, with an organic market on Thursday. Antiques, jewellery, paintings and ethnic stuff are concentrated at the Notting Hill Gate end of Portobello Rd. Stalls move downmarket as you move north. Beneath the Westway a vast tent covers more stalls selling cheap clothes, shoes and CDs, while the Portobello Green Arcade is home to some cutting…
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Aram
Despite the fact that most of the furniture stocked by Aram is unaffordable to ordinary mortals, admiring the designer pieces in this fantastic shop is an experience to be cherished. Originally opened by Zeev Aram on King’s Rd in 1964, the shop was a key player in the Conran-led furniture design revolution that saw the end of a chintz-laden Britain. The shop grew and eventually moved to this four-floor, free-standing luminous building, where the furniture is given the space it deserves, as if in a museum. Among the many accomplished designers, Aram stocks pieces by Alvar Aalto, Eileen Grey, Eames, Le Corbusier and Arne Jacobsen. The top floor is an exhibition space, where…
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Custard Factory
So named because the building was constructed by custard magnate Sir Alfred Bird, this centrepiece of Digbeth’s regeneration is full of original, independent shops. At Urban Village and General Stores, rifle through artfully arranged rails of such vintage delights as handmade brogues, leather cases, woollen skirts and paisley cravats. The Bead Shop allows you to pick-and mix baubles to make your own designer piece. Commission your own T-shirt at Street Print (from £8), then check out the chaises longues and anglepoise lamps at Fragile Design’s 20th-century furniture store. Finally, top it all off by tucking in to a mezzaluna (baby naan) in Yumm Deli’s tiny dining space. L…
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Spitalfields Market
This market was originally the place to snaffle the latest street wear at good prices, with young fashion designers joined by jewellers, furniture makers and a variety of fresh-produce stalls. Unfortunately, with big businesses wanting a piece of the action, part of the old market was converted into a new restaurant and shopping complex in 2006. The old market still stands, thankfully, and much of the young designer stalls have moved up the road to the Old Truman Brewery’s Sunday UpMarket, basically a Spitalfields extension. The space is a car park during the week, but on Sunday it’s filled with excellent clothes, delicious international cuisine, jewellery and music sta…
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Beatles Shop
For decent memorabilia, check out the Beatles Shop. Forty years later, the club is gone, the band has long broken up and two of its members are dead, but the phenomenon lives on and is still the biggest tourist magnet in town.
The Cavern Quarter - basically a small warren of streets around Mathew St - has been transformed to cash in on the band's seemingly unending earning power: the Rubber Soul Oyster Bar, the From Me to You shop and the Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds cafe should give you an idea of what to expect.
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Stella McCartney
Does Stella McCartney need introducing? Her floaty designs send many-a-girl’s heart aflutter (as do her prices), Kate Moss makes her jeans the most covetable in the UK and her ‘ethical’ approach to fashion is very of the moment. This three-storey terraced Victorian home is a temple to all things Stella – a ritzy glasshouse garden, an olde-worlde ‘apothecary’ selling perfume, vegetarian shoes and not-leather bags, plus bespoke tailoring. Depending on your devotion and wallet, you’ll feel right at ease or like an intruder.
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Start
Spilling over three stores on the same lane (womenswear, menswear and men's formal), your quest for designer jeans starts here.
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