Claire de Rouen reconfigured London’s cultural landscape when she opened her eponymous bookshop above a Soho sex shop in 2006. At the time, the space was an anomaly – a place for rare photography, fashion and art books, magazines, and ephemera, where famous names were stocked next to relative unknowns, and Central Saint Martins students hunted for their next creative inspiration on the shelves at the same time as people like Alexander McQueen and Bruce Webber. In short, it was a vibe – one heightened by de Rouen herself, who cut an unforgettable figure behind the till with her signature razor-cut bob, Alaïa outfits and beloved pug, Otis, by her side.
De Rouen passed away in 2012, but the shop has remained, first under the stewardship of Lucy Kumara Moore who oversaw Claire de Rouen’s move to Bethnal Green, before she handed it over to Chantal Webber and Dominic Bell of Webber Gallery in 2023. Now, to celebrate the store’s twentieth anniversary, Clare de Rouen is opening a new space in Shoreditch that will carry on the shop's legacy, while also expanding its offering with a larger catalogue and rich exhibition programme.
Claire de Rouen in Shoreditch
Since de Rouen’s passing, those who have taken it over have been fastidious about retaining the ethos and atmosphere of the original shop – although look closely and you’ll see each iteration has its own unique bent. For de Rouen, the store was a love letter to photography, and she used the shop and her gallery, Exit Gallery, to promote names like Tyrone LeBon and Bruce Webber. Under Kumara Moore, the shop honed its fashion offering and developed its range of female voices. And with this new space, Webber and Bell plan to cultivate the space’s role in London’s creative scene, bringing in new and established names to give talks, display their artwork, and hang out in the space's comfy lounge chairs (curated by Monument Gallery).
‘We’ll flux between established and emerging artists, stylists, and art directors, with a focus on the London scene,’ says Bell. ‘I think particularly in fashion photography, the mass exodus after Brexit to Paris and Milan has left London feeling a bit more open and free creatively. Things have become a bit more punk, a bit more DIY, and out of that, I think you always get the best change.’
For Bell and Webber, the new Claire de Rouen will be an incubator of this new, exciting era of London creativity, which harks back to the city as it was when de Rouen first opened the shop. Even the architecture of the Kingsland Road shop lends itself to the feeling of old London, resurrected. Before becoming Claire de Rouen, the space was a tattoo parlour, and, before that, an artist-run video store called Today is Boring. Located under an Overground track, the store’s grated windows look out onto Jaguar Shoes (a staple of early-2000s East London nightlife) and The Bridge, a tchotchke-filled espresso martini bar that recalls Dickens-era coffee houses.
Inside, the new Claire de Rouen has a labyrinthine feel with a hidden staircase and multiple rooms. ‘I want it to feel like the space itself was an archive,’ says Bell. ‘We’ll display pieces from past 20 years, including photographs from the store at Charing Cross Road, old business cards, the original neon signs, and amazing posters. I think that's really important to present the history of how long Clare de Rouen has been a part of the city.’
Indeed, Claire de Rouen was a first-of-its-kind art bookshop that is now becoming an increasingly common feature of the London landscape. Places like IDEA, Climax Books, and Studio Nocturne are just a few of the bookshops born from the foundation de Rouen, places where art directors, photographers, and all other manner of creatives go to find inspiration free from an algorithm, encounter like-minded individuals, and help keep print alive and well.
Claire de Rouen, 11a Kingsland Road, London E2 8AA.
For more recommendations for what to do in and around the city, pick up the Wallpaper* guide to London.