런던의 숨겨진, 숨고싶은 장소들 : 런던 hidden spot

Sure, everyone skips out of the occasional show for a dip into Dover Street Market or COS. But when I need to get to away from it all in London, I have certainly particular (and some might argue, peculiar) haunts that always draw me—venues whose age and provenance make them, at least for me, maddeningly, elusively chic.

1. Jubilee Market at Covent Garden, Antiques Market on Mondays: Dealers will tell you this place hasn’t been good in years, but they are lying—show up at 8:00 a.m. and you will see all those hard Portobello faces bargaining for royalty mugs and marcasite rings. Come early! You will find something.

2. For afternoon finger sandwiches, repair to Richoux Piccadilly, in business since 1909. Even if you saw the Beatles at Shea Stadium, you will be the youngest person in here.

Photo: Courtesy of Richoux Piccadilly

 

3. Freed of London: Where Covent Garden ballerinas get their shoes, on St Martins Lane since 1929. (And by the way, if you haven’t seen the 1938 movie St. Martin’s Lane with Vivien Leigh and Charles Laughton, do so at once.)

4. Vintage Showroom: Secondhand tweeds, archival school scarves, hand-knitted Fair Isle vests, and other antediluvian British classics meant for Sebastian Flyte and Anthony Blanche, but just as saucy on Lady Julia and Cordelia Flyte.

Photo: Courtesy of Vintage Showroom

5. James Smith & Sons: Exquisite umbrellas and walking sticks, made on site, from a shop who has been making them for over 180 years, with a perfect Victorian shop front. (They will custom-make your walking stick to your height.) Did Christabel Pankhurst buy her parasols there? Or Dame May Whitty? Definitely maybe.

Photo: Courtesy of James Smith & Sons