A Flagship Store
Mar. 23rd, 2012 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anteros_lmcA couple of weeks ago, when I was in London for work and to meet ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
esmerelda_t and nodbear, I took a little detour to visit Liberty, not to indulge in some chi chi shopping therapy, but to admire the masts! Liberty's flagship London store was designed and built by Edwin T. Hall in the 1920's in grand mock Tudor style from the timbers of HMS Impregnable and HMS Hindustan. The facade of the store on Marlborough Street is the length of the Hindustan and the massive timbers supporting the beautiful galleries were once the mast of the war ships.
I spent so long staring up at the "masts" that one of the awfully polite assistants came and asked if she could help me :} When I said I was interested in the ships she kindly directed me to the lower ground floor where, at the back of menswear, there is a rather lovely picture of the two ships, one with her yards manned and the other under sail.
HMS Impregnable and HMS Hindustan
esmerelda_t and nodbear, I took a little detour to visit Liberty, not to indulge in some chi chi shopping therapy, but to admire the masts! Liberty's flagship London store was designed and built by Edwin T. Hall in the 1920's in grand mock Tudor style from the timbers of HMS Impregnable and HMS Hindustan. The facade of the store on Marlborough Street is the length of the Hindustan and the massive timbers supporting the beautiful galleries were once the mast of the war ships. I spent so long staring up at the "masts" that one of the awfully polite assistants came and asked if she could help me :} When I said I was interested in the ships she kindly directed me to the lower ground floor where, at the back of menswear, there is a rather lovely picture of the two ships, one with her yards manned and the other under sail.
HMS Impregnable and HMS Hindustan
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Date: 2012-03-23 11:11 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-03-23 11:51 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-03-23 12:26 pm (UTC)But those masts-- just wow. I can see from the photo the soaring height and strength of them. Were you able to walk up and touch therm?
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Date: 2012-03-24 09:56 am (UTC)Were you able to walk up and touch therm?
Oh yes. I spent ages wondering around stroking the masts :) I did feel obliged to buy something though and it's an outrageously expensive store. I passed on the rather lovely Vivienne Westwood jacket (a snip at £600) and bought daughter an egg cup in the shape of a rabbit for £10!
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Date: 2012-03-24 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-03-23 12:37 pm (UTC)Liberty is now a must on my list of things to see in London. But to hide that lovely picture so.
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Date: 2012-03-24 10:00 am (UTC)The painting is very well hidden, you have to go down to the lower floor and right through to the very back of menswear. It hangs on the back wall beside a corridor that leads to the toilets :} It's a huge painting though!
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Date: 2012-03-24 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-03-23 06:28 pm (UTC)Ahem. Sorry. It's just I love the timber-framing style. :}
(And the original timber? Man, even clothes-and-whatnot have to be prettier there. *drools*)
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Date: 2012-03-24 10:05 am (UTC)That half timbered style looks very English to my eye, it's not a style of building you find in Scotland at all. It's very pretty though.
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