Sir Terence Conran

Sir Terence Conran s’est associé à Michel Besmond pour la création du restaurant design et contemporain l’Alcazar, à Saint Germain des Prés.
Il est également propriétaire de 11 restaurants à Londres et désormais dans d’autres villes européennes.
Petite biographie express de cet architecte, écrivain, designer, créateur et restaurateur de talent.
For most people, when the name Conran is mentioned, the thought of a grand, fairly posh restaurant probably springs to mind.
But style and food guru Sir Terence Conran is not just a restaurateur. He also wears many other hats. He is a furniture designer, entrepreneur, and property developer.
Conran has undoubtedly made a huge impact on London.
BibendumThe creator of huge restaurants and bars such as Bibendum, Mezzo, Zinc Bar and Bluebird, he is also the man behind Habitat, the home store. He was loved by the 60s generation for enabling them to make their homes look different from their parents.
But, who would believe that Conran’s rise to fame first started with the opening of a soup kitchen.
So, how exactly did Terence Conran become the success that he is today? Find out right here

• 1950s
At school, Conran was good at technical drawing, pottery and metalwork. He studied textile design at London’s Central School and, in 1952, at the age of 21, he set up a small furniture workshop delivering his own products via the Underground.
In the mid-1950s he opened the Soup Kitchen, his first restaurant. He opened three in London which were successful, and one in Cambridge. He continued to design and make furniture.
After a couple of years he sold out to his partner in the Soup Kitchens.
Soon after he opened London’s first open-air restaurant, The Orrery in King’s Road.
The Conran Design Group was founded, initially as an ancillary business to the furniture-making group.
As part of the regeneration of Butlers Wharf, on the south bank of the Thames, Terence opened Blue Print Café on the first floor of the building that houses the Design Museum.

• 1960s
In 1964, due to being disillusioned with retailers who refused to buy his furniture or to sell it with any confidence or imagination, Conran opened the first Habitat store, in Fulham Road.

• 1970s
Following its success, he spent the next 20 years developing an international chain of Habitat and Conran stores, which led him to millionaire status.
A unique source for stylish, practical and affordable design, Habitat introduced Britain to a range of French cookware, all displayed in a simple environment of white walls and quarry-tiled floors.
The shop was a huge success in London. The famous, including Beatles stars John Lennon, and the late George Harrison as well as Julie Christie bought furniture there.
Mary Quant designed the staff’s outfits and bought whole table settings of linen, crockery and glassware for her dinner parties.

• 1980s
In 1981, Habitat merged with Mothercare. Habitat/Mothercare embarked on a joint publishing venture with Octopus Books under the name Conran Octopus. The company produced books about interior design, cookery, gardening, crafts and decorative arts.
Habitat/Mothercare merged with British Home Stores to create a new parent company, Storehouse PLC, of which Terence became Chairman and Chief Executive.
The charitable Conran Foundation set up the Boilerhouse Project, a gallery and resource for students, designers and the public to stimulate design awareness and discussion, at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
In 1983, Conran was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours for services to British design and retailing.
In 1985, he set up a furniture-making company, Benchmark Woodwork Ltd.
In 1987 the Boilerhouse Project became the Design Museum at Butlers Wharf by Tower Bridge.

• 1990s
The Habitat/Mothercare merger group broke up and Habitat was sold to Ikea in the early ‘90s.
Sir Terence conran : Meet the man who put London (and Paris) on the culinary map.
In 1991 Conran opened Le Pont de la Tour.
Conran formed a new design consultancy, CD Partnership, by the amalgamation of Conran Roche with a team of interior designers. It later changed its name to Conran & Partners.
Coq d’Argent opened towards the end of the 90s.
Conran also opened new Conran stores in Tokyo, Fukuoka, Hamburg, Berlin, Dusseldorf and Paris, where he also owns the huge brasserie Alcazar.
The Terence Conran Shop in New York also opened as part of the Bridgemarket redevelopment under the 59th Street Bridge.

• 2000
Guastavino’s and Club Guastavino opened as part of the Group’s presence in the renovated Bridgemarket development in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Great Eastern Hotel opened, a joint venture between Conran and Wyndham International. Conran Restaurants is responsible for the management and running of the four restaurants and three bars within the hotel.
2001
New restaurant in Glasgow