Carnaby Street Shops: Where to Shop in Soho
Carnaby Street is a neighbourhood pretending to be a street. Most people walk the pedestrianised main run between Great Marlborough Street and Broadwick Street, photograph the arch, and leave. That stretch is the least interesting part of it.
The shopping worth the trip sits in the lanes either side.
A short history, because it explains the layout
Carnaby made its name in the 1960s on menswear. John Stephen opened His Clothes at 5 Carnaby Street in 1957, having been burned out of his original Beak Street premises the year before. By 1967 he ran fifteen stores on the street and the press had taken to calling him the King of Carnaby Street. He dressed the mods who made the place a destination and, briefly, a synonym for London itself. By 1965 the Small Faces, the Who, the Kinks and the Rolling Stones were all regulars.
That history matters for a practical reason. The area was built as a warren of small premises rather than department-store footprints, and it never got rebuilt. The result is that independent stores can still afford a door here, which is why the neighbourhood has aged better than Oxford Street two minutes north.
In October 1973 the Greater London Council closed the street to traffic between 11am and 8pm, along with several side roads including Foubert's Place and Ganton Street, and paved the surface in nylon printed with geometric patterns.
Like the bathroom of some trendy giant.
Daily Mirror, on the new Carnaby Street, 1973
The nylon is long gone. The pedestrians stayed, and footfall rose by about 30 percent. The wider estate is owned and managed today as a single portfolio by Shaftesbury Capital, which is why the tenant mix feels curated rather than accidental.
Newburgh Quarter, where the good shopping is
If you have an hour, spend it here. Newburgh Street, Foubert's Place, Marshall Street, Lowndes Court, Marlborough Court and Ganton Street form a pocket of independent and small-chain retail immediately east of Carnaby Street.
The mix skews toward considered menswear, contemporary womenswear, denim specialists and footwear, with a handful of skate and streetwear stores that have been there long enough to have outlasted several waves of fashion. Stores are small. Stock is edited rather than piled. Staff generally know what they are selling, which is increasingly rare within walking distance of Oxford Circus.
Walk it in this order and you will not double back. Start at the north end of Newburgh Street and finish on Foubert's Place, which puts you back on Carnaby Street when you are done.
Newburgh Street
Ugly DumplingNo. 1
Dumplings, and an easy way to start the walk rather than end it.
Nagare CoffeeNo. 2
Coffee for a street that is meant to be taken slowly.
Annie's IbizaNo. 3
Vintage and party dresses, arranged like a dressing-up box for adults.
HIMINo. 4
A Japanese izakaya, small plates and sake.
RRLNo. 6
Ralph Lauren's selvedge denim and vintage workwear line.
American ClassicsNo. 7
American workwear and vintage, on this street for decades.
Mark PowellNo. 10
Bespoke Soho tailoring with a sharp, unmistakably British cut. The Shoe Snob and J.FitzPatrick share the ground floor.
Metal MorphosisNo. 11
Piercing and jewellery, thirty years in the same trade on the same street.
AntidoteNo. 12
Wine bar with small plates, for when the walk turns into an evening.
AubinNo. 15
British heritage clothing, relaxed tailoring, denim done properly.
The White HorseNo. 16
A pub on this corner since the 1930s, which tells you what kind of street it is.
Foubert's Place
adidas OriginalsNo. 8
The archive end of the range rather than the run of the mill.
ShinolaNo. 28
Detroit-built watches, leather goods, journals and bicycles.
ZahterNo. 30 to 32
Istanbulite cooking over wood and charcoal, and the reason to stop before you reach Carnaby Street.
Soho HomeNo. 31
Homeware and furniture lifted straight from the Soho House interiors.
Every stop on this route, and every door number, cross-checked against This Is Soho, who know the street better than we do. Last checked August 2026.
This is the part of the neighbourhood that rewards a slow walk rather than a list.
Carnaby Street itself
The main run is where the recognisable names sit: established British labels, a few flagship concept stores, and the seasonal installations the estate is known for. It is busier, louder and more commercial than the surrounding lanes, and it is the right place to start if you want to cover ground quickly.
Weekday mornings are the calmest. By Saturday afternoon the street is moving at a shuffle, which is its own kind of fun, but you will not be lingering in front of many windows.
Kingly Court
Kingly Court is a three-storey open courtyard off the southern end of Carnaby Street, and it is where the neighbourhood eats. Around twenty restaurants and bars are stacked around a central well, with tables spilling onto every level.
It is the natural break in a shopping afternoon: you can see everything on offer from the ground floor before committing, which is more than most of Soho allows.
Liberty, at the top of the street
Liberty sits on Great Marlborough Street at the northern end, in the mock-Tudor building that everyone photographs. It is technically not on Carnaby Street, and it is unmissable anyway. The fabric department and the beauty hall are worth the detour even if you buy nothing.
How do I get there?
- Nearest tube
- Oxford Circus, three minutes' walk, on the Central, Bakerloo and Victoria lines. Piccadilly Circus is a similar distance from the southern end.
- When to go
- Weekday mornings for browsing, late afternoons for the courtyard. Saturdays are busy and loud, and good fun if that is the mood you are in.
- How long you need
- Two hours to do the main street and Newburgh Quarter properly. Half a day if you are eating.
- What else is close
- Regent Street is one block west, Soho proper begins immediately south across Beak Street, and Oxford Street is two minutes north if you need a chain.
Go, if you have the afternoon
Carnaby rewards the walk. The lanes are the point, Kingly Court is worth an hour on its own, and nothing online replaces finding something in a window you were not looking for.
Most of us do not have the afternoon.
STREET brings the street's independents to your door. Browse what they actually have, buy from the ones nearest you, and it comes to you instead. Carnaby and the wider Soho estate are in our first launch area.
Go when you can. We will cover the weeks you cannot.
Join the waitlistNearby guides
Marylebone High Street is fifteen minutes north and a great deal calmer. Battersea Power Station is the opposite kind of place in every way: one building, designed, and indoors.