THE first thing that hits you upon entering John Lobb’s is the delicious smell of shoe polish and leather. Unlike the scents of glossy designer stores, diffused to intoxicate you into a reverie of consumerism, this is genuine: the pots of polish are neatly stacked by the door and the tanned hides are piled upon a bench. It is the smell of quality and craft. What first appears to be an Edwardian parlour, with cabinets and curios, opens onto numerous work benches.
This is no glossy Mayfair showroom, displaying goods made elsewhere. It all happens right here at No 9, St James’s Street, before your very eyes—and the shop is busy, so much so that I feel vaguely guilty luring Jonathan Lobb, one of three brothers running the family-owned business,
