Oversized dinner plates where time has stood still

Once upon a time I made a regular pilgrimage to the Conran Shop in South Kensington to do my Christmas shopping.

And then I stopped. Going back, I instantly knew why: I had stepped into the Shop That Time Forgot, frozen somewhere between the boom years of Thatcher and Cool Britannia, when Philippe Starck was still design king.

In a strange way it is rather reassuring; the oversized dinner plates are the ones my wife and I considered putting on our wedding list. Starck is still much in evidence. You can buy his Sixties-style Eros chairs - once amusingly retro, but now just old hat.

At ?268 each, the chairs are teamed up with a table of unfinished ash (?1,650) by Sir Terence. The shop always gave the impression of being expensive, and still does. But that is not entirely fair. There are perfectly decent white bowls for ?3.50.

Will I be going back at Christmas? Unlikely. Sir Terence's ideas on design were incredibly influential, but they have perhaps had their day.

And if it's a museum you want, South Kensington has a couple of rather good ones up the road.