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By Michael Holden
LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Terence Conran, a renowned
designer and restaurateur credited with modernising British
retail and decor, has died aged 88, his family said on Saturday.
Conran made his name in the 1960s with the Habitat
home-furnishing store, known for its contemporary pine
furniture, brightly coloured fabrics and tasteful kitchenware
which proved a big hit with the public.
He went on to become chairman of the Storehouse Plc retail
group which included other well-known British high street shops
such as Mothercare and British Home Stores.
Also passionate about food, his first restaurant, The Soup
Kitchen, opened in London in 1953, and he went on to open many
more in the capital including Le Pont de la Tour, Quaglino's and
Mezzo, with his restaurant interests also ultimately stretching
from Paris to New York 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, which
Conran founded.
"He changed the way we lived and shopped and ate."
His family echoed this.
"He was a visionary who enjoyed an extraordinary life and
career that revolutionised the way we live in Britain," it said
in a statement.
ALL ABOUT DESIGN
Conran studied textile design at the Central School of Arts
and Crafts in London and launched Habitat in 1964, dreaming of
providing well-designed goods for ordinary people.
A single store in west London grew into a national and
international chain. He opened his first The Conran Shop, which
also focused on furniture and home decor, in 1972 and was
knighted 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," he wrote in a Q&A for the Design
Museum's website, crediting his mother a major inspiration.
"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."
His business enterprises were not always a success and in
1990 he stepped down as chairman of Stonehouse which sold the
loss-making Habitat chain two years later to Swedish rival IKEA.
He turned his back on the mass market to focus on his
upmarket retail stores and restaurants.
(Reporting by Michael Holden
Editing by Frances Kerry and Pravin Char)
