Work
Conran's first professional work came when he worked in the Festival of Britain (1951) on the main South Bank site. He left college to take up a job with Dennis Lennon's architectural company, which had been commissioned to make a 1/4-scale interior of a Princess Flying Boat.[6] Shortly after the Festival ended, Conran was laid off and started focussing on furniture and fabric designs for David Whitehead. He worked with his friend Raymond Elston, who had some knowledge of welding and making clothes.
In May 1953, Conran, his friend Eduardo Paolozzi and Elston were invited to take part in the Third Weekend Exhibition of abstract art, organised by Adrian Heath in his studio at 22 Fitzroy Square, London. Conran showed some furniture: "a low table, a stool, a dining table and an upright chair - all in his familiar spindly-leg style"; Paolozzi some collages, and Elston some mobiles.
Conran started his own design practice in 1956 with the Summa furniture range and designing a shop for Mary Quant.
In 1964, he opened the first Habitat shop in Chelsea, London with his third wife Caroline Herbert, focusing on housewares and furniture in contemporary designs. Habitat grew into a large chain, the first retailer to bring such designs to a mass audience.[4]
In the mid-1980s, Conran expanded Habitat into the Storehouse plc group of companies that included BhS, Mothercare and Heal's but in 1990 he lost control of the company. His later retail companies[7] included the Conran Shop[8] and FSC-certified (Forest Stewardship Council) wood furniture maker Benchmark Furniture,[9] which he co-founded with Sean Sutcliffe in 1983.
He was also involved in architecture and interior design, including establishing the architecture and planning consultancy Conran Roche with Fred Roche in 1980. Their projects include Michelin House (which he turned into the restaurant Bibendum) and the Bluebird Garage, both in Chelsea.[10] Conran had a major role in the regeneration in the early 1990s of the Shad Thames area of London next to Tower Bridge that included the Design Museum ( now relocated to Kensington ). His business, Conran and Partners, is a design company comprising product, brand and interior designers and architects, working on projects all over the world. Conran designed furniture for Marks & Spencer, J. C. Penney, Content by Conran, Benchmark, and The Conran Shop.
Conran's architecture and design practice also worked on projects in North America and Asia.[11] In 2009, he licensed the Conran Shop to a partner in Japan. In September 2014, Cassina IXC Ltd acquired the entire business of The Conran Shop in Japan[12] where it still thrives with four stores.[13] In 2019, the Conran Shop opened in Seoul, South Korea.[14][15]
In 1997 he appeared as himself in “In the Smoke”, S5:E7 of Pie in the Sky.
Restaurants
Besides Bibendum, Conran, with Joel Kissin, created many other restaurants in London[16] and elsewhere. In 2005, he was named as the most influential restaurateur in the UK by CatererSearch, the website of Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine. In 2007, 49 percent of the restaurant business was sold to two former managers, who rebranded it as D&D London.[17]
In 2008, he returned to the restaurant business on a personal basis by opening Boundary, a restaurant, bar, café, and meeting room complex in Shoreditch, East London. This was followed in 2009 by Lutyens, a restaurant and private club within the former Reuters building in Fleet Street London.[18] In 2018, Lutyens, together with two other related restaurants, closed as Conran's hospitality venture with Peter Prescott went into administration.[19]
