50 of the best independent design shops in the UK
You’re probably reading this article – visiting this website in fact – because you have something in common with the House & Garden team: you’re hooked on the thrill you get from a new discovery. My job and my sense of curiosity take me all around the country, and one of my greatest pleasures is visiting a small town or a big city that I don’t know very well, and rooting around for a brilliant little shop. I’ve got nothing against the department stores, the big box stores and the chains which are convenient and usually serve their purpose; they are not evil in and of themselves. But they rarely have that special ingredient that the very best independent shops have in spades: soul. I love the idea that sole traders bring soul to a business.
Shops of all sizes have had a hard time since long before Covid. But successive lockdowns teamed with a cost of living crisis have meant an accelerated drive to online shopping, not to mention plenty of belt-tightening. It has wreaked havoc on bricks and mortar businesses. Last year, a BBC story about the state of the British high street revealed that a shocking 38 shops were closing every day. This unfortunate reality was illustrated to us when we began to put together this list of 50 brilliant independent shops: three of those that we wanted to feature had closed by the time that we finalised our selection.
So, this list. A few months ago we did an Instagram shout out asking you what your favourite small homeware shops in the UK were, and we were blown away with the feedback which helped us no end. More than 6,000 of you responded. Plenty of shopkeepers got in touch too, including Phoebe Clive of Tinsmiths in Ledbury. ‘Independent shops often lead the way with new ideas and approaches, we champion new makers, and strive to supply things with the criteria of quality and integrity, things that we believe are beautiful and excellent first and foremost,’ she wrote. ‘It can make for an eclectic mix but at least it has heart and soul and has not been selected by formula or accountants’. This is a round up of 50 brilliant one-off independent design shops – ones we have visited, ones that you, our brilliant readers, have recommended in droves.
