TRADITIONALISTS
CLASSIC ESTABLISHMENTS
PAXTON AND WHITFIELD
Original purveyors of fine English cheeses, Paxton & Whitfield have been in business for over 200 years. In 1850, they were appointed the official cheesemonger to Queen Victoria and still hold Royal Warrants of Appointment to Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince of Wales. Sample the Wild Garlic Cornish Yarg or the Oxford Isis washed in honey mead and expect to queue for your Stilton at Christmas.
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93 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6JE.
020 7930 025
L. CORNELISSEN & SON
Whether you’re the next Van Gogh or just a devoted doodler, this legendary art store can’t fail to leave you inspired. Supplying the capital’s painters since 1855, L. Cornelissen & Son wears its years well with its bottle-green shop front, ceiling-high shelves crammed with jars of bright pigment and potfuls of charm.
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105 Great Russell Street, WC1B 3RY.
020 7636 1045
JJ FOX
The tobacconist of choice for the likes of Winston Churchill and Oscar Wilde, this prestigious cigar merchant has been trading since 1787. Inside you will find a walk-in humidor featuring Havana’s finest, plus a diminutive museum displaying memorabilia charting its legacy. It is also one of the few places left in London where you can legally smoke indoors – purely to sample the goods, of course.
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19 St James’s Street, SW1A 1ES.
020 7930 3787
HORNETS
This gentleman’s outfitters sports a fine pedigree of second-hand and specialist attire – most of it tweed. Its Lilliputian emporium on Kensington Church Walk (opposite the former home of Ezra Pound), is the oldest men’s vintage clothing shop in the country, with formalwear and Fedoras, waistcoats and winklepickers in good supply.
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2 Kensington Church Walk, W8 4NB.
020 7937 2627
JAMES SMITH & SONS LTD
Established in 1830, this world-famous family-run brolly boutique has been keeping Londoners dry since the Victorian era. Its visually stunning premises on New Oxford Street is the first name in rainy day accessories – some finished with intricately-wrought handles and silverware, others boasting modern folding techniques – as well as walking sticks, cut to length while you wait.
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Hazelwood House, 53 New Oxford Street, WC1A 1BL.
020 7836 4731
LOCK & CO
Widely accredited as ‘the best hatters in the world’ (legend has it that a postcard was delivered to the shop addressed as such), Lock & Co have been making fine English hats since 1676. Admiral Lord Nelson and Winston Churchill were among its distinguished customers. It is also famed for creating the distinctive domed Coke hat – more commonly known as the bowler – immortalised by Charlie Chaplin.
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6 St James’s Street, SW1A 1EF.
020 7930 8874
FLORIS
There are few shops as fragrant as Floris, or with quite as impressive a legacy. Since it was founded in 1730, Floris’s fine perfumes and toiletries have been treasured by King George IV, Florence Nightingale and Marilyn Monroe. In 1989, its factory in Devon was opened by Princess Diana and its fine products continue to be made there as well as in the perfumery behind its founding shop.
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89 Jermyn Street, SW1Y 6JH.
020 7747 3612
DR HARRIS & CO
London may be a very different place to what it was in 1790, but reassuringly little has changed at Dr Harris & Co. Aside from the location (its original home was down the road at number 11), the old English apothecary continues to supply St James’s most discerning with soaps, shaving brushes and skincare from its original medicine cabinets.
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29 St James’s Street, SW1A 1HB.
020 7930 3915
THE BUTTON QUEEN
Polished to plastic, big to small, old to new, The Button Queen boasts more buttons than the pearliest of kings. Just a few metres from V V Rouleaux (see page 193), this long-established retailer’s fascination with the humble fastening spans glass, enamel, horn and silver, while services include sourcing replacement buttons, button recovering and bespoke button dyeing.
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76 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2PR.
020 7935 1505
V V ROLEAUX
Keeping craft traditions thriving in the capital, florist turned haberdasher Annabel Lewis’s well-loved shop is a wonderland of rainbow ribbons and all the trimmings. A utopia for designers and decorators, past customers include Tom Ford and Manolo Blahnik, while V V Rouleaux also supplied the Duchess of Cambridge with silk-satin cream ribbon for her bridesmaid dresses.
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102 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2QD.
020 7224 5179
