Heal's and other Treasures on the Tottenham Court Road

Lots of my Nice Days Out recently have involved trips to London to go Christmas shopping, catch up with friends and family and ooh over the lovely festive windows of the big department stores.

I shared a few snaps last week but wanted to devote a post to one of my fave shops in central London: Heal's, on Tottenham Court Road.

Getting to Heal's is easy peasy, as Goodge Street tube station is straight opposite:

Heal's started out as bed-makers about 200 years ago, and is now a large and lovely store filled with gorgeous design-led homewares and accessories. This is the sort of place where I wander round mentally furnishing my dream house, then buy a smart teatowel or a wonderful mug :)

 

 

It's worth a visit just to admire the building - make sure you look up! I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I'd never taken the time to look before taking these photos, and I was really missing out - aren't these decorative plaques fab?

 

If you love to oooh over stylish homewares, there's also a branch of Habitat next door...

 

... and just down the road (walking towards Oxford Street) are branches of super-stylish Dwell and swoonworthy US import West Elm (currently stocking lovely ornaments designed by Mimi Kirchner!) 

The huge flagship branch of Paperchase is also a must visit (make sure you go up to the top floor and check out their art and craft supplies and lovely selection of handmade paper) and nearby you'll also find branches of Tiger and Muji... plus, of course, all the shiny, shiny shops on Oxford Street itself.

P.S. Tottenham Court Road is definitely not the prettiest street in London, especially at the moment with lots of work going on for the new Crossrail station... but it does give good shopping! And there are some perks to the building work, like being able to see interesting buildings like this one...

... which was previously hidden and which will presumably be hidden from view once more when the building work is completed.