Stress-free window shopping in London

Shopping for interiors trumps clothes buying for me any day — and one of my favourite places to browse is London’s little known Marylebone High St.

Full of design and interiors shops which I love to haunt in spring time, it’s very different to the general shopping experience in a city as big as London.

With its village feel — despite being a three-minute walk from noisy Oxford St — there’s a surprising number of French eateries for all-important pit-stops.

One is the dinky Orrery Epicerie serving coffee you could stand your spoon up in and which I find to be an effective mitigator of cranial dullness brought on by that extra thimble-full of wine the night before. It’s also where I plan my retail attack before launching on The Conran Shop next door.

Conran has three floors of modern furnishings, one-off vintage pieces, and accessories. Where once it failed to impress me with its soulless collections of furniture trying too hard to be cool, a recent refurbishment has brought about an engaging transformation.

Think luscious gem-coloured upholstery on elegant sofas and dining chairs, and the surprisingly chic combination of navy blue crockery and yellow water glasses. The stock is high end, no question — one of those navy blue side plates is £35 — but the ideas you can pick up here are free, plentiful, and inspiring.

Across the street is Skandium, my home interiors mecca, where everything is a perfect balance of practicality and loveliness. Just one object like a teapot could keep my home interiors habit and wallet satisfied for a long time.

Highlights are occasional furniture, lighting and general kitchenalia, but standout items include Arne Jacobsen ‘s coffee set which, like the stock in general, is pared-back simplicity. You get what you pay for here and the quality and design are excellent.

Bookworms — pass Daunt Books at your literary peril. No red signs here screaming “3 for 2 offer” but elegant archways swept with a black sign-writers brush to read, “Through to books arranged by country”, which are shelved along oak galleries under vaulted Edwardian glass ceilings and William Morris prints. Here you’ll find a considered, if not curated, interiors section and another on design.

Talks by well-known authors are also part of the Daunt culture: Just last Thursday it was Tracy Chevalier of Girl with a Pearl Earring fame chatting about her latest volume.

For workaday household linens, The White Company is the epicentre of all things pale and interesting in towels, table textiles, and bed linen, and where it’s impossible to resist fondling the cashmere throws and high thread count sheets.

Although the shop is very white and minimal inside, there’s something traditional about the products that suggests I should also add a picket fence round my house to match.

Designers Guild, on the other hand, is just a few doors along and has the same type of product offering but is more a nerve centre of colour. Lovely duvet covers in on-trend florals and gemstone hues strike a balance between taste and bright colours.

Wholesome, organic skincare product makers, Neal’s Yard, has branched into home fragrances based on natural essential oils. Most interiors shops on the street sell this type of thing but Neal’s Yard’s extensive range of oils has the edge.

Admittedly, they’re more expensive, not helped by a harsh exchange rate between the euro and sterling, but a little of this stuff goes a long way and doesn’t have synthetic oil added that can set off a migraine or watery eyes.

When lunch beckons, try the Natural Kitchen, a friendly, bustling delicatessen, café and take-away serving everything from soups and salads to complete hot meals.

Mixing food fashion with wholesomeness means you can have a bowl of nourishing bone broth or, as I chose, a seductively aromatic Moroccan sweet potato and chickpea soup, accompanied by a nod from the server to help myself from the contents of an old enamel bread bin.

This yielded two large chunks of excellent artisan quality crustiness which I sprinkled liberally with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar condiments which you’ll find on each table.

Marylebone High St is definitely not a tomato ketchup sachet type of place. Copmbing nourishment with style, Natural Kitchen is a delicious choice and also offers lovely home interior accessories on Marylebone High St.