London shopping guide: Bloomsbury

As a tourist you don’t always know where to find the authentic shops and small boutiques. Fortunately, on my latest trip to London I had a local blogging friend to point me towards the real cool places and spaces. In Lambs Conduit street and its side streets you’ll find plenty of home interior and accessories shops. (metrostation Holborn) Especially during the holiday season it has extra flair with the late night shopping events, festive shop windows, and store owners welcoming you into their stores with mulled wine and cookies.

Shopping can’t be done on an empty stomach. On the way from the Holborn metro station to Lambs Conduit Street you can have a quick bite at Hummus Bros. Create your own hummus meal by adding ingredients like chick peas or chicken, and also try the ginger lemonade. Give peas a chance!

At  the eclectic concept-store Darkroom you’ll find design and colourful home accessories, jewelry, and fashion. Vivid colours, ethnic geometric prints and warm thick knits are  tastefully mixed and matched. It is a place to find unusual, hard-to-find and one-off pieces for yourself and your home.

like these beautiful pices made by Justine Ashbee

Unique wooden rings and a broad collection of design and cultural magazines caught my eye.

Mix and match an array of coloured rings. Leather-bound notebooks are stacked on shelves.

At The French House they sell soft blankets, tea towels, scented candles and home accessories that sweep you away to the French country side. The vintage bottles and rustic accessories balance out the romantic accessories, making this shop accessible to all interior style lovers, no matter what you’re taste is.

At Persephone books you step into a cozy, typical British bookstore that sells books by forgotten classic female writers like Agnes Jekyll’s Kitchen essays or Cheerful weather for the wedding by Julia Strachey. The owner has 78 neglected interwar fiction titles, and repackaged them in Persephone’s trademark dove-grey covers, each with its own distinct fabric-inspired endpapers.

Around the corner in Rugbystreet houses the shop from interior designer and architect Ben Pentreath. They sell antiques, curiosities, home accessories, kitchenware, stationery, and quirky wanna haves.

A few steps further up in Rugby street is Thornback & Peel. Personally this was my favourite store in the area. Thornback & Peel has linen hand-printed textiles like napkins, aprons, tea towels, handkerchiefs, wallpapers, lamp shades,  t-shirts, and table cloths. For now I’ll just show you the pictures, but there is an in depth interview with the designer on the agenda. So stay tuned if you like these designs as much as I do!

After visiting Thornback & Peel, head over to Volte Face on Great Ormond Street. This gift shop carries clever gadgets and gifts.

Finish your shopping spree in Bloomsbury with a nice cup of coffee at the Espresso Room, also at Great Ormond Street. It’s a tiny shop but it is said that they serve the best coffee in Bloomsbury.

Related articles

• London shopping guide: the Christmas arcade at Somerset House

• Christmas shopping in Hanover

• Christmas shopping and bubble tea in Berlin

• Christmas shopping in London – my guestblog on iannsterdam.com