Long Live Liberty

Michael Montagu celebrates 150 years of Liberty, London's luxury department store

- 

There can't be many shops that have received the distinction of being commemorated by the Royal Mint striking a coin in its honour. Not just any coin, but a £5 model, either in plain gold at £3,965, or a silver one, highlighted with coloured enamel. For those with very deep pockets there is even one priced at £14,999.

The shop in question is that iconic London landmark, Liberty, which is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding this year. Its Tudor Revival style building has long been a mecca for those in search of stylish, quality fashions, accessories and home furnishings. Arthur Lasenby Liberty, the son of a draper, was born at Chesham, Buckinghamshire in 1843. As a young man, from 1862 he worked for Farmer and Rogers, a London drapery shop known for its stock of cloaks and shawls.

In the same year that Liberty began work, an international exhibition, officially called The London Exhibition of Industry and Art (and known more snappily as the Great London Exposition) was held between 1 May and 1 November in south Kensington, where the Natural History Museum now stands. One of the most popular displays was the Japanese Pavilion. When the exhibition closed, Farmer and Rogers bought most of what had been shown. To house it they opened an oriental warehouse in Regent Street, with Liberty as the manager.

Within a short period, the oriental warehouse was more profitable than any other part of the business, patronised by artists and designers such as William Morris, James McNeill Whistler and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Many of the customers became friendly with Liberty, who would visit them and advise them on what to buy.