After nine happy years we are saying goodbye to our smallest store on Lambs Conduit Street in London. Whilst we are fully committed to having physical retail spaces, with the departure of its familiar manager for new adventures, the Lambs store has become surplus to our plans.
We have some excellent stockists across London and two larger and thriving Universal Works stores, one 15 minutes' walk west and one 15 minutes north of Lambs Conduit Street. It seems an appropriate time for us to concentrate our future plans on international retail projects. We leave with only happy memories.
Our Lambs Conduit Street manager David Holden writes a personal tribute to one of our favourite streets.
Bursting with people, crammed to the rafters, red buses everywhere no time to slow down.
Pearly kings and pearly queens, international travellers on shopping sprees.
Now take a breath, welcome to Lambs, an oasis of calm amongst the nearby throng.
Eight happy years I spent in our tiny shop on Lambs Conduit Street.
Welcoming customers, who soon became friends.
A strikingly beautiful street is Lambs, not showy but comfortable in its own skin and confident in its position in the world.
I really couldn't of wished for a better environment to go to work in.
There are countless streets in London, some much more posh, some much more gritty, but each with their own certain charm.
As we close the door at Lambs for the last time, it somehow feels right.
It feels like we've added in some way to the history of that street.
Custodians passing on the baton to the next person who turns the key.
Those stone steps up to the front door have been well worn, over the passage of time.
"I used to come to this shop in the 1950s to buy sweets" said one man to me one day.
"I'm pretty sure I used to get my hair cut in here said another one."
But more than that, and what I'll miss the most about the street are its people.
That's what more than anything, is so special about that street.
I've had soup and bread brought down to me in the shop by a neighbour upstairs on cold winter days (on a tray).
Other shopkeepers have stuck their heads around the door with an ice cream on the hottest of hot summer days.
You've got to be a pretty special person to come be known only by one single name.
Pele
Bowie
Prince
I guess for me, if "Lambs" were a person, they'd fit into that category as well.
So this is less a lament about a street but more of a thank you to the wonderful people who live and work around there, and a huge thank you to the amazing customers many of whom have become friends who have made it such a pleasure, to work on Lambs Conduit Street."
