‘We get the style set coming in on a Saturdays, cool couples in matching trainers and a dog,’ says Eddie Pendergast, a kid with a shiny new toy. And why shouldn’t he be grinning, his just-a-month-open store has swiftly gained a healthy slice of local consumer ker-ching. ‘Throughout the week it’s architects, the creative’s from Hoxton and Shoreditch, just look at those people going by. Is there a more diverse street in London?’
And he’s right. As we peer through the picture windows at the front of Pendergast’s latest venture, Present (launched with his business partner, Steve Davies), the view outside is almost comic in its clichés of urban cool. Dreadlocked skate kids in Keds and baggy Firetrap jeans dodging around vagrants and anxious City types who’ve slipped through the north edge of the Square Mile like spies under the Berlin Wall. And what they all do as they glide, amble or shuffle past the Present window is look inside.
Where they see Gwilm Davies, recent winner of the World Barista Championship (making him the best coffee maker in the world, indeed) holding court over his treasured La Victoria Arduino machine as it wafts the mouth-watering aroma of freshly brewed Arabica coffee. This neat placement of both talent and coffee ensures a tight knot of drinkers at the entrance intriguing passers by to head deeper inside the shop. ‘The action at the door is deliberate, it gets people interested to explore further,’ says Pendergast.
Where they find a surprisingly welcoming 1200 square foot industrial space. The floors may be poured concrete, but the mixture of period display cabinets and high tech metal and wood shelving softens the effect with the help of magazines like limited distribution Monocle, vintage Sex Pistol posters and handmade Ceri Trudon scented candles. Artfully worn-in Haversack tailoring from Japan (before sold only at Liberty), and Ramdane Touhami’s cult brand, Resistance R T with its clashing checked bombers and gilets with satin linings, compete with Davies’ own-design Tricker hybrid boots, the shop’s biggest hit so far. This is menswear as sensory overload – colour, aroma and detail grabbing your attention from every surface.
It’s the confidence with which Pendergast and Davies, who between them have over thirty five years in menswear design and retailing, mix up diverse elements at price points from the eye-watering to the every day (a cup of Gwilm’s coffee is a steal at £2.40 for a flat white) which will likely ensure their success. With a smart roster of brands lining up to join in the fun including Macintosh and a 600 square feet of basement about to be integrated into the retail space, this is no longer just the present but, indeed, the future too…
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