Liberty London

Liberty’s Great Marlborough Street flagship unfolds around three timbered atriums, with small rooms and galleries that make a very large shop feel unexpectedly personal. Built in the 1920s by Edwin T. Hall and E. Stanley Hall, it used oak and teak salvaged from HMS Hindustan and HMS Impregnable. The dark wood, carved balustrades and glimpses across different floors regularly distract from whatever you came in to buy. Few department stores can blame that on two former warships.

The fabric department deserves particular attention. Liberty’s own design studio still develops patterns by hand, working with an archive of around 50,000 designs. Its signature Tana Lawn cotton is printed at Liberty’s mill near Lake Como. If you want something that actually belongs to the story of the place, choose a Liberty print: fabric, a scarf or a small accessory, rather than an international label available elsewhere.

Beauty, fashion and homeware fill the remaining floors, with contemporary displays appearing against all that dark timber. Some departments are more conventional than others, but keep looking up: at Liberty, the building has a habit of winning the competition for attention.