Homage to Sir Terence Conran 1931-2020

Sir Terence Conran 1931-2020

 Today, I discovered Sir Terence Conran, one of my most treasured design influences, died September 22, 2020.  He was 88.  

                               Opening of Conran's Habitat Store in London, circa 1966

 

I am flooded with memories of arriving in the UK as an immigrant, from St. Louis, Missouri, with my English husband Jim and two year old daughter Anna.  Jim's parents were delighted to have us nearby, encouraging us to settle in Cheadle Hulme, in Cheshire, more pastoral than industrial Lancashire where they lived, both counties straddle Manchester.  We soon moved into our own house and I set about making it a home.  

 
My design influences up to that time were yard sale cheap and the average American furniture store offerings of badly made, pretentious Italianate. 

Cheadle Hulme was a commuter village a 30 minute train trip to Manchester.  I initially migrated to Manchester to shop because that's where the only supermarket was, before I discovered the charms and advantages of village shops.  While there, buying American-style bacon and pasta sauce ingredients (unavailable elsewhere at that time) I discovered Habitat, Conran's recently opened home furnishings shop.  This shifted my design world-view 180 degrees.

Conran's was an emporium of furniture, textiles, kitchen wares, and all things domestic, it brought the best of modern design to the average shopper in the UK, affordable and chic too, what an idea!

 

  

Due to a flagging economy the UK lagged behind most of Western Europe in rebuilding after WWII.  Although many of the grand old limestone buildings in Manchester were being scrubbed of nearly a century of coal soot, actual revitalization was more sluggish.  Jim visited a German friend in Hamburg in 1958, and found a sparkling new city. It had been bombed flatter than most UK cities.

 

However, a flowering of English artistry was bubbling up from the depredations of war recovery.  English interior designers and textile artists, such as Terence Conran and Laura Ashley were transforming the marketplace.  The Daily Mail reported, "When Conran died in September, aged 88, the Design Museum, which he founded, said he had 'a greater impact than any other designer of his generation, revolutionising everyday life in contemporary Britain." They referred to him as a visionary designer for realizing a market in affordable, European interiors with earthy designs for a recovery-weary Britain.

 

 

Our Habitat-inspired English living room, circa 1973, with a petite Habitat settee, orange slip covered fold out bed (that I sewed on my American Penny's portable sewing machine, in cotton canvas from an old wholesale textile factory that flanked the Irwell River, that cuts through the epicenter of the region's by then flagging cotton mill industry), plus Scandinavian pine bookcases: 

 Recovered couch                              Habitat Scandinavian bookcases        Petite Habitat settee

 

Laura Ashley was part of this design blossoming. I wore her clothes into the early 1990s. 

 

Laura Ashley clothing

St. Anne's Square, Manchester UK     Wiki                                 

I spent many Saturdays commuting by train to Manchester city centre.  From the station I'd walk to Queen Anne's Square to admire St. Anne's church, built in 1712, then have tea at little cafe that was always crowded.  Fogging up the Georgian windows was a huge tea urn plus the often rain bedraggled clientele.  The Saturday morning waitresses were always rushed, the tea always strong and heavily spiked with milk.  The little cakes a perfect pick-you-up in that hectic urbanity.

 Next stop: Habitat, around the corner.  I saved many of my Habitat and Laura Ashley catalogs until about seven years ago, in one of my wars against clutter.  Bad move.  I've seen a few of the old catalogs on Etsy and Ebay for up to $175!  How I wish I still had those old catalogs, not to sell but to see a more detailed glimpse at the past. 

 

Ikea is a cheap version of Habitat.  It's also been the biggest factor as to why Conran's marketing miracle has not withstood the 21st century.   Ikea was introduced into the UK in the 1980s.  Ikea is Conran's without the emphasis on real wood, good, often GREAT design, plus a joyous emphasis on design integrity. Take Conran's glasses for instance:

 

 

duralexusa.com

 

French tempered glass, so they withstand rough treatment longer than most without scratching, chipping or cracking.  They were a favorite of restaurants because of these very qualities. Founded in 1945, Duralex invented the glass tempering process. Often costing just pennies more than Ikea's cheap glasses made in China, with one fourth the Duralex lifespan.  

 

When you opened a Conran's catalog you found not only fun things to live with, but an education in simple design principles, plus instructions on how YOU COULD DO ALMOST ANYTHING YOURSELF! Refinish floors.  Paint or wallpaper a room.  Make a curtain.  Or, what good quality, long-lasting pan to use to saute a simple but delicious meal.  All included in a Conran's catalog, selling a more esthetic lifestyle as well as fun-to-habituate interiors.   

 

Carol, Grand Forks, North Dakota 1980, wearing Scottish 

sheepskin jacket from St. Anne's Square

  

Unfortunately, when Conran's opened stores in the USA, called Conran's, his target customers were upscale, in higher end malls for upper middle class shoppers.  The simple Eastern European porcelain white covered butter dishes that sold at Habitat for the equivalent of $5.95 was made a bit thicker and now cost $70.  It didn't translate.  

Conran's was a delightful component of modern life.  Like many such slices of life that haven't adapted, it remains a functional memory and possible goal for future shops, endeavoring to capture form, function, economy and minimal waste.  Fine goals, all.