Souvenirs from London

London has traded tea for over 300 years: Twinings has sold it from the same Strand doorway since 1706, and Fortnum & Mason blends its own at Piccadilly. Loose-leaf blends in a branded tin travel well and last. Supermarket teabags in a London-themed box are the tourist version.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: Twinings, 216 Strand; Fortnum & Mason, 181 Piccadilly (tea counter on the ground floor).

Tea needs a biscuit. Fortnum & Mason's biscuits come in collectable tins that are reused long after they are empty, and the Piccadilly store opened a biscuit room, the Biscuitorium, in May 2026. Shortbread is Scottish rather than a London speciality; tins at airport and souvenir stalls are usually mass-produced.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: Fortnum & Mason, 181 Piccadilly (Biscuitorium); the Royal Collection shop on Buckingham Palace Road also sells biscuits.

London Dry is a gin style, not a place of origin, but the city has distilled gin for centuries and small distilleries have returned since Sipsmith opened in 2009. Look for bottles actually distilled in London. Note the Beefeater distillery in Kennington closed to visitors on 1 January 2026; gin is still made there.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: Sipsmith distillery in Chiswick (booked tours, 18+); London gins in the Fortnum & Mason wine and spirits department.

A sensible buy in a rainy city. James Smith & Sons has made umbrellas and walking sticks in London since 1830, and its Victorian shopfront on New Oxford Street is a sight in itself. Street-stall umbrellas with Union Jacks rarely survive a windy day.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: James Smith & Sons, Hazelwood House, 53 New Oxford Street (near Tottenham Court Road).

The bear from darkest Peru was named after the station where the Brown family found him, and his statue still sits on platform 1. The station shop is the only one in the world dedicated to him: soft toys in duffle coat and hat, books and jars of marmalade. Unlicensed look-alikes turn up at market stalls.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: The Paddington Bear Shop at Paddington Station (The Lawn), near the bronze statue; Hamleys on Regent Street also stocks him.

In the books, the Hogwarts Express leaves from Platform 9¾ at King's Cross, and the station now has a luggage trolley half-way into the wall and an official shop beside it: house scarves, wands, robes and sweets. The photo with the trolley is free if you take it yourself; expect long queues at busy times.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: The Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9¾, on the King's Cross station concourse (no train ticket needed).

Commemorative mugs, plates and tea towels for coronations and jubilees are a British tradition going back to Victoria. The Royal Collection Trust shops, whose sales support the royal art collection, sell fine bone china and gifts made for the palaces. Cheap King Charles masks and fridge magnets on Westminster stalls are the throwaway version.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: Royal Collection Trust shop, 7 Buckingham Palace Road (open daily), next to the King's Gallery shop.

The guardsmen in red tunics and bearskin hats outside Buckingham Palace are London's best-known soldiers, and painted metal toy soldiers of them are a classic collector's piece. Hand-painted figures from makers such as William Britain differ clearly from the light plastic ones sold in souvenir shops.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: The Guards Toy Soldier Centre at the Guards Museum, Wellington Barracks, Birdcage Walk (near St James's Park); Hamleys, 188–196 Regent Street, for soft guardsman toys.

Liberty, the mock-Tudor department store off Regent Street, has printed its own floral and paisley designs since the 1870s. Its fine Tana Lawn cotton is sold by the metre and made into scarves, wash bags and notebooks. A real Liberty fabric carries the Liberty name on the selvedge or label; the pattern alone is widely copied.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: Liberty, Regent Street (main entrance on Great Marlborough Street); fabrics in the haberdashery department.

The Tube's red-and-blue roundel, its map and the patterned seat fabric called moquette are London design classics. The London Transport Museum shop sells cushions, socks, bags and wallets in real moquette patterns, reprinted posters and roundel mugs. The roundel on a cheap T-shirt is unlicensed far more often than not.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: London Transport Museum shop, Covent Garden Piazza (no museum ticket needed for the shop).

Models of the red Routemaster double-decker, the red K6 telephone box and the black taxi are the classic London keepsake. Die-cast models with the right details and transport-licensed packaging last; the hollow plastic ones sold by the dozen on Oxford Street and Westminster stalls do not.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: London Transport Museum shop, Covent Garden (bus and Tube models); Hamleys, 188–196 Regent Street.

London has more Premier League clubs than any other city, among them Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham. A shirt bought at the club's own stadium shop is the real thing and can be printed with a name; market stalls sell copies at a fraction of the price.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: The Armoury at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium; the Chelsea Megastore at Stamford Bridge (both close or change hours on match days).