Liberty London Christmas: The Good Ship Liberty and the Elf Workshop Windows

A wooden ship hangs in the middle of Liberty, its hull lettered The Good Ship Liberty. Gift boxes are stacked on its deck, and Christmas trees hang and stand around it.

Liberty London Christmas in 2025 was called The Making of Christmas, and it marked the shop's 150th year. Liberty opened in 1875, and the scheme went up on 7 November 2025.

This page covers the ship, the four elf workshop windows I photographed and the galleries around the atrium. For the wider picture, see my ranking of the best Christmas lights in London. Entry to the shop is free, and the ship can be seen from the ground floor.

What Is the Good Ship Liberty?

The Good Ship Liberty is a handcrafted ship that hangs above the shop floor in the central atrium. The hull is dark wood, with the name lettered on the side. The deck is mint green, with round gold ornaments that look like ship's wheels and suns.

At the bow, a small fir tree hangs from the hull on a ribbon. A tote bag hangs from the keel on a cord, and a full-height tree stands on the floor below. Behind it, the atrium rises to a glass roof, with a lighting truss fixed near the top. At the rails, people lean out to photograph it.

Liberty says the ship was inspired by the gilded weathervane on its roof, a model of the Mayflower. The ship is crewed by elves, and small figures in blue and white sit on the deck and in the rigging.

The sails are painted with a sun and clouds in blue and purple. From the upper galleries you look down onto the sails and the stacked presents, which is the view I liked best.

From above, the ground floor looks like a model. There are tables of shoes and handbags, a red patterned carpet under the ship and small trees between the displays.

A ship suits this building. The shop reused oak from two warships, and the weathervane on the roof is a ship too. The elves' vessel is a playful version of something the building already carries.

The ship had to fit the building. Liberty says it was made in pieces that could pass through the shop's small doors, and it was put together overnight.

Liberty London Christmas: The Making of Christmas Scheme

Liberty made the 2025 scheme in-house. Its visual concepts team, led by Lisa Clemenger, worked with Studio Xag and Plunge Creations. Planning began in August, according to Liberty.

The idea was a workshop where Christmas is made. Liberty describes the setting as a chaotic and joyful workspace for elves. Managing director Sarah Coonan called the campaign a love letter to making.

The gold cogs in the windows echo the gold wheels on the ship's deck, so the scheme reads as one idea from the street to the atrium.

Plunge Creations made about 25 elves, mixing hand-sculpting with 3D printing. Each has a hand-carved body and hand-painted details. They wear Liberty fabric and leather boots, and they have nail-polish eyes.

Retail Gazette lists Mulberry, Loewe, Farm Rio and Liberty's own label among the brands in the windows.

The Elf Workshop Windows

Liberty's windows show elves at work in different workshops: setting stones, sketching and stitching, mixing scents, making lotions and preparing bedding. I photographed four windows.

The first window has a green writing desk, with gold rings and chain links hanging in front of it. The caption on the glass points to the ground-floor department it belongs to.

In the red-shelved window, books and handbags sit between gold sun-shaped cogs, and a small elf hangs in front of the shelves. I think this is the atelier, but I have not matched it to Liberty's list.

Another window has green plates on shelves, a rack of perfume bottles and a round glass flask, with wrapped presents on the counter. It fits the fragrance laboratory or the apothecary.

The bedding window has a bed covered in green patterned cloth, with an elf sitting on the cushions. A caption in the corner refers to modern collectibles inspired by 150 years of heritage.

Small pink tags hang from the presents in the windows, and wrapped gifts sit in every corner.

Gold cogs and pulleys run through all four windows, so they read as parts of one machine.

What Does the Atrium Look Like at Christmas?

The shop is built round three light wells, with galleries on every floor. For Christmas, each gallery has a paper garland in red or turquoise, and strings of lights run along the carved oak balustrades.

Two glowing chandeliers made of round shell-like discs hang beside the garlands. The red and turquoise paper looks very bright against the dark oak. On the floors above, people crowd at the balustrade, with more garlands running along the gallery behind them.

Visit London places the Christmas shop on the fourth floor, with baubles, decorations and gift edits. It says the shop opens in September, well before the windows go up.

On the shop floor, a market stall with a red-striped awning sells fabric figures, house-shaped boxes and stockings in floral prints. A mint-green ladder leans against it, on a red patterned carpet.

The display is free to see. Entry to the shop is free, and the ship, the garlands and the stall are all inside it during opening hours. The windows can be seen from the street. The ship and the galleries follow the shop's hours, which are 10am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and 12pm to 6pm on Sundays.

The upper galleries are the best place for the ship. Take the stairs or the lift to an upper floor, and look down. You do not need to buy anything.

A Short History of the Liberty Building

Arthur Lasenby Liberty opened the shop in 1875, with £2,000 borrowed from his future father-in-law. He wanted to create fashions rather than follow them. The Great Marlborough Street building opened in 1924, designed by the architects Edwin T. Hall and his son. Arthur Liberty died in 1917, seven years before it was finished.

Historic England lists it at Grade II*, since 14 December 1972, and describes it as Tudor Arts and Crafts in style. It reuses timber from two early 19th-century warships, HMS Hindustan and HMS Impregnable.

Liberty says the building cost £198,000. The ship HMS Impregnable alone supplied more than 24,000 cubic feet of old New Forest oak. The gilded copper Mayflower on the roof is over four feet tall and weighs 112 pounds.

Inside, galleries are arranged around three light wells, with oak staircases and a memorial to the shop's staff who died in the First World War. Outside, the façade has clustered brick chimneys and leaded casements.

The shop still sells its Liberty print fabrics and accessories, and Liberty says the elves' clothes are made from the fabric.

The three light wells were designed to feel like rooms in a house, with fireplaces and Arts and Crafts furniture. On the fourth floor the roofs are kingpost and hammerbeam, the timber styles of a medieval hall. That is the floor where Visit London places the Christmas shop.

A bridge of 1925 links the building to the Regent Street shop, with an ornate clock designed by a chairman of the British Horological Institute. So the ship in the atrium has company. Parts of the building itself came from warships.

More Christmas Around Regent Street

Liberty sits just off Regent Street, with Carnaby Street behind it. The street's own lights have a switch-on date, which my switch-on dates page lists only when the organisers have confirmed it.

For another set of windows, the Fortnum & Mason windows for 2025 are further south, on Piccadilly. Christmas in Mayfair covers the streets around Bond Street.

Visiting Liberty London: Practical Notes

📍 Where: Regent Street, London W1B 5AH. The Tudor building runs along Great Marlborough Street.

⏰ Opening: Monday to Saturday, 10am to 8pm; Sunday, 12pm to 6pm. Check Liberty's website for Christmas hours.

📅 Open days: The Making of Christmas went up on 7 November 2025. Check Liberty's website for the scheme in later years.

🎫 Admission: Free to browse the shop.

🚇 Getting there: Oxford Circus, on the Central, Bakerloo and Victoria lines, is the nearest station. Piccadilly Circus, on the Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines, is also close.

☕ Food: Liberty has a restaurant and a food hall, according to Visit London.

⏳ How long: Forty-five minutes is enough for the ship, the windows and the galleries. Allow longer to shop, or to look at the Christmas shop on the fourth floor.

📷 Best time: Visit London suggests weekday mornings to avoid the December crowds. Sundays open later, at 12pm.

🗺️ Nearby: Carnaby Street, directly behind the shop. Regent Street, where the Christmas lights hang above the road. Soho.

_______________________

Did you enjoy this article? If you'd like to contribute to the running costs of WithinLondon, click the button below:

All photos were taken by Ina/WithinLondon, unless stated otherwise.