Conran's first professional work came when he worked in the
Festival of Britain (1951) on the main
South Bank site. He left college to take up a job with
Dennis Lennon's architectural company, which had been commissioned to make a 1/4-scale interior of a
Princess Flying Boat. Shortly after the Festival ended, Conran was laid off and started focussing on furniture and fabric designs for David Whitehead. He worked with his friend
Raymond Elston, who had some knowledge of welding and making clothes. In May 1953, Conran, his friend
Eduardo Paolozzi and Elston were invited to take part in the
Third Weekend Exhibition of abstract art, organised by
Adrian Heath in his studio at 22 Fitzroy Square, London. Conran showed some furniture: "
a low table, a stool, a dining table and an upright chair - all in his familiar spindly-leg style"; Paolozzi some collages, and Elston some mobiles. Conran started his own design practice in 1956 with the Summa furniture range and designing a shop for
Mary Quant. In 1964, he opened the first
Habitat shop in
Chelsea, London with his third wife Caroline Herbert, focusing on housewares and furniture in contemporary designs. Habitat grew into a large chain, the first retailer to bring such designs to a mass audience. included the Conran Shop and FSC-certified (
Forest Stewardship Council) wood furniture maker Benchmark Furniture, which he co-founded with Sean Sutcliffe in 1983. He was also involved in architecture and interior design, including establishing the architecture and planning consultancy Conran Roche with
Fred Roche in 1980. Their projects include
Michelin House (which he turned into the restaurant Bibendum) and the
Bluebird Garage, both in Chelsea. Conran had a major role in the regeneration in the early 1990s of the
Shad Thames area of London next to
Tower Bridge that included the
Design Museum ( now relocated to Kensington ). His business, Conran and Partners, is a design company comprising product, brand and interior designers and architects, working on projects all over the world. Conran designed furniture for
Marks & Spencer,
J. C. Penney, Content by Conran, Benchmark, and The Conran Shop. Conran's architecture and design practice also worked on projects in North America and Asia. In 2009, he licensed the Conran Shop to a partner in Japan. In September 2014, Cassina IXC Ltd acquired the entire business of The Conran Shop in Japan where it still thrives with four stores. In 2019, the Conran Shop opened in Seoul, South Korea. In 1997 he appeared as himself in “In the Smoke”, S5:E7 of
Pie in the Sky.
Restaurants Besides Bibendum, Conran, with Joel Kissin, created many other restaurants in London and elsewhere. In 2005, he was named as the most influential restaurateur in the UK by
CatererSearch, the website of
Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine. In 2007, 49 percent of the restaurant business was sold to two former managers, who rebranded it as
D&D London. In 2008, he returned to the restaurant business on a personal basis by opening Boundary, a restaurant, bar, café, and meeting room complex in
Shoreditch,
East London. This was followed in 2009 by Lutyens, a restaurant and private club within the former
Reuters building in
Fleet Street London. In 2018, Lutyens, together with two other related restaurants, closed as Conran's hospitality venture with Peter Prescott went into administration.
Books He wrote over 50 books which broadly reflect his design philosophy, The majority of these books were published by
Conran Octopus, a division of
Octopus Publishing Group, a cross-platform illustrated-book publisher founded by Conran and
Paul Hamlyn.
Honours and awards Conran was appointed
Knight Bachelor in the
1983 New Year Honours and
Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the
2017 Birthday Honours for services to design. He was a winner of the
Chartered Society of Designers Minerva Medal, the society's highest award. Between 2003 and 2011, Conran was
provost of the
Royal College of Art. In 2003, he received the
Prince Philip Designers Prize in recognition of his lifetime achievements in design. In 2010, Conran was appointed a
Royal Designer for Industry by the
Royal Society of Arts. He won the Lifetime Achievement Award at
The Catey Awards in 2017. In 2019, Conran was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Furniture Makers’ Company, the City of London livery company and charity for the furnishing industry.
Academic honours In 2007, he received an honorary degree from
London South Bank University and, in August 2012, an honorary doctorate from the
University of Pretoria. In May 2012, he received an honorary professorship from the
University for the Creative Arts. ==Personal life==