Christmas in London has many traditions, but few capture the mood of the season quite like stepping through Liberty’s Tudor arches for the first time each year, or pausing to take in its festive windows. Such is the demand for the annual celebrations at the iconic department store that its Christmas shop opens in September, long before most of us have even considered unearthing last year’s decorations. The concept for the windows, meanwhile, is an ambitious feat that begins months earlier.
Each year, the visual team works to imagine a display that can hold its own against the building’s storied interiors, and this year’s is particularly special as Liberty marks its 150th anniversary. For the occasion, the team has created a series of playful elf workshops centred around the “Good Ship Liberty”, a whimsical nod to one of the store’s more unexpected historic tales. With so much history tucked inside its labyrinthine rooms and remarkable archive, it’s no wonder that the deeper you wander, the more secrets reveal themselves.
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Liberty’s sustainable origins
At Liberty, one of the most unexpected stories begins with the building itself. Long before sustainability became a design imperative, the store was quietly practising it: the Tudor-style structure was built in the early 1920s using timber salvaged from two decommissioned Royal Navy ships. Designed by Edwin Thomas Hall and his son Edwin Stanley Hall, at the height of London’s craze for Tudor revival architecture, the building was conceived to feel more like a grand home than a department store. Those vast, weathered beams now form the backbone of Liberty’s famously warm, wood-lined interiors.
Archival treasures of Christmas past
If Liberty’s walls could talk, at Christmas they would almost certainly direct you to the archive, where decades of festive memories are waiting to be rediscovered. ‘The archive has a vast collection of beautifully illustrated, annual Christmas catalogues which provide an informative view into the kinds of gifts that might have been purchased at Liberty. The oldest catalogue is from 1898,’ says Mary-Ann Bartlett-Dunkley, the store’s Design Director.
Partially held in the rich Westminster City Archives, the records contain charming toys and dolls, one-of-a-kind imported furniture, intricate jewellery, scarves and shawls as well as clothes. ‘One particularly touching piece is a set of silk egg cosies in their original box. They were a Christmas gift for a woman named Lillian in 1918,’ Mary-Ann adds.
The global scale of Christmas at Liberty
Some of Liberty’s most extraordinary festive moments have begun as tiny, almost throwaway ideas. ‘The installation everyone remembers is the Christmas “Tree of Life”,’ says Lisa Clemenger, Liberty’s Visual Merchandising Manager. ‘I sketched the first version using my young daughter’s playdough and pipe cleaners, and somehow it became a nine-metre bonsai tree wrapped in velvet and pink moss.’ Sourcing moss from across Europe, shaping its roots in a shower cubicle, and assembling the structure overnight, the team created one of Liberty’s most talked-about displays.
That spirit of ambition defines every December with past displays including everything from enchanted workshops to soaring hot-air balloons. ‘We usually source over 1,200 metres of garlands, more than 60 Christmas trees and vast tubs of twinkling lights,’ says Lisa. ‘When Liberty does Christmas, it’s never done half-heartedly.’
The craft and heart of the windows
Liberty’s storytelling is often defined by a combination of lineage and legacy, which underpins everything from its extraordinary archive to its window display. Behind this year’s spectacle are some deeply personal stories of craft and memory. ‘This year, one of the most meaningful elements came from a jewellery maker’s studio we were invited to explore,’ says Lisa.
‘Her daughter showed us a collection of her late mother’s tools and props - pieces she’d used throughout her life as a jewellery artist. We sat with her as she reminisced, and she told us how delighted her mother would have been to see them brought into our Christmas windows.’
A subtle scent to signal Christmas
One of the most unexpected elements of Liberty’s Christmas experience isn’t in the displays at all, but in the air. This year the store introduced 1875 LBTY, a celebratory fragrance diffused throughout the building. ‘It has a deep, resinous wood tone that instantly sets a festive mood. It feels warm, nostalgic and unmistakably “Liberty at Christmas”,’ says Lisa. It’s a subtle detail, but one that quietly shapes the entire atmosphere, leaving visitors with a sense of Christmas the moment they walk in.
Bowie in Liberty print
Beyond the store’s walls, Liberty appears in cultural moments you wouldn’t necessarily expect, like the iconic album cover for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. ‘It pictures David Bowie wearing a tailored suit in Liberty’s Corbusier design and was taken in January near the Regent Street flagship store on Heddon Street,’ reveals Mary-Ann. ‘The city looks dark and cold but full of atmosphere and expectation, like the after hours of a Christmas party.’
Bowie returned to Liberty’s patterns throughout his career, choosing the Corbusier Dream print for his 1972 Top of the Pops performance of Starman, a moment that was later credited with helping shape the aesthetic of the 1980s.
Liberty’s Christmas card list
Bowie is not alone in giving Liberty its cultural charge. The shop's many admirers span writers, musicians and muses who have helped shape its creative identity. Oscar Wilde once dubbed the store ‘the chosen resort of the Artistic Shopper’, a sentiment that still echoes in the creatives who favour its prints. Some have even inspired them: ‘Oscar’s Palace’ nods to Wilde’s affection; ‘Electric Nouveau’ draws on Liberty’s rock-and-roll clientele of the sixties and seventies; ‘Verve Pop’ was worn by Grace Coddington and ‘Mono Muse’ captures the cool glamour of Jean Shrimpton. They reveal a cultural legacy as intricate as the patterns themselves.
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