Lamb's Conduit Street

Monday, August 07, 2006



Lambs Conduit Street is a small, quiet street in London's Bloomsbury. I pass through it regularly as I work nearby. The businesses on the street are idiosyncratic as there are no chain stores. Each store is an independent retailer: there are grocers, bookshops, opticians, hairdressers, restaurants and bars.

One of the street's most prominent outlets is an undertaker and funeral parlour. The blinds are bright red, with a window display of old London maps showing that the street bounded onto a cemetery in earlier times.

The street has a old world feeling - shop-owners put signs in their windows, take holidays, closing their shops for a week. The pub on the corner is called The Perseverance, an apt name.


Window displays are striking. These are in the windows of a naturopathy shop and a sweet shop.



The grocery store sells local produce, freshly picked, made and baked.


There are also residential flats on the street. Period features have been carefully preserved. Lambs Conduit Street feels, a little oddly, like a modern street from the past.






Now, however, Starbucks are about to open an outlet on the street. This chain store potentially threatens the character of the street. The existing retailers have started a petition - it will be interesting to see how this develops.


12 comments:

Annie said...
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Annie said...

I pass near it on the bus sometimes, I always wish I could live there. Lovely pictures Adrian...

It will be a crime and a sin if they open up there, but they seem all-powerful, these big chains.

Jamie said...

As if there aren't enough starbucks in the world!

Adrian said...

Indeed. It seems, to me, to be a strange site for a Starbucks. But that side, Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital is just around the corner so I suppose this provides a market to be targetted.

Jamie said...

Hmmm, it's nice to know that misery and suffering of children can be thought of as a market to target.

Robpop said...

I live here!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!

Adrian said...

Is that your flat with the pretty pink curtains?! It must be a great street to live on, so central and yet lovely and quiet.

Robpop said...

LOL! I made a bigger post regarding the street on ClubContact! I gotta feeling this starbucks will flop. But the others in the surrounding area are doing very well out of the tourists, rich students and workers. This one on Lambs is too close to Sids and that other one RIGHT opposite it.

I used to go to the school tucked right behind the street that Starbucks is on.

Hope you enjoy the Greekspecial on DontStopthepop!!

Anonymous said...

We used to have a business in the basement of 62 in the 60s..There was a sweet shop above and a frame makers in the basement with us..also a Victor value on the corner and an italian cafe that must have had 200 packets of ciggies in the window.wow Lc street has changed lol

Bergamot said...

Hi Adrian,
Thanks for the views Of Lamb's Conduit St. I'm hoping that Starbucks is not there! I came across your photos as I was searching for a place of work of my ancestors. They were James Joseph and John Alexander Spencer.... chemists and druggist at no 30 Lamb's Conduit. Love to see what it looks like now!

Great to see this from down under in Sydney.

Cheers!

Adrian said...

Hi Shones,

Thanks for your nice comments. I think the Starbucks have moved in.

I don't know if you have Google Streetview in Australia, but if you lfind the street on Google Maps, you should be able to see number 30 as it is now.

Bergamot said...

Hi Adrian,
That's sad. Interesting though that they are downsizing elsewhere in the world, esp Australia.

And thanks for the google tip, now why didn't I think of that!

Cheers,
Shona