Owners Rachel Wythe-Moran and Simon Watkins are both designers with fashion backgrounds who became frustrated with quick product turnovers and re-designs in the retail world. Out of their frustration came the concept for Labour and Wait to sell a collection of everyday classics that will not date but will mellow and only improve with age.
Timeless, high-quality, functional, and well-designed products line the walls of the shop located in an old Truman Brewery pub in Shoreditch. The products featured in the shop include cleaning supplies, kitchenware, stationary, and bathroom supplies. The products may appear retro but they are not retro to be trendy, rather they are retro in the sense that many products made today are made cheaply and are not meant to last. Labour and Wait is confident that their products are made to last and will become instant favorites.
Images: Claire Bock
Store History
- Founded: 2000
- Founded by: Rachel Wythe-Moran and Simon Watkins
- Headquarters: Shoreditch, London
Located in East London, Labour and Wait offers an evolving range of timeless, functional products for everyday life. Function, quality and good design are found in every product carefully curated in the shop.
Things Fall Apart: Living Alone in a Space After a Breakup
TVG LA's Massive Creative Hub
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Commercial Flour Sa...
10 Picnic-Ready Salads to Eat Outside
Recipe: Thai Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry
It's a great store and the buying is spot-on, but you might want to adjust your '$' rating up a notch.
L&W is an expensive store whichever way you slice it, as shown by those willing to pay what equates to $53 for a dustpan and brush that would cost under $25 at Home Depot.
Don't forget that L&W also occupy a rather fitting concession in one of London's most expensive stores, the Comme-Des-Garçons-owned Dover Street Market.
That looks like the kind of store I would love to browse, and I would probably end up buying something like a fancy dusting brush (per N/B).I know that because I recently bought two specialty dusting brushes (hand made, wood handle, animal hair brushes...for fine dusting of tchotchkes) because they were just so darned pretty and -- I admit it -- archaic.
The sell a bread box for 135 GBP. That's over $200. Your price guide seems a bit off.
The idea for this shop is great. The prices seem high, unless the products are all sustainable, artisan made, fair trade.. you know. Something that justifies the higher price.
I think they cost that much because they're curated.
Lots of what's available at Labour & Wait is pricey, but some things like the enamel bakeware, candles, and glass bottles are on par (price-wise) as Ikea. This place is especially good for simple things, even more so if you don't have a car and can't drive out to the superstores to buy goods on the cheap.