Marylebone High Street

This is such a well-kept secret that even Londoners don't seem to have caught on as yet! Marylebone High Street lies just a short walk from Oxford Street and yet is far less busy, has beautiful shops and boutiques and is so laid-back it feels almost like a market-town high street and not central London. Though a little more pompous than its main stream rival, this is almost forgivable given the relative tranquility which the area provides.

Marylebone High Street and Marylebone Lane are populated with lots of small and independent shops as well as smaller versions of most of the well-known high street names. Homeware shops, gift shops and clothing boutiques are particularly prominent as are (almost predictably) the array of coffee shops which is an unavoidable feature of the central London environment.

Shops include the Sir Terance Conran shop set in converted stables and providing all that you could want in designer homeware, and the new Aveda Institute outlet there which sells natural toiletries and similar products. The Terance Conran experience could be combined with the Conran restaurant The Orrery which is in the upstairs of the same building. This has a reputation for being one of the best Conran restaurants in town!