Sir Terence Conran Biography 2020

Sir Terence Conran was one of the world's best-known designers, retailers and restaurateurs. Born in 1931 he founded the Conran Design Studio in 1956 and in 1964 opened the first of the Habitat chain of home furnishing stores that revolutionised design on the British high street in the 60s and 70s and continued to expand its influence around the globe. Later he established The Conran Shop and opened stores in London, Paris, New York, across Japan and most recently in Seoul being the largest Conran Shop in the world.

In the Nineties Terence founded the Conran Restaurants group that opened iconic restaurants, hotels and bars in London, Paris, New York, Japan and Scandinavia including Quaglino's, Bluebird, Mezzo, Guastavino's and Le Pont de la Tour. He remains involved in restaurants through Bibendum in Chelsea and The Boundary in Shoreditch which includes a small boutique hotel with 17 individually designed bedrooms, three restaurants and bar spaces and a grocery, bakery & deli

Throughout his career Terence's companies have designed, owned and operated shops, restaurants, hotels, bars and cafés around the world as well as working across the fields of architecture, interiors, products and graphics. This diverse range of projects have all been driven by Terence's fundamental belief that intelligent design improves the quality of people's lives.

In 1989 he founded the Design Museum in London, the world's first museum dedicated to design which moved to larger premises in the former Commonwealth Building, Kensington, in 2016.

Today Terence designs furniture for Benchmark and The Conran Shop, and remains involved in the restaurant and hotel industry through The Boundary and Bibendum.

He has written over 50 informative books that broadly reflect his design philosophy and is an honorary professor of the University of the Creative Arts.

In 1983 Terence was knighted for his services to design in 1983 and in 2018 he was made a Companion of Honour by Her Majesty The Queen, one of the highest distinctions available in the United Kingdom.