Colefax & Fowler makes a historic move from Mayfair
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Simon Brown
Colefax & Fowler had been a Mayfair Mecca of elegant English country style for decades, since it opened in 1944 on Brook Street near Claridge's. However, for the first time, the company has moved house, setting up shop on the Pimlico Road in Belgravia.
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Long-standing fans will remember that Lady Colefax and then Nancy Lancaster presiding over a rambling red-brick Victorian house with an enchanting garden, creating the soothing impression that shoppers were buying items from a lived-in, cosy home. People felt so relaxed there that staff remember finding the odd passerby casually wandering through to have lunch in the garden.
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Particularly famous was its yellow room with its lacquered buttercup walls and three pairs of massive curtains hung about with passementerie. The space was a shrine to upmarket decorating, an emblem of their grandest classical style.
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The lease for that house has come to an end, and whoever takes over will be limited in what they can do as it is Grade One listed. At one point Claridge's was rumoured to be interested, but no one is publically confirmed yet. Although many will miss Brook Street, it created a chance for Colefax & Fowler to spread out, and whatever its new home is missing in history, it makes up for in a fresher, lighter approach.
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The extensively renovated space has plenty of corners to explore and maintains the peaceful sanctuary feeling of the old shop but in a flowing, elegant set of rooms. The front is welcoming, with plenty of light streaming through to the very back. Regular exhibitions of paintings, modern and traditional, add to the display of English decoration.
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Simon Brown One of the most popular features so far has been the brown lacquered walls upstairs, that will surely inspire many a lookalike. The current designers working under the legendary name include Wendy Nicholls, Philip Hooper and Emma Burns - all with distinct styles that fit the traditional ethos of Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler.
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Colefax & Fowler is just the latest big player to move to Pimlico Road, and hot on its heels is Robert Kime, with a very spacious double-fronted shop just across the road. Shopowners are quick to recommend each other so there is no shortage of friendliness and good advice in Colefax's new home.
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