Leica has a new home in London. The company’s UK flagship now fills four floors of a Mayfair town house at 14 Dover Street, a few steps from Piccadilly. It takes over from the Duke Street store, which closes, while Leica Store Harrods carries on as before. And to mark the opening, Leica has asked a West London engraver to decorate just 14 examples of the Leica M-A . . .
Leica Store London Mayfair is open now, and it brings the number of shops Leica owns worldwide to 116. The store and gallery together cover 234 square metres. Dover Street is no ordinary address, either: the neighbours are fashion houses, fine-art galleries, smart restaurants and private members’ clubs.
Four floors of Leica
Leica describes the building as a store concept unique within its retail chain. Customer space runs across four levels and holds every one of the company’s product families under one roof. Cameras and lenses sit alongside sport optics, watches, home cinema projectors, Leica-branded phones and the pre-owned and vintage range.
The pre-owned and vintage range will interest many Macfilos readers. Classic and pre-owned Leica equipment has a permanent place in the new flagship. Several floors also include private rooms. Leica says these give clients a quieter, more discreet setting in which to try equipment, away from the main shop floor.
Light from above
Visitors arrive to see a curated wall of five photographs from the Leica Hall of Fame before moving through a ground floor given over to the brand’s story. The building’s centrepiece is an atrium running from the lower ground floor up to the first floor, open to the sky and bringing daylight deep into the store. Hanging inside it is an art installation commissioned for this site, intended to express the optical character of Leica glass.
The town house’s curved form carries through into the interior, with rounded fixtures, furniture and a curved seating area on the ground floor. Look closely, and you will also find references to Leitz Park in Wetzlar in the design of the bars and the main product vitrine.
On the second floor, window bays look out over Mayfair. They are there for trying on watches in natural light, according to Leica, or for testing a telephoto lens or a pair of binoculars on the street below.
A gallery downstairs
The lower ground floor houses a Leica Gallery. It will run a rotating programme of exhibitions by established photographers, along with cultural and artistic events.
The King Nerd M-A
To celebrate the opening, Leica is selling 14 special edition M-A cameras created with the British artist Johnny Dowell, better known as King Nerd. Johnny grew up in West London and has made his name by turning traditional hand engraving into a contemporary art form, with commissions for luxury, fashion and lifestyle brands as well as private clients. This is not his first Leica, either: he engraved a “Planet Earth” MP that went under the hammer at the Leitz Photographica Auction in 2023.
The new cameras carry engravings of the four national flowers of the United Kingdom — the English rose, the Scottish thistle, the Welsh daffodil and the Northern Irish blue flax. Each M-A comes with a Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH., painted to match, with a red distance scale and a completely blacked-out front. Camera and lens are sold together as a set, which goes on sale on 5 November at a recommended price of £15,800.
A London lineage
Leica’s London retail story has moved around Mayfair over the years, from Bruton Place to Burlington Arcade, and then to Duke Street, near Selfridges department store, which opened in 2019. Dover Street is the most ambitious step yet. It is also, appropriately for a launch built around 14 cameras, number 14 — the same number as the old Burlington Arcade shop.
Leica Store London Mayfair, 14 Dover Street, London W1S 4LW, is open from 10am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday. The telephone number is 020 7629 1351, and further details are on the Leica Store London Mayfair web page.
Further reading
| Macfilos Articles | Other Links |
|---|---|
| London Leica Store really is open, honest – The opening of the Duke Street store that Dover Street now replaces | Leica Store London Mayfair – Leica’s own page for the new store, with directions and opening hours |
| Leica opens new London store in prime area – Our report on the Burlington Arcade shop, another number 14 | Etched into Memory – Arts & Crafts on a Leica MP – Leica’s account of Johnny Dowell’s earlier engraved MP |
| Leica special editions – Macfilos coverage of Leica’s limited and special edition cameras | Engraving with Johnny Dowell aka King Nerd – An interview with the engraver on his craft |
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For a while Leica also had a City of London store which was located in the Royal Exchange. It was managed by John Murphy who is now in charge at the Milton Keynes branch of Wex.