Liberty London

Arthur Lasenby Liberty opened his emporium on Regent Street in 1875 to import the arts of Japan and the East, and the store became a movement: Liberty fabrics and the designers it commissioned were so central to Art Nouveau that Italy still calls the style Stile Liberty. The mock-Tudor building of 1924 — genuinely timbered from two decommissioned Royal Navy ships — remains one of London's most loved interiors, its light wells and carved staircases wrapping small rooms rather than open floors. Liberty print cottons, especially the small floral Tana Lawn, are the house's living heritage, sold by the meter in the haberdashery and applied across collaborations from sneakers to stationery. The beauty hall and designer floors are strong, but the fabric department is the soul. Buy Tana Lawn by the meter — the store's entire history compressed into cloth.

The haberdashery cuts Tana Lawn to any length, and the scarf room translates the archive prints for those who don't sew; both floors reward slow browsing.