Carnaby Street: Shops, Food and the Side Streets Worth Your Time

Carnaby Street is the pedestrian street between Regent Street and the heart of Soho, famous since the 1960s, and today it is less a single street than a small shopping district of several lanes, a three-floor food courtyard and Liberty's timbered store at its northern edge. The trick to enjoying it is to treat Carnaby Street as the front door and spend most of your time in the side streets.

The welcome arch over Carnaby Street. Photo: Carnaby London by SisterLondon (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons

Carnaby at a glance

• Where: Soho, W1F, running north to south between Great Marlborough Street and Beak Street, one block east of Regent Street.
• Nearest Tube: Oxford Circus is a few minutes' walk north, Piccadilly Circus a little further south.
• Traffic: none. The street was fully pedestrianised in 1973.
• Who runs it: most of the Carnaby area is owned by Shaftesbury Capital, which now markets it under its "This is Soho" brand.
• The side streets: Kingly Street, Foubert's Place, Ganton Street, Newburgh Street, Broadwick Street and Beak Street.

How it became famous

For most of its life Carnaby Street was an ordinary back street of workshops and small traders. That changed with one shopkeeper. John Stephen, a young Scot, opened his first menswear shop on nearby Beak Street in 1956 and moved to Carnaby Street the following year. Through the 1960s he built a chain of shops on and around the street, selling cheap, fast-changing clothes to young men, and by 1967 he ran 15 of them. The mods bought there in volume, the music press followed, and Carnaby Street became shorthand for Swinging London.

The Greater London Council began closing the street to cars from 1967 and finished the job in 1973. By then the boutiques were already giving way to souvenir shops, and for a couple of decades the street coasted on its name. The revival came with consolidated ownership and a deliberate mix of independent labels, flagship stores and restaurants, which is the Carnaby you see now. For the wider backstory of the neighbourhood, read our hidden history of Soho.

Where to shop

Carnaby Street itself

The main street is mostly brand flagships and concept stores: sportswear, streetwear, denim, beauty and accessories. It is a good place to see a label's full range in one shop, and it is busy from late morning. Go before 11am on a weekday if you want to actually browse.

Newburgh Street and Ganton Street

The quieter lanes to the west of the main street are where the smaller, more independent shops sit. Newburgh Street in particular still has the narrow, village feel the area had before the flagships arrived, and it is worth walking end to end even if you buy nothing.

Liberty

Liberty's store on Great Marlborough Street closes off the north end of the district and deserves its own visit. The building went up in 1924 in the Tudor Revival style, and its timbers came from two Royal Navy ships, HMS Impregnable and HMS Hindustan. Inside, the galleried atriums, the fabric and haberdashery floors and the beauty hall are the reasons people come. You do not need to be shopping to walk round it.

For the department stores and big names a few minutes away, our Oxford Street and Regent Street shopping guide picks up where this one stops.

Where to eat

Kingly Court is the obvious answer and a good one: a courtyard off Kingly Street with three floors of restaurants arranged around an open centre, so you can walk round and choose by looking. It works for a quick lunch, groups who cannot agree and a covered drink when the weather turns. Walk-ins are often possible at lunchtime; book for Friday and Saturday evenings.

Beyond the courtyard, Soho's restaurant streets start the moment you cross Carnaby Street heading east. Our lists of the best restaurants in Soho and cheap eats in Soho and Chinatown are the next step, and Soho's best cocktail bars covers the evening.

Christmas on Carnaby

Carnaby is known for its Christmas installations, which are hung above the street and change theme every year, rather than the traditional strings of lights you get on Regent Street and Oxford Street. The switch-on is usually in November. It is one of the most photographed streets in London in December, so expect crowds on weekend evenings and come on a weekday if you want to take pictures.

A two-hour Carnaby walk

1. Start at Oxford Circus and walk down Regent Street, turning left onto Great Marlborough Street.
2. Liberty for half an hour, starting at the top floor and walking down through the atriums.
3. Carnaby Street heading south, under the welcome arch.
4. Cut west onto Ganton Street and Newburgh Street for the smaller shops.
5. Kingly Court for lunch or a drink.
6. Finish on Beak Street, where John Stephen's first shop opened, and carry on east into Soho or south to Piccadilly Circus.

If you want to make a full day of it, our perfect day in Soho itinerary includes Carnaby, and the complete guide to Soho covers the rest of the quarter.

Sources

• This is Soho: Carnaby Street (Shaftesbury Capital), for the streets in the district, Kingly Court's three floors of dining and ownership
• Liberty: our heritage, for the 1924 Tudor Revival building and its ships' timbers
• John Stephen (Wikipedia), for his first shop on Beak Street, the move to Carnaby Street and the 15 shops by 1967
• The Swinging Sixties: Carnaby Street, for the street's 1960s history and pedestrianisation

Checked on 15 September 2026. Shops and restaurants in Carnaby change frequently, which is why this guide names streets rather than individual tenants; check opening hours before you travel.