Maison Assouline: defying conventions in a temple of good taste

By the side of one of the capital's busiest thoroughfares, next to a Christopher Wren church, is a building that defies explanation.

Its appeal is not just its architecture – built in 1922, the red brick and Portland stone of 196b Piccadilly sits in harmony with its surroundings – but its unusual and captivating contents.

Maison Assouline is an art gallery, bookshop, cafe, museum, cocktail bar and cabinet of curiosities all rolled into one. Or, as the Daily Telegraph describes it, a "hushed temple of considered taste".

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The place was opened three years ago by Prosper and Martine Assouline, the founders of the luxury book publishers Assouline, which produces sumptuous coffee table books on such subjects as fine wines, vintage cars, luxury hotels and haute couture.

"We love and believe in books more than everything else," they say, "but we also want to extend our vision to create all that can be expected in a chic and personalised library, from beautiful books and special editions to luxury gift items, unique library accessories, and now a complete turnkey collection of stylish furniture."

The books and luxury gifts take up most of the double-height ground floor, above which is a series of showrooms of various styles and sizes.

They house an ever-changing collection of furniture, art works and exotic curiosities, including vintage luggage trunks and a collection of books, rugs and trinkets glorying under the title of "Ottoman chic".

"We could spend hours browsing their coffee table book selection, exploring their cabinet de curiosites" or browsing through the "selection of luxury library furniture and decor", says Suitcase magazine.

And hours more, presumably, in Maison Assouline's Swans Bar, which occupies a corner of the ground floor, screened off from the hubbub of commerce by tall, well-furnished bookshelves.

The menu is as carefully curated as the rest of the exhibits. It features Fillet Tolstoy salmon, described as "the world's most exquisite smoked salmon", and L'Ami Louis foie gras.

A small but decent wine list is supplemented by a selection of classic cocktails.

"Treat yourself to one of their Dammann Freres teas (established in 1692) with canneles [mini pastries] and madeleines de Proust," says the insider's guide to London, A Little Bird. "It all feels terribly chic."

Maison Assouline, 196a Piccadilly, London W1. Open 10am to 8pm