Discovering London Shopfronts

As a long term resident of London who has been writing about retail along with food & drink for over 20 years I can largely navigate my way around the city by shop and pub.

It’s not often that I’m presented with a highly recommended venue that I’ve not heard of before so it was particularly pleasurable to flick through a copy of the new book London Shopfronts.

It presents over 200 shops, restaurants, pubs and other service providers with shopfronts on high streets from which there were a fair smattering of places new to me that I now feel I must try and visit. What makes a trip to these new discoveries so tempting are the lovely illustrations of each shopfront from New York-based artist Joel Holland. These are brought to life by short descriptions from Time Out London journalist Rosie Hewitson.

Holland embarked on the task of highlighting London’s gems after he undertook a similar journey with his favourite New York venues that he was missing visiting during Covid-19.

The London-based book is divided into five areas and across these it takes in everything from the most obvious shops such as Fortnum & Mason, Hamleys and Harvey Nichols through to much more obscure little independent businesses including Persepolis, Flashback Records and David Penton & Son. There’s also some lovely pubs listed such as The Faltering Fullback, The Pineapple and The Ivy House as well as food venues including Beigel Bake, Max’s Sandwich Shop and Wong Kei.

These names I’m plucking out of the book are only really giving you a tiny flavour of what’s inside the publication. Its value is in dipping into it. Like me, I’m sure you’ll discover places that Holland’s images and Hewitson’s words really entice you into venturing out and visiting them.

London Shopfronts is published by Prestel: https://prestelpublishing.penguinrandomhouse.de/book/London-Shopfronts/Joel-Holland/Prestel-com/e609561.rhd

Glynn Davis, editor, Retail Insider