One of my favourite Disney movies is Cruella – the 2021 version starring Emma Stone and Emma Thompson. It vividly conjures up quintessential 1970s London through fashion, visuals and music, which would have been a fascinating time to witness.

In the movie, Cruella, known as Estella at that point, fulfills her dream of becoming a fashion designer at Liberty of London, a real life luxury department store on Great Marlborough Street in Soho – here’s some footage of her first day. In the 1970s it was known as Liberty of London, but has since been rebranded to Liberty London.

We had the opportunity to check out the amazing Liberty London building while we were exploring London's West End. It was as impressive as it was on the movie – massive, grand and imposing, yet elegant and ornate at the same time. It was actually difficult to photograph because it takes up almost the whole block and has a constant stream of traffic passing by out the front. 

Founded by Arthur Lasenby Liberty in 1875, Liberty London started out on nearby Regent Street, then moved into this purpose built ‘Tudor revival’ style emporium in 1924. I was surprised at the building’s age – I thought it would be much older, based on other Tudor style buildings we had seen on our trip (for reference, the Tudor period was 1485 to 1603).

Arthur Liberty had an interest in ships, and fittingly, the Liberty building was constructed from timber salvaged from two 19th century naval ships. There is also a brass ship weathervane on its roof that stands four foot tall and is modelled on the Mayflower, which voyaged to America in 1620 (see image 7).