From bringing the duvet to the UK to supporting the launch of Retail Week, British designer, retailer and restaurateur Sir Terence Conran changed the way people lived.

Best known for creating the iconic Habitat homewares business, Sir Terence Conran’s flair for design made an impact across retail, hospitality and the urban environment.

Sir Terence Conran

His career began in the 1940s, but it wasn’t until the 1960s that the European influences he championed began to take root across the living rooms of the nation and he became a household name. 

Conran’s designs came at a time when post-war austerity was in need of some brightening up with bold colours, prints and stylish yet accessible pieces – all with the aim of being affordable with a standard teacher’s salary. 

He even claimed to have boosted the sex lives of British home-owners with the introduction of the duvet – an invention he brought back from a visit to Sweden.

While Habitat’s simple furniture shaped homes two decades before Ikea landed on British shores, both Conran and Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad had an immense admiration for each other, often attending each other’s parties before Habitat was taken over by Kamprad’s Ikano group in 1992.

As the architect of Storehouse – a now defunct retail empire that encompassed British Home Stores (BHS), Mothercare, Heal’s, Richard Shops and Habitat – Conran extended his designs throughout the British high street in the 1980s.

He later brought his imaginative take to the hospitality industry, creating Michelin-starred restaurants including London’s Bibendum and Quaglino’s.

A life of design

Encouraged in the arts by his creative mother, Conran set up his first company in 1952, which was given a boost when he was asked to decorate legendary 1960s fashion designer Mary Quant’s second Bazaar shop.

Inspired by continental Europe, Conran opened his first Habitat store in 1964 on London’s Fulham Road, selling trendsetting furniture and homewares, such as Le Creuset pots, colourful sofas and flatpack furniture – perfect for those with a lust for a more stylish lifestyle but on a lower budget.

2017 Habitat Tottenham Court Road Entrance - April 2016 - Photography credit - Kalory.co.uk

By 1980 there were 47 Habitat stores across the world 

The Fulham Road store relocated to King’s Road in 1973 at the same time Habitat opened its first store abroad in Paris.

By 1980, there were 47 Habitat stores across the world, as well as a mail-order catalogue.

The success of the Habitat brand grew throughout the following decades, leading to its mergers first with Ryman and then with BHS, Mothercare and Heal’s to become part of the retail conglomerate Storehouse.

Conran later described the appointment of Michael Julien as chief executive of Storehouse as one of the “biggest mistakes” of his life, after the group was plagued by recession in the late 1980s, leading to Conran’s departure in 1990.

Not to be deterred, Conran retained control of his namesake brand, opening The Conran Shop in London and Paris, as well as continuing to grow his restaurant portfolio.

While Storehouse ultimately disintegrated, with both the Mothercare and BHS fascias no longer standalone chains in the UK, Habitat has retained its popularity. The homewares business was bought by Sainsbury’s as part of its £1.4bn acquisition of Argos owner Home Retil Group in 2016.

Passion above all else

“One of the things about Terence was that he, in the nicest possible way, always thought that his idea of design was right,” says friend and Retail Week founding editor Baroness Patience Wheatcroft.

Conran was one of several big-name retailers whose expertise and support Wheatcroft drew upon when she launched Retail Week, as a member of the title’s advisory board who could inform the bigger picture and enable the magazine to best cater for the industry.

“He was an early adopter of the need for something like Retail Week, and was great fun at the conferences”

Baroness Patience Wheatcroft, founding editor of Retail Week

“He was assiduous in showing up to the meetings of the advisory board. I don’t think he ever missed one, and he was on for a long time,” she says.

“He was an early adopter of the need for something like Retail Week, and was great fun at the conferences.”

conran4

The Conran Shop 

Conran was also very keen to get stuck into discussions and offer comments for the magazine – a particular hot topic for him was the relaxing of Sunday trading laws, which were even more constrained at the time.

While they worked together professionally, Conran and Wheatcroft also became friends. She remembers the fundamental commitment to good design that made him so successful. 

“I recall that, when he took over BHS, one of his aims was to take all the bunny motifs off the children’s clothes, because as far as he was concerned that was bad design,” she says.

“Of course, it was exactly what some people wanted for their kids – so Terence’s idea of knowing what was right was right for some people, but it wasn’t right for everybody.”

Wheatcroft’s overarching impression of Conran was of his passion for everything – be it his staunch dislike of the Conservative government, his ardent support for remaining in the EU or his determination to create The Design Museum that would become his legacy.

Conran put a great deal of time, money and energy into The Design Museum, which originally sat in Butler’s Wharf, the Thameside complex he designed and which housed his London home and offices. 

The Design Museum has now relocated to Kensington, but Conran remained involved in its running until the end of his life – its thriving visitor book is a testament to his determination, says Wheatcroft.

Democratising design

Crispin Tweddell, another friend, founder of private equity firm Piper and the Pitcher & Piano chain, as well as a Retail Week columnist,  remembers Conran as an “inspiration” who always made time for new entrepreneurs.

“We all got a big lift when we sat down with Terence,” says Tweddell, who brought a number of friends to meet Conran over the years to help inspire them and drive their ideas forward, including Boden founder Johnnie Boden, who sat down with the pair over 20 years ago.

“He really did believe that everyone should have a right to great product and design – that’s really what he championed”

Ian McGarrigle, World Retail Congress

Ultimately, Conran will be remembered for his mission to democratise design, says World Retail Congress chair and former Retail Week editor Ian McGarrigle.

Conran Lifestyle Shot

Conran believed in making good design accessible to all 

“Design didn’t have to be about high-net-worth people only being able to have beautiful objects,” he says. “He really did believe that everyone should have a right to great product and design – that’s really what he championed.”

“He had an eye for detail and wanted to create really attractive specialty retail, and he was one of the key figures at that time that brought in design standards and made stores really attractive places to go.”

Conran is often credited with creating what is now called the store experience, designing good-looking stores and bringing style to the masses. 

A family statement said: “A proud patriot, Sir Terence promoted the best of British design, culture and the arts around the world, and at the heart of everything he did was a very simple belief that good design improves the quality of people’s lives.”

He was awarded a knighthood for his services to design in 1983 and named as a Companion of Honour in the 2017 Birthday Honours.

“He knew it would benefit everybody in this country if we could embrace his concept of design,” concludes Wheatcroft.