The London Hatter

A new history of the oldest hat shop in the world.

Step into the oldest shop in London, and the oldest hat shop in the world. Since 1676, Lock & Co. of St James’s Street has covered the heads of everybody from cabdrivers to reigning monarchs. As the shop reaches its 350th anniversary, Matt Brown reveals the eventful history of a cherished family business and the secrets of the building it has inhabited for centuries.

This is the story of the shop that crafted Nelson’s signature bicorne with which he fought and died at the Battle of Trafalgar, that designed Churchill’s Homburg, that provided Charlie Chaplin, David Beckham and various James Bonds with bespoke headgear, and that invented the Bowler hat (also known as the ‘Coke’).

Along the way, Lock & Co. has created or supplied an extraordinary roll-call of famous headwear: Oscar Wilde’s black fedora, worn on his 1882 American lecture tour; Jackie Kennedy’s brown velvet Quorn riding hat; Churchill’s silk top hat, worn at his 1908 wedding; and the hat worn by Oddjob in Goldfinger, the iconic Coke that became one of cinema’s most memorable weapons. The shop has also supplied Douglas Fairbanks Jr., created a yachting cap for Churchill bearing the Royal Yacht Squadron insignia, and, more recently, fitted Gary Oldman with Churchillian hats for Darkest Hour.