Habitat Ltd, furniture and household goods manufacturer and retailer: records

Samples of packaging (ca.1960 - ca.1991); display and handling manual (1960s); press cuttings and tearsheets (1963 - 1998); photographs by John Maltby (ca.1964); colour transparencies, negatives and slides, relating to Habitat events, premises, stores and staff (ca.1964 - ca.1994); press releases (1964 - 1972); Habitat catalogues for the UK markets (1964 - 1995); invitations, leaflets and press packs (1964 - 2000); annual reports and accounts (1965 - 1986); advertising records (ca.1966 - 1990); Cook's Diary containing recipes by Caroline Conran (1967 - 1983); Lupton Morgan catalogues (1968 - 1969); leaflets and publications produced by Habitat (ca.1969 - ca.1985); catalogues relating to Conran companies (1969 - 1994); promotion and display briefs (ca.1970 - 1994); in-house magazines (1970 - 1990); Clothes Line catalogues (1972 - 1973); Gardener's Diary (1973 - 1983); Habitat catalogues for French markets (1973 - 1994); display manager files (1977 - 1988); Conran catalogues for the USA markets (1979 - 1988); staff booklet (ca.1980s); brochure for stock flotation (1981); Habitat catalogues for Belgium (1982 - 1983); Seibu Habitat catalogues for Japanese markets (1982 - 1984); press office folders (1982 - 1990); colour transparencies, contact sheets, negatives and slides, relating to Habitat product ranges (1986 - 1998); audio and video tapes (1987 - 1994); Habitat catalogues for USA markets (1989 - 1993); press office files (1990 - 1994); visitors' books (1990 - 1995); posters (1990 - 1996); day files (1991 - 1992); papers relating to the Habitat 20th birthday celebrations in France and 30th birthday celebrations in the UK including cards, invitations and guest lists for parties (1993 - 1994); slides of Habitat products, stores and window displays (undated).

In 1957 Terence Conran founded the Conran Design Group , a design consultancy which also manufactured and marketed furniture for commercial and domestic use. The furniture produced was simple and modern but Conran felt that there were no appropriate retailers for it, so in 1964 he founded Habitat Ltd incorporating the company Habitat Designs Ltd . The first shop opened at 77 Fulham Road, London. Habitat sold its own furniture and household items as well as pieces by other manufacturers (especially French, Italian and Scandinavian). Conran's vision was to design and market simple, smart and reasonably priced furniture and household goods in a stylish open-plan store, in order to make shopping for the home an enjoyable and impulsive activity among the fashionable young. The success of the first shop enabled him to open a second shop on Tottenham Court Road, London and by the end of the 1960s there were five branches. Other stores opened in France and the USA in the early 1970s. By 1994 there were over 80 stores throughout the world. Habitat introduced its first catalogue in 1966 and in 1969 a mail-order service was launched. In 1981 Habitat was floated on the Stock Exchange and in 1982 it merged with Mothercare to form Habitat/Mothercare Group plc , which then merged with British Home Stores in 1986 to form Storehouse . In 1992 Storehouse sold Habitat UK and Habitat France to the Stichting Ingka which continues to operate the companies as separate divisions under the Habitat name.

This archive collection is available for consultation in the V&A Study Rooms by appointment only. Full details of access arrangements may be found here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/archives/.

Additionally access to some of these files may be restricted. These are identified at file level.

Gifts of Habitat Ltd, 1995, 1996 and 2000.

This online catalogue is a complete description of the archive to file level. A summary description is also included on the National Art Library computer catalogue, and in the published Guide to the Archive of Art and Design

For conservation reasons the photocopying of archival material is not permitted. Archives may be photographed for study purposes only, at the discretion of the archivist.

National Art Library information file.

Weaver, Ben. Habitat Designs Limited - lifestyle, retailing and the media 1963 - 1973. 1994. 149 leaves. Thesis (M.A.) Royal College of Art and Victoria and Albert Museum, 1994. Includes bibliography.

Willats, Stephen. The house that Habitat built. London: Habitat, 1989. [16] p., ill. ISBN 0948797304.

Habitat Ltd trade catalogues are available in the National Art Library.