In a 2012 interview with Square Meal, chef Jeremy Lee said that the most important thing he’s learnt from working with Terence Conran is that a dining room should be accessible to both “jeans and tiaras”. In a way this perfectly sums up why he has been Britain’s most famous interior designer and top restaurateur for 60 years. His empire has included Habitat, Heals, D&D Group restaurants, and branches of The Conran Shop worldwide, as well a publishing arm that has released more than 50 books on design and food.
Much of his career, at least in the beginning, was owed to his love affair with France. His travels through the country in his early twenties, in particular visiting small markets and travelling through rural areas would provide great inspiration. This was post-war Britain, when food rationing was the norm and flourishes in the home were kept to a bare minimum. Eating out at restaurants was the preserve of the wealthy, and things now considered supermarket essentials like olive oil had to be purchased from the chemist. This of course has a lot to do with climate and availability – visit a supermarket in Spain and fresh fruit, veg, fish, olives and even good wine are cheap, part of the Mediterranean staple diet, whereas the least costly items at most UK high street supermarkets are in tins or packets.
Take for instance The Soup Kitchen, Conran’s very first restaurant opened in 1953 just off the Strand. Back then it stood out, because it served crusty baguette bread and espressos. It was inspired by simple French eateries and Elizabeth David, the cook who introduced Mediterranean food to the UK for the first time.
His second restaurant was the Orrery on the King’s Road, a sleek brasserie like the ones he’d eaten at in Paris, in fact his first job was washing up dishes at a restaurant in the French capital. Eating out at restaurants was solely the preserve of the wealthy,
\n\nIn 1987 he opened Bibendum. This brasserie was located in the beautiful Michelin building, a former tyre manufacturing warehouse Conran had his eye on the building for years, even writing to the Michelin brothers proposing to renovate it, but he received no response. When it was put up for sale he jumped at the chance, and opened a branch of The Conran Shop here as well as the headquarters for his publishing arm. Over the years Bibendum employed many great chefs: Philip Howard, Bruce Poole, Henry Harris and Jeremy Lee, in the case of Lee he would later go on to work at Conran’s Bluebird Café for 17 years.
By this time Conran had also become a household name in interior decoration. His infatuation with rustic French design also informed much of the ethos of Habitat, the furniture shop he opened on Fulham Road in 1964 that became an upmarket high street brand. The store would change the way the British public thought about home wares. Conran favoured unfussy, modern designs, “plain, simple and useful”, practical but also stylish. It also fit in with Swinging Sixties London, with bright, colourful patterns and prints influenced by the Far East, and moreover, the staff wore outfits designed by Mary Quant, the fashion designer who catapulted the mini-skirt into the mainstream.
Conran also opened the Conran Shop in 1973, on the site of the first Habitat, and bought Heal’s in 1984. He is no longer associated with the latter two, but the Conran Shop now counts stores in Paris, Dublin and four Japanese cities.
In 1980 the Conran Foundation was set up to promote the benefits of good design to both business and culture. Their first project was the Boilerhouse, a gallery located in the basement of the V&A, which would later relocate to the Docklands and become the Design Museum. This happened despite the animosity between the then director of the V&A Sir Roy Strong, who had critiqued his 1976 Habitat catalogue by describing the model on the front cover as a “1940s tart”.
\n\nThroughout the 90s Conran opened many more significant restaurants: Le Pont de La Tour, Quaglino’s, which he resurrected from a previous incarnation that had opened in the 20s, the Blueprint Café at the Design Museum and Plateau, all now part of the D&D stable, named after Des Gunewardena and David Loewi, formerly Conran’s management team. They initially took on 49% of the business in 2006 with Conran retaining the majority share, however as of 2013 his investment has been bought out by third parties.
That’s not to say he’s quit the restaurant business. In the summer of 2009 he opened Lutyens on Fleet Street, a restaurant with a members’ club . In 2009 he unveiled Boundary in Shoreditch, attached to a hotel, with a rooftop bar and the Albion “caff” and deli. The Boundary’s rooms are named after artists or movements Conran particularly admires, with pieces of furniture inspired or indeed designed by the artists themselves, so the Le Corbusier room has prints by the French designer, while the Shaker Room has elements of the stark utilitarianism of the American Shakers.
And what about the man in private? He is notorious for his difficult temperament as well as his steely determination, even from a young age. He studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, now Central Saint Martins, but left before completing the course in 1951, leaving to work with an architect’s firm. But it wouldn’t be long before he became his own boss when in the same year he formed Conran & Company. Most of his offspring are involved in related industries: Tom is a restaurateur, Sophie and Conran are designers, Jasper is a fashion designer, and Ned is a restaurateur and artist.
Over the last 30 years the awards have have poured in. He received a knighthood in 1983 for services to design, the Honorary Doctor of Science at Southbank University and the Observer Lifetime Achievement in 2012. He turned 80 in 2011, and the Design Museum hosted a retrospective in his honour. He recently designed a line for M&S and a range of bottles for Gordon’s Gin; he may be over 80 now, but he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
