OCCUPATION: Creative Director and Owner, Couverture
MY STYLE: Understated, relaxed, playful, and comfortable with a love of texture and print. In my home, I favor comfort over stark minimalism. It’s calm with a mix of vintage and modern. Muted background tones with highlight colors or prints. Informal.
I LOVE LONDON BECAUSE: The choice and variety. There are endless possibilities of things to do, and so much inspiration and stimulation. For a city, there’s also an abundance of green space, which I can’t live without.
Granger & Co.
Before opening this outpost on Westbourne Grove, restauranteur Bill Granger was known for his casual restaurants in Japan and his native Australia. Based on his work there, The New York Times dubbed him the egg master of Sydney. The paper added that he dislikes the look of a capital ‘B,’ as well as apostrophes (Granger studied art before mastering brunch), but we’ll forgive him any eccentricities for a plate of those eggs! It seems Emily Dyson Paley feels the same. “Granger & Co. is light and cheerful, and easy yet exciting. It’s a real treat for everyone when my family eats here,” she says. Photos by Mikkel Vang
The British Museum
Despite its name, this museum, one of the city’s most grand, covers human history as it developed on all continents. It was established in 1753 and grew over the next centuries along with the British Empire. While the sun largely set on the British Empire, though, it did not on the British Museum. 2000 marked the opening of the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, which boasts an expansive glass and steel ceiling designed by Foster and Partners architects. “It’s a wonderful open, light space where the kids feel free,” says Emily Dyson Paley. Eventually, though, kids will want to leave the sunlit splendor to check out the Egyptian mummies.
Pollock’s Toy Museum
“If you love art, folly, or the bright eyes of children, speed to Pollock’s,” Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in Memories and Portraits. If the Treasure Island author had lived just a century longer, he could easily have been describing Pollock’s Toy Museum instead of Benjamin Pollock, the Victorian toy theater maker from whom the museum takes its name. Plenty of toy theaters are on display, as well as teddy bears, dolls’ houses, and toys from different countries and eras. “The building on Scala Street occupies two houses joined together,” says Emily Dyson Paley. “The rooms are small and connected by narrow, winding staircases, and the whole place exudes atmosphere and nostalgia.”
Couverture & the Garbstore
Two floors of Garbstore, a chic concept store in Notting Hill, sandwich that of its sister company, Couverture, which is owned by Emily Dyson Paley. Together, they’ve developed a cult status for carrying a pristinely-tailored selection of quality items from independent labels. From artsy-cool clothes for men, women and children to vintage jewelry to home décor, “there’s always something of interest,” says Dyson Paley. Her children, who love spending time at their parents’ shop, agree wholeheartedly!
Brown’s Hotel
An easy walk from Bond Street, Hyde Park, and countless other city landmarks, Brown’s Hotel is the perfect home base for making the most out of London. Alice Temperley adores the hotel’s afternoon tea, which includes 17 different brews alongside pastries, scones with clotted crème, and light sandwich fare. And while reservations are highly recommended for tea, anyone can dart into the Donovan bar for a drink, live jazz, and the pleasure of viewing photographer Terence Donovan’s iconic works on the walls.