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Hurrah for Habitat

As a lifelong admirer of Habitat, I was truly sad when the company announced that it was closing its 30 shops and only the three London flagship stores would remain open.

Habitat Romer two-seater sofa £1,400 and black leather chair for £1,200

But all was not lost, as it was announced shortly afterwards that the company had been bought by Home Retail Group which also owns Homebase and that Habitat concession stores would open in various Homebases around the country.

Fabian herringbone grey sofa £1,000 and sold beech dining table

Last week it was announced that the first such concession had opened in Ruislip, with further stores to follow over the next few months. And, to add to the excitement, the new catalogue came out, which is where these lovely pictures are from.

White high gloss Aspen table £250 and Tallow chair (right) £135

So, we can all breath a sigh of relief, Habitat hasn’t disappeared and the new collection is lovely. And, just in case anyone was worried, the concession stores will be designed by the in-house Habitat team and the new creative designer, Polly Dickens, so it will still feel like Habitat. Which is half the joy of shopping there.

Habitat’s wilmot 3-seater sofa £1,250 and Knott, knitted pouf £100

The new stores will be around 1,500 sq ft and will include some of Habitat’s best loved pieces as well as the new collections.

Clare Askem, MD of Habitat, said: “Habitat has always been about making great design accessible to as many people as possible so we are delighted to be opening new concession stores. These new stores provide the Habitat shopping experience and access to our full range of innovative products in convenient locations for customers who don’t live within reach of our London stores.”

Iona fully upholstered grey velvet bed with built-in storage £1,100

Habitat opened on 11 May 1964. It was selling a lifestyle – only we didn’t call it that back then – and the shop stocked new and interesting homewares – the chicken brick, the wok and, of course, the duvet to name but three.

Conran, or Sir Terence as we must call him now, opened the first store to sell his own furniture. That store, with its tiled floor, whitewashed brick wall and white wooden ceilings was a completely new look back then, although it would still feel completely modern now.

image from The Sunday Times

It opened a few months after Zeev Aram opened his store, which was so modern that he even recieved hate mail. But together Aram and Conran created a mini revolution on the King’s Road and for the first time the British shopper had an alternative to chintz.

Conran has been quoted as saying that one of the main reasons for the shop’s initial success was that it was one of the few places that sold cheap Pasta storage jars just as the market for dried pasta took off in the UK.

Naoko asymmetrical chair £500

 

 

 

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

7 Comments

  1. Hi there Kate,

    I was given two huge (6.5 foot) ceiling lights from a friends house. They are long aluminum cylinders, similar to some Paul Mayan designs I have seen online. They are made by Habitat, they have the Habitat labels.

    My question is, do you know how I can find out the year these were made and if they were made by a designer. Is there a Habitat catalogue archive somewhere? I looked online and found nothing.

    Thank you, and keep up the great work you do.

    Chris

    1. Hi Chris, I know that Habitat are really interested in the vintage and archive pieces that people have. Are you on twitter because that’s a great way to contact them, particularly as its their 50th birthday. Try here . If you’re not then you can email me a picture at [email protected] and I will ask them for you.

      1. Thank you so much Kate. I’m going to hang one hopefully this weekend and I’ll snap some pics. I’ll reach out to them via Twitter and I’ll also email some to you too. I’d like to here what you think.

        Thanks again.

        Chris

    1. I have just spoken to the Habitat press office who tell me that the next concession is to open in Solihull, West Midlands, and they will see how that and Ruislip perform before deciding where to open next. Fingers crossed for Brighton!

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