Wee Birdy

My Secret London with Imelda Burke

In the latest instalment of My Secret London, I caught up with Marylebone's organic beauty queen, Imelda Burke, owner and founder of Content Beauty/Wellbeing. She opened up her little black book to share some of her secret London gems...

Best for a books?
Books are an ongoing obsession – our house is covered in them. We’ve got everything from art and photography books to medical encyclopaedias - it’s quite an eclectic collection. I go to Donlon Books for the hard-to-finds. It has the best photography and art collection and books on subculture. It’s now got two stores - one in Bethnal Green and one in Broadway market.

For books to give your brain a workout, I love The School of Life. Their faculty have read their way through thousands of books to bring you a carefully edited selection. They have the best categorisation of any bookshop I’ve been to. Shelves are organized in the following topics:

How to turn over a new leaf
How to know you’re in love
How to be green on the cheap
How to be more creative
How to enjoy your own company
How to make the world a better place
How to find pleasure in everyday things
How to understand your childhood
How to survive melancholy
How to find a job you love
How to think deeply about life
How to get on with other people

Charlotte Mann's hand-drawn walls at The School of Life.

Best for vintage?
The Peanut Vendor, a mid-century furniture shop based in Newington Green in Islington. It’s filled with wonderful, previously-loved pieces of furniture and homewares as well as design classics. Look out for G-Plan and Ercol classics.

Best for interiors and gifts?
Rob Ryan’s store on Columbia Road, Ryantown, would have to be my favourite. From tiles to prints, glassware and now cushions – we decorated the treatment room at CONTENT BEAUTY/WELLBEING with his ‘No other planet could be as beautiful as this one’ print.

Best for stationery?
I love a notebook and the best come from www.o-check.net. Their ‘Another Day, Cloudy Memory’ notebooks are sometimes available from twentytwentyone. Made from old-school heavy newsprint paper, numbered and fabric-bound.

I also love their cards, especially the ‘Spring Bird’.

Others I love are from the Monocle shop in Marylebone. Great linen-backed notebooks designed by the Monocle team in London and produced in Germany by Brandbook.

Best for kids?
Jabberwockie in Islington has the best clothes, gifts and shoes for kids. Great for presents, skincare and quirky Japanese ranges. Don’t bother with the mainstream.

Best for beauty/skincare?
That would be my own shop, CONTENT, of course! A selection of the best organic brands such as Dr Alkaitis and Pai Skincare and established near-natural brands like Ren and Nude. We also have one of the most extensive collections of natural perfumes and hold CONTENT wellbeing evenings once a month, which include food and wine tastings and tips for keeping healthy from our team of naturopaths.

Best London souvenir?
I think the best thing to take home from London is an appreciation for the diversity living in a large city brings and the energy it creates.

Best place to eat?
Saf vegan restaurant in Curtain Road.

Click here for a Wee Birdy map of Imelda's secret addresses.
Click here for more Secret Londons.

My Secret London with Neal from Present & Correct (Part 2)

In part two of My Secret London with Neal from Present & Correct, we find out exactly where he shops for stationery, children's toys, skincare ... and stacks more. Dig in, birdies.

Best for stationery?
Present & Correct of course! I always check out Magma, Muji and Shelf too to see what they are stocking on their shelves. Most of all I think that there are some brilliant old-school stationers dotted around. Belsize Stationers in Hampstead is a good example. Lots of binders, school notebooks and an eraser for any mistake. Holloway Arts, on Holloway Road is another good one. They have an old Letraset sign that I have been coveting for around 8 years.

Some of the design and stationery goodies from Neal's online shop, Present & Correct.

Best for kids?
Caramel has a great selection of things. The museum shops too, especially The Natural History Museum. And Couverture. Anywhere that sells traditional wooden toys makes me happy.

Above: wooden toys at Couverture.

Best for skincare?
I always buy Aesop products for myself and as gifts, I love the old-style apothecary packaging. The store itself is original and fun. You can’t beat Boots though. A good long walk in any London park will work wonders, too.

Neal out for a stroll on Hampstead Heath.

Best London shopping secret?
My friend Emma introduced me to Sunbury antiques market in Kempton. Get there early and be prepared to dig through lots of nonsense to find a great gem.

Above: Treasure to be found at Sunbury Antiques Market.

Best London souvenir?
A bag of Brick Lane bagels and something to put on them from Fortnum & Mason.

Best place to eat?
There are a few, because I love to eat lots and try new places. For breakfast The Modern Pantry on Clerkenwell Road is brill, as well as Bob Bob Ricard in Soho which is an OTT diner/brasserie where the staff have gold and pink uniforms and the menu features Farley’s Rusk milkshake!

Above: the fabulous interior of Bob Bob Ricard.

Ottolenghi is always good for lunch, as is Leilah's at Arnold Circus near Brick Lane. Market on Parkway in Camden is great and not dissimilar to the brilliant Quality Chop House in Farringdon - hearty British dinners.

Café Paolina on Kings Cross Road is a wonderful, cheap Thai café. Wood panelling, fake flowers, melamine chairs. An old greasy spoon now run by a super-friendly Thai family. Monmouth is always great for coffee, at Borough Market or in Covent Garden. I plan to go to Petersham Nurseries this year as I have been wanting to go for ages. 

I like eating on the sofa at mine, too. It’s BYO at P&C headquarters.

For all addresses and a Wee Birdy map of Neal's secret London, click here.

Read more about Present & Correct here.

For more secret Londons, click here.

My Secret London with Neal from Present & Correct (Part 1)

Neal Whittington, 29, runs the rather splendid online design and stationery store, Present & Correct. With a solid professional background as a graphic designer and illustrator, Neal spends much of his time these days scouring the globe for weird and wonderful paper-y delights. Here he opens up his little black book of favourite London haunts.

Best for a bargain?
Any of the city car boot sales: Wimbledon, Kilburn, Battersea, Chiswick. Borough Market late in the day for cheap veg.

Above: Bric-a-brac a-plenty at Battersea car boot sale.

Best for vintage?
There are several great shops at the Highbury end of Holloway Road which all sell a mixture of mid-century furniture and accessories. Due to its location you will find these places are much cheaper than if they were located in a trendier part of town.

I love vintage places that just sell one thing too, like Get Stuffed (for taxidermy) or EW Moore (for amazing retro wallpaper), as well as DA Binder (for old shop fittings).

Best for fashion?
I love Paul & Joe, and I always look in Liberty. Smaller independents like Sefton and Diverse stock some good labels. Second-hand shops like Rokit, Beyond Retro and charity shops come up with the goods, too.

Above: Vintage finds at Beyond Retro.

Best for jewellery?
I don’t wear any jewellery but I love Solange Azagury-Partridge. Also our friends Zoe and Morgan.

Above: Designs by Solange Azagury-Partridge.

Best for interiors and gifts?
SCP and Skandium are lovely shops and there are some great little gifty places along Columbia Road – like Ryan Town and Treacle. Labour & Wait is unique and so attractive and I cannot leave Muji empty handed. Ever!

Above: Skandi-heaven at Skandium.

In part 2 tomorrow, Neal reveals his secret London destinations for stationery, kids' stuff, skincare, souvenirs, and places to eat.

For all addresses and a Wee Birdy map of Neal's secret London, click here.

Read more about Neal's online store, Present & Correct here.

For more secret Londons, click here.

My Secret London with Martina McHowat - part II

In part two of "My Secret London", Urban Junkies Style Editor Martina McHowat tells us her favourite London destinations for gifts, stationery, beauty and food. It will make you dream of Icelandic mud and stationery with tiny beefeaters...

Best for interiors and gifts?
Lifestyle Bazaar on Newburgh Street always has a cool selection of lifestyle bits. Urban Outfitters and Muji are good for knick-knacky gifts, and the Magma product shop next to the book store is great for unusual finds. And I’m looking forward to seeing what H&M does with its homeware offering, slated to arrive in February.

H&M homewares range.

Best for stationery?
I do love Liberty’s stationery department, as much for their own line of note cards, diaries and address books, as well as the range of designers they stock. Smythson do great correspondence cards and stationery which you can have personalised, and their current Giles collaboration is a fashion-lover’s dream, with design sketches on the front and neon pink and green tissue-lined envelopes.

Best for beauty?
I get facials at Elemis off Bond Street, which is like a little sanctuary in the middle of potentially the busiest shopping district – not that you'd know it! It’s all quite South-East Asian feeling which I love, and Amanda gives the best tri-enzyme resurfacing facials - sounds hardcore but is really gentle.

I also love Sjal skincare, you can get it on www.cultbeauty.co.uk (also love their website, finally a site you can believe in completely, full of things properly tried out and reviewed).

And if you’re ever in Iceland, try out the hot springs at Blue Lagoon which have pots of this amazing silica clay mask dotted around – you just slather it on and float about. They’re doing it in tubes now for us poor souls who can’t be there in person.

I’ve just come back from Compton Hair in Covent Garden where I tried out their Brazilian Keratin Hair treatment, and it may well change my GHD-dependent life - after leaving it in for three days, my usually wavy, frizz-prone hair is down to a quick morning blow dry and it still looks straight and soft. I didn’t think it was possible!

Other London favourites?
I’m a bit obsessed with Columbia Flower Market on Sundays. The prices are just silly compared to what you’d pay in town, and the street is just stunning filled with every imaginable kind of tree, bush, shrub and stem.

Even better though, is that one side of the street is choc-full of some of the coolest little boutiques in the city; Cerise for jewellery, Suck & Chew for vintage-style sweets in jars and pocket money bits and Treacle for cupcakes and cool kitchen/homewares. I also love Far Global and Nom for the collections of Far Eastern antiques and bits & bobs. They have that lovely incense-y smell and everything inside is authentic and comes with a story. 

Best London souvenir?
I try and stay as far away from the tacky souvenir shops you tend to find down the dodgy end of Oxford Street; nobody needs a Union Jack G-String. Instead, try Muji’s ‘London in a bag’ full of wooden London landmarks like the London Eye and St Paul's, and now they’re doing rather fabulous little ‘London transport in a bag’ containing little painted wooden buses, black cabs and tubes.

I also like Julie Bell’s stationery, which come in beautiful boxes and have London icons embossed on them - beefeaters, buses or phone boxes.

Best for food?
Sophie’s Steak House on the Fulham Road - it’s a lovely, homey but chic feeling place with no reservation policy, so you turn up, get given a number which flashes up on a board above the bar, and wait over delicious cocktails. Lots of exposed brickwork, lightbulbs hanging loose from the ceiling and old train carriage luggage racks above the tables. And it’s not unusual to see Sophie herself wandering around serving steak, which by the way, is divine. They’re just opened in Covent Garden too. Go!

For all addresses and a Wee Birdy map of Martina's secret London, click here.
Check out Martina's London Fashion Week coverage at Urban Junkies, which includes designer interviews, backstage images and a competition to win the Ultimate Swag Bag.

My Secret London with Martina McHowat

To celebrate London Fashion Week, I asked Urban Junkies' Style Editor, Martina McHowat, to delve into her little black book for her favourite London addresses. The good news? The girl with her finger firmly on the pulse of London’s fashion scene doesn’t hold back. In fact, it’s so good, I’m posting it in two parts. Dig in to part one today…

Favourite London shops?
Maison Martin Margiela, where the shop assistants are dressed in white lab coats and the clothes are the main focus in a glassy, futuristic space - though I do miss his old Bruton Street Store, which barely had signage and was practically hidden from the untrained eye!

Liberty for the fabulous old Tudor frontage and window displays, Dover Street Market for their ever-changing designer spaces, and Partridges on the King’s Road for their American imports, which keeps me in supply of apple and cinnamon Pop Tarts every morning. 
 
Selfridges for their underwear department, and Long Tall Sally for their pyjamas, because at 6 foot, my legs tend to get the bum end of the deal with nightwear! Sadly Long Tall Sally isn’t a favourite for any other reason, which is a shame, as I suspect it could be onto a winner with plenty of other young, tall women out there in need of well-tailored trousers and fashionable pieces.

And I love London’s constant stream of inspiring pop-up spaces; Moet’s Atelier room at Christmas, Monocle magazine’s shop, the currently installed Nowhere space in Dover Street Market; and the PPQ ‘Jackdaw Store’ at number 6, Burlington Arcade for London Fashion Week.

Best for a bargain?
Get onto sample sales; there’s some seriously good stuff out there, I’m still kicking myself for missing the Lara Bohinc sale last year – amazing gold pieces and leather wallets at a smidgen of the price.

 

My favourite Chloe bag is from one of their sample sales at the Music Rooms, again, less than half price. Get onto www.urbanjunkies.com and have a look in our style section; I personally trawl the rest of the web and make sure we always have an amalgamation of the most up-to-date sales, and as we’re constantly updating, we’re a step ahead of sites that only put out a listing at the beginning of every month.

Apart from us, it’s all about sites like cocosa.com - they’ve had some amazing online sales since they set up last year, stuff like Christian Lacroix, Luella, Peter Jensen and Eley Kishimoto. And definitely keep an eye out for The Outnet, Net-a-porter’s discount sister, which should go live some time in April.

Best for fashion?
I’ve just gotten into All Saints as I love their Westwood-inspired cuts and unusual draping. I’m waiting for the right time to wear my floor length Parachute Dress (unless some terrible air accident forces me to evacuate in style sometime soon, I’m thinking it might never come).

The new Liberty of London store on Sloane Street is lovely. Independents like Beyond the Valley are always fun for a browse, and The Shop at Bluebird is really cleverly set out, with great denim and first edition books.



Zoe Lem’s boutique/gallery space, My Sugarland, opened last year and stocks all kinds of new designers, cool accessories and hosts art installations on the side. And The Convenience Store is a bit secret, located in an old cobbler’s shop, but it stocks some hard-to-find labels and has ‘under the counter’ pieces for loyal customers.

Matthew Williamson’s H&M collaboration in April should be great for the summer, as I hear there’s a lot of gold peacockery and his usual boho style involved.

Matthew Williamson for H&M.

In a dream world, I’d be swathed head to toe in McQueen’s subversive anglophilia, Nina Ricci’s dreamlike gowns, Bottega Venetta’s draped elegance, and Chanel’s pumps, which are my guilty secret. They are seriously comfy, and as they only rarely seem to stock more than one pair in my size at one time, I snap them up and hide them in my cupboard for fear of ruining them on an actual pavement. Rubbish crunch behaviour, I know.

Nina Ricci.

Best for accessories?
I’m such a magpie when it comes to anything bejewelled - my whole bedroom windowsill is covered in bits and bobs. I go everywhere. Topshop always has the most fun bits, loving their neon collections at the moment. Shanghai Tang keeps my Asian spirit happy; my Louis Vuitton Sprouse scarf is undoubtedly my most worn investment (check out the current Sprouse collaboration for some graffiti-filled fun), and I love Rowan Mersh’s weird material neck pieces and brooches.

   
Rowan Mersh.

If I had all the money in the world, I’d be straight on to Chanel’s carousel necklace and Alex Monroe’s bee necklace. I have a bit of a penchant for the whimsical.

Chanel's carousel necklace.

I love Miu Miu’s shoes and bags for some fun, and Mulberry’s handbags and wallets when I need something more classic, and the only heels I can walk in with any confidence come from LK Bennett - simple black platform pumps.

Tomorrow: Part 2 with Martina's tips for London's best homewares, stationery, souvenirs and food.
For all addresses and a Wee Birdy map of Martina's secret London, click here.
Check out Martina's London Fashion Week coverage at Urban Junkies, which includes designer interviews, backstage images and a competition to win the Ultimate Swag Bag. Have a peek - some very tasty prizes, indeed. There's also loads of info about pop-up shops and places to go and hang out during fashion week.