Ten Reasons We Love – Lock & Co
By Stafford Collection
1 Year Ago
One
We love that, having opened in 1676, Lock & Co can lay claim to being not only the oldest shop in London, but the oldest hat shop in the world. To give some perspective as to its longevity, as one of the oldest family-owned businesses still in existence, the world-renowned Lock & Co is older, even, than some of London’s most iconic constructions — such as Buckingham Palace, Wellington Arch, and Tower Bridge.
Two
We love that the Lock & Co shop retains so many original and quirky features. Since 2015, it has also proudly housed a Heritage Room, showcasing a curated collection of archival content, like Winston Churchill’s ledgers and the first-ever Coke hat, otherwise known as the Bowler, which was devised by Lock & Co in 1849 and named after nobleman Edward Coke, who commissioned the company to create a style hardy enough for his gamekeepers at Holkham Hall in Norfolk. It was later made all the more memorable by the silver screen Bond villain, Oddjob in Goldfinger.
Three
We love Lock & Co’s distinctive, black-and white hat boxes. Featuring the Lock & Co logo that has never changed, there is no smarter storage on the planet!
Four
We love that 60 years of 007 style combines with Lock & Co’s 346 year heritage of hat making. The 007 Hat collection formally establishes a long-standing relationship between the two iconic British brands. The range consists of seven James Bond inspired hats which pay homage to the James Bond archives, including Goldfinger, and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Five
We love that Lock & Co take notes when creating a ladies hat for an event like Royal Ascot, so that no two women will end up wearing the same style of hat to the same occasion.
Six
We love Lock & Co’s famed contraption — the Conformateur. It dates back to 1850 and was designed and made in Paris by Allié-Maillard. It looks like a metal hat that sits on top of a person’s head and has 48 flexible arms which, when the apparatus is pushed down, tiny calibrating pins pierce a piece of paper on the top of the device replicating the exact shape of the head. The paper outline is then used to adjust an alterable blocking device, which is used to form the shape of the hat after being heated with steam to give the exact shape of hat required. Lock & Co own about eight of these rare and fragile Conformateurs.
Seven
We love that it is believed that James Benning, the shop manager for James Lock III in 1865, inspired the memorable Mad Hatter character in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
Eight
We love Lock & Co’s famous green front door at 6 St James’s Street, a Grade-II listed building in the heart of London’s St James’s. The original staircase, known as a ‘coffin staircase,’ was redesigned with a stairwell in the Victorian era to accommodate lowering a coffin down to the ground level through the central space, which was shaped like a coffin, thereby avoiding any stairs.
Nine
We love that if the going gets very tough for your hat, renovations can be done by the Hatters at Lock & Co to repair or replace most ailments (although once they have been eaten by the family dog, it may be too late…)
Ten
We love that after witnessing two World Wars, 16 monarchs and countless fashion changes, Lock & Co is a member of the exclusive Tercentenarian Club, an elite society of British businesses that have been trading for over 300 years and whose founding family still runs them.
