London, United Kingdom

Liberty LondonSix floors behind a 1924 timber front

A department store on Regent Street, in a building finished in 1924 with a Tudor timber front and a glass-roofed atrium. It started as one shop and now fills six floors, and the goods have been changed out more than once. People come for the building as much as the shopping.

The store stands at the corner of Regent Street and Great Marlborough Street, about ten minutes on foot from Oxford Street. The street outside is crowded; the inside quietens as soon as you pass the doors.

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PlaceRegent Street, London

TypeDepartment store

SuitsPrint, fabric, old buildings

StayHalf a day

The building is the reason to come

London, United Kingdom — Department store.

Liberty was not put up to move stock. One shop grew into six floors, and what those floors sell has changed hands and changed style several times since. What has stayed is the structure built around the counters, which is why a visit here is closer to looking at a building than to a morning of shopping.

The front was built as Tudor timber framing when the store opened in 1924. The wood came from two decommissioned third-rate warships, and their decks were laid as the floor you now walk on; it still creaks underfoot. Most people look up at the gables. Look down as well.

Arthur Liberty did not live to see it finished. He died seven years before the building was completed, and his statue stands at the entrance to the flower shop. This is not somewhere to cross off between two other stops on Regent Street, so give it an unhurried half day.

An old black-and-white photograph of two women leaning together over a patterned scarf inside the shop. — From the archive, two women and a printed scarf

The Regent Street elevation in pale stone, gables and chimneys crowded together, a gilded copper ship on the ridge. — A gilded ship on the ridge above Regent Street

An archival photograph of the Tudor timber facade at its opening, dark beams picked out against pale plaster.

What you only see looking up

From the street, gables, chimneys and the gilded copper ship on the roof stack together. Inside, look up again: miniature glass paintings sit between the panelled walls of the captain's room, Shakespeare's arms and portraits of Henry VIII's six wives hang in the building, and the chandelier on the back stairs is said to be the longest in Europe.

A close archival image of two hands pressing a carved wooden printing block down onto a length of fabric.

The prints are drawn in-house

The store keeps its own design studio, and the prints are still coloured by hand. The length of fabric in your hands may have been drawn decades ago and recoloured for this season. That is why the archive reads as a working collection rather than a museum shelf.

A woman sits at a table loom in a bright room, threads stretched in front of her and other students further back.

Spend an afternoon inside

Architecture tours run at set times and carry the story from 1875 up to the opening of this building. There are craft classes in sewing and embroidery as well, and once you sit down they take the better part of an afternoon. After six floors, Seventy Five serves afternoon tea.

A three-tier cake stand and a champagne flute on a white cloth, low lamps and dark panelling behind.

Route

The half day you keep for the centre of town

It belongs in the half day you give to shopping in the centre, with no Underground hop on either side of it. Two hours covers the shop floor alone; book a tour and the visit takes half a day. Either way, leave the rest of the afternoon free.

Fitting a store visit into a central London day

Give it an unhurried block rather than a gap between other shops, and check the tour times before you set out.

Stay

Two hours covers the store on its own. Add one of the architecture tours and you should allow half a day.

Getting there

Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus stations are both within walking distance, and so is most of Regent Street from here.

Season

The store is open all year. Opening hours over public holidays are published separately, so check before a holiday visit.

Watch out

Tour times and restaurant tables depend on what the store has running at the time, so ask on the day or ahead of it.

Plan this into a journey

Tell us how much time you have in the centre and we will slot the store, a tour and tea into a half day that does not feel rushed.

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