The people of Pimlico Road
A growing band of dealers, designers and craftspeople is turning this inspiring thoroughfare into one of Europe’s most exciting design destinations, finds Arabella Youens
Arabella Youens meets the denizens of a design destination
ONCE a quiet enclave where the antique dealers Christopher Gibbs, Geoffrey Bennison and Ross Hamilton plied their trade —as well as the home of Lord Snowdon’s photographic studio—the Pimlico Road now offers an exciting mix of both old and new. In recent years, a host of new arrivals, including Carl Hansen, Cox London, Pinch and SCP, has added depth and breadth to a district that already boasted some of the top names in interior design. The result is not only a heady mix of furniture, lighting and textiles, but also a wealth of knowledge that ensures this thriving corner of London has a significant impact on British taste.
Lord Snowdon, founder, Linley (above)
Founded in 1985, Linley creates bespoke furniture and luxury gifts and accessories. It also has an interior-design arm, headed by Michael Keech and Graham Green.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
We’re all good friends: if I can’t find the right thing for a client, I’ll send them down the road to another showroom, and vice versa.
Greatest influence?
My dad. He encouraged me from the start by helping to establish my workshop.
Orlando Atty, managing director, Robert Kime
Antique dealer, textile collector and interior designer Robert Kime and his team create schemes for clients and houses all over the world. Orlando joined in 2010.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
The sense of community. Each week, you can wander around and see what’s new in the shops and have a chat.
Greatest influence?
Robert has taught me a huge amount. When you visit a house with him, you will see something new every time. There is always something to learn.
Geoff Collier, director, Collier Webb
The company was founded by Cedric Collier, whose son, Geoff, established a partnership with interior designer Andrew Webb in 2011 to create Collier Webb, makers of luxury lighting, furniture and hardware.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
There’s an effortless style that resonates across all the showrooms—a fantastic mix of old and new.
Greatest influence?
My father, whose hobby evolved into the business I run now. He would cast brass items in a tiny workshop at the bottom of his garden.
Bernie de Le Cuona
A love of linen inspired the designer to create her own collection, using weavers all over the world to marry fine craftsmanship with sumptuous materials.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
London is fragmented, but this is the place for interior design, antiques and art.
Greatest influence?
I draw influence and inspiration from different cultures and Nature, in particular, the colour palette of Africa, which you can see reflected in my collections.
Will Fisher, co-founder, Jamb
Will and his wife, Charlotte, established Jamb nearly 20 years ago, specialising in antique and reproduction fireplaces, grates and reproduction antique lighting.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
It attracts people from all over the world and retains the excitement and originality that first established its reputation.
Greatest influence?
Christopher Gibbs had a profound effect; his gallery, although extraordinarily grand, was also exceptionally accessible. Everything about him exuded not only magnificent style, but also the most extraordinary academic knowledge about the antiques he was selling.
Christopher Cox, co-founder, Cox London
After they had both studied Fine Art Sculpture in London, Christopher worked in antique-metal restoration, sculpting in his free time, while his wife, Nicola, worked in bronze foundries. They pooled their resources and established Cox London, opening their first gallery on the Pimlico Road in 2017.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
The area offers the sculptural and the decorative, as well as serious and academic pieces; it has it all.
Greatest influence?
Elisabeth Frink. I adored Nature and wildlife from a young age. The energy and tension in her plaster and bronze animalia sculptures made me want to sculpt, from about the age of 12.
Solenne de la Fouchardière, partner, Ochre
Ochre was established by British designers Joanna Bibby and Harriet Maxwell Macdonald in 1996; Solenne joined four years later. The company designs furniture, lighting and accessories using age-old crafts to create furniture and lighting that is elegant and modern.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
It mixes designers and antique dealers all selling both exquisite individual and historical designs. It’s a great one-stop shop for any design connoisseur.
Greatest influence?
Axel Vervoordt, for his mix of exquisite, understated raw materials and soft palettes.
Sheridan Coakley, founder, SCP (below)
After starting life as a dealer in early-20thcentury pieces, Sheridan established SCP, a modern furniture designer and retailer, which opened in 1985. It was the first company to commercially produce Jasper Morrison’s work and has since worked with many design luminaries, including James Irvine to Matthew Hilton.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
When I started out in the 1980s selling vintage, I regarded Pimlico Road as the go-to place for the best antiques in London, but now, it includes the best in contemporary art as well.
Greatest influence? Marcel Breuer and the other members of the Bauhaus. They changed the way we make and look at things today, from mass production to craft. Originally established on the King’s Road in 1986, Hilary Batstone Antiques has been part of the Pimlico Road family for more than 20 years.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
It’s a rare jewel; one of the few destinations for antiques left in London.
Greatest influence?
Stephen Jarrett of Witney Antiques and his wife, Joy, who kindled my interest in antiques and encouraged me to buy my own shop when I moved to London in the 1980s.
Rose Uniacke
The daughter of Hilary Batstone, Rose studied philosophy before being apprenticed to a furniture restorer. She now designs interiors, deals in antiques and creates her own range of furniture, lighting and accessories.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
The community. I think it’s rather wonderful that a group of craftsmen, antique dealers and designers live on in this corner of Belgravia—there are extraordinary experts and great characters here, everybody knows one another and the community is inspiring and supportive.
Greatest influence?
Eugenia Errázuriz (1860–1951) is a role model for me and an unsung female pioneer in a history dominated by male narratives. She was Jean Michel Frank’s mentor, a true visionary and so ahead of her time in the way she promoted strict simplicity in design, relentlessly stripping away the fussy and grandiose in her interiors.
Martin Ephson, co-founder, Fermoie
Martin Ephson and his school friend Tom Helme took over paint manufacturer Farrow & Ball in 1992 and sold it in 2006, turning their expertise to textiles and launching Fermoie in 2012.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
From early residents, such as Gordon Watson, to relative new kids on the block, including us, everything is beautifully chosen and executed.
Greatest influence?
Tom and I continually supply ideas for each other, be they historical, items collected from our extensive travels or, in my case, inspiration from my passion for modern and contemporary art.
Amanda Huber, owner, The Dining Chair Company
In 2017, Amanda, an interior decorator, bought the 20-year-old company, re-launching it with a newlook showroom and fresh designs.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
Nearby fabric houses provide exciting opportunities to collaborate using their fabrics and our designs.
Greatest influence?
Roger Banks-pye, the late director of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler. He expanded my horizons.
Christopher Howe (above right)
Christopher specialises in furniture restoration and antiques, as well as furniture made using 18th-century techniques.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
I’ll never forget discovering this seemingly hidden village with a magic charm, just yards from Sloane Square. I really never thought I’d own a shop here.
Greatest influence?
Piers von Westenholz has an innate style that I struggled for years to emulate. George Sherlock’s shop on the King’s Road had an even greater sense of theatre, which really captured my imagination; it made me think that being an antiques dealer might make an acceptable career.
Paolo Moschino, co-director, Nicholas Haslam (below)
After eight years working with Nicky Haslam, Paolo took over the furniture, fabrics, lighting and antiques business, which he now runs with decorator Philip Vergeylen.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
In the past 30 years, the area has changed a lot, but hasn’t lost the villagey feeling.
Greatest influence?
My partner Philip Vergeylen, because he is always right!
Hilary Batstone, founder, Hilary Batstone Antiques (above)
James Cook, design director and owner, The Odd Chair Company (above)
A family-run business founded in 1969, which makes classic, contemporary and bespoke furniture, its Pimlico Road showroom opened in November, 2017.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
There’s no isolation in Pimlico, everyone feels part of something much larger.
Greatest influence?
My late parents: my mother, Susan, founded The Odd Chair Company and my father, James, dealt in religious art, as well as architectural antiques.
Roger Jones, director, Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler
After graduating from Cambridge, Roger qualified as a barrister before he joined Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler in 1994 to run the company’s antiques business. He is one of the principal interior-design decorators.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
It was always an inspiration when the business was based at Brook Street and, now, here we are in the middle of it, surrounded by like-minded decorating businesses and shops selling wonderful antiques, fabrics and modern design.
Greatest influence?
The late Tom Parr who, as chairman of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, asked me to join the company 25 years ago. An inspirational interior decorator, he taught me so much in matters of taste and made me very aware of the social skills that underpin any successful interior-design practice.
Oona Bannon, co-founder, PINCH (below left)
Established with Oona’s husband, Russell, in 2004, PINCH creates furniture and lighting using English hardwoods, with a pared-back aesthetic.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
It’s London as it once was and still can be: a community made up of independent proprietors, designers, collectors and dealers united by a love of quality.
Greatest influence?
William Morris: he was visionary in advocating the art of making as being as important as the function of the product, stating that ‘without dignified, creative human occupation people became disconnected from life’.
Luke Irwin
After working in both theatre and at Christie’s, a chance encounter with a Tibetan weaver’s son inspired Luke to set up his own business manufacturing bespoke rugs.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
As a boy, I was obsessed with the stories of Paddington Bear: it always struck me as a place that Paddington could feasibly be hiding out when he wasn’t in Portobello Road. It’s a proper trading street.
Greatest influence?
I’m influenced by so many different things that it’s difficult to pin it down—it could be Diego Maradona, Visconti or Marcus Aurelius, Palladio, Adam or Bauhaus.
Georgina Khachadourian, Pullman Editions
Having spent 10 years working in the City, developing marketing strategies for start-up companies, Georgina established Pullman Editions with her husband, Simon, owner of Pullman Gallery, which specialises in original vintage posters.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
There’s an eclectic mix of independent retailers, all offering something unique. My favourite shop is Dale Rogers—the crystals and fossils have that rare combination of history and beauty.
Greatest influence?
My husband, Simon. He introduced me to the world of antiques and interior design and I’ve never looked back.
Lulu Lytle, co-founder, Soane Britain (below)
In 1997, Lulu co-founded Soane with the dealer Christopher Hodsoll, launching with a small collection of furniture and lighting designs made in Britain using the finest craftsmanship.
Why do you love the Pimlico Road?
The energetic vision of this diverse group of obsessives and their teams.
Greatest influence?
Peter Twining, the trailblazing octogenarian aesthete and cream of London antiques dealers, who had an unrivalled knowledge of the history of interior design.