THIS WILL BE THAMES MMXX. 
A world to live in and delight in!

I’ve kept an ear to the ground for years for exactly the right shop. I wouldn’t waste anyone’s energy pursuing anything less, nor, being ultimately more stubborn than impatient, could I wholeheartedly bring myself to revisit the definition. In the meantime, we’ve created or gratefully accepted opportunities to build glimpses of our world in shops which already exist, and installed The Front Room, a booking-recommended space, in our second-floor, Monday-Friday studio. That’s been more than a stopgap, but this was fundamentally its intention, and after learning late last year that 53 Brewer Street might unexpectedly become possible, I could think of little else. 

53 Brewer Street was familiar to me, and not just because it’s 36 seconds away: there are only so many potential shops in potential Soho, there are even fewer on corners and junctions, which was essential, and there is just one with properly bowed windows for a front, which would be a very THAMES bonus, and this was my thinking, ringing the number on it in 2019, when such retail spaces still needed to advertise or come to market at all. I was told then very concisely that it had been taken, which was not such a blow, as the ask had only been out of curiosity anyway: I didn’t have anything to put in it. 

Seven years on, however, THAMES not only has stuff, but it has 𝘵𝘩𝘦 stuff; we have inadvertently vetted the will-be staff for years; they, in turn, have inadvertently prepared; and we are, I feel, simply ready to take this next step, and contribute more tangibly than ever to this city which will always be our home.