Murdock London, the British gentleman’s grooming brand, opens its new London flagship store this Autumn 2015 in the heart of the West End in Brewer Street, part of the popular shopping district of the Crown Estate’s Regent Street Quarter.

The new location marks a significant milestone in the history of the brand. Founder and CEO Brendan Murdock, says: “Brewer Street has a fantastic place in the history of London. Home once to breweries, gin palaces and even a hunting ground within the Soho, It has always been a men’s haunt. This new flagship centres us in the heart of London’s Regent Street shopping district and marks Murdock London’s seventh and largest location across the city.”

Founded in 2006, Murdock London re-imagines the classic British barbershop experience for the modern gentlemen. The shops offer own-brand grooming products including cologne, skincare, beard and shaving – all manufactured in Britain – and provide a comprehensive range of traditional British barbering services and skin treatments from a highly skilled Murdock team.

Since first opening in Shoreditch, Murdock has successfully established itself as the city’s leading men’s grooming brand. Brendan has sought in his stores to create dynamic retail environments with a distinct whiff of history and a quintessentially British aesthetic. The stand-alone stores and concessions are the key to the brand’s success, and provide a platform for wider international distribution and online sales.

From the very beginning, Brendan has had a commitment to working with young, emerging talent and to celebrating London’s creative edge. Whether graphic artists helping with branding, interior designers or window dressers, the young, talented teams Brendan works with help him to achieve his desire to fuse the vibrancy of contemporary with a classic eye, in creating spaces where men feel comfortable.
This mission has been especially important in the Brewer Street flagship. Here, Brendan has worked closely with designer Erik Munro to create a space that nods to the area’s history while capturing a contemporary sense of men’s retail. Raised in the wild west of Canada, Erik spent years travelling the world in the fashion industry before landing in London and setting up Munro Design. He nurtures a love of nature, travel, textiles, architecture and graphic design through his varied projects. For Brewer Street, Erik has divided the space into two distinct rooms – the front for retail, the more discreet back for barbering – with a central 6-seater bar dividing the space. Customers are welcome to linger, drinking a coffee, beer or whiskey, reading the papers, charging their phones, or checking their messages.

Also key to Brewer Street’s aesthetic is the young British artist and interior designer, Luke Edward Hall. Brendan commissioned him to create six painted panels capturing a day in the life of the Murdock Man, which hang in the panelled barbering room. Luke, who studied menswear fashion at Central Saint Martins, has recently launched his own wonderful home accessories line. Luke’s illustrative style has a particularly old-school British feel – think Duncan Grant and Rex Whistler, though with a hint of Cocteau in there as well.

Anchored by its London locations that also include shops in Redchurch Street in Shoreditch, Monmouth Street in Covent Garden and concessions in Liberty and a number of Hackett stores, the Murdock grooming collection is now retailed internationally in New York, Paris and Hong Kong. This network of stores and stockists will now allow Murdock to begin its international expansion in 2016.

Design: Erik Munro
Photography: Toby Lewis Thomas