LONDON (UK) – Renowned designer and restaurateur Terence Conran, who redefined British retail and interior decor, died at 88, his family said on Saturday.
In the 1960s, his Habitat home-furnishing store, which was known for its pine furniture pieces, bright fabrics and elegant kitchenware, became a big hit.
Conran later became chairman of the Storehouse retail group which comprised high-end shops such as Mothercare and British Home Stores.
In 1953, he opened his first restaurant in London named The Soup Kitchen and started many more in the capital, including Pont de la Tour, Quaglino’s and Mezzo, and his interest in this sector went as far as New York, Paris and Tokyo.
“Terence Conran was instrumental in the redesigning of post-War Britain and his legacy is huge,” said Tim Marlow, director and chief executive of London’s Design Museum founded by the late design expert.
“He changed the way we lived and shopped and ate.”
“He was a visionary who enjoyed an extraordinary life and career that revolutionised the way we live in Britain,” his family said in a statement.
After studying textile design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, Conran went on to launch Habitat in 1964, providing well-designed merchandise for ordinary people.
From a single store in London, he was able to start a national and global chain of stores. The first The Conran Shop for furniture and home decor was opened in 1975 and he received the knighthood in 1983.
“I’ve spent a colourful lifetime working in design and everything related to it, because design is where all the things I have worked on meet,” Conran wrote in his Design Museum’s website in which he credited his mother for inspiring him.
“The restaurants, hotels and bars we have designed or operated, the shops, the interiors, the buildings, the products and furniture or the books I have written – design is the one thing that connects them all and they add up to what I call a style of life.
“I also realise how lucky I have been in that everything I have ever done for work or business I would have done simply for pleasure.”
Conran stepped down as chairman of Stonehouse in 1990 which sold the loss-making Habitat chain two years later to Swedish group IKEA.
