Angela Flanders

Angela Flanders found the shop in the spring of 1985, in a derelict Victorian building on Columbia Road, and restored it herself. She began making perfume properly in 1995, in her sixties, and was still working when she died in 2016 at 88. Her daughter, Kate Evans, has run the house since; she has been a director of the company since it was incorporated in 2012, so the handover was a continuation rather than a rescue.

This is not a multi-brand shop. Almost everything on the shelves is theirs: around thirty-five fragrances across five collections - Atelier, Artillery, Florale, Noire and Signature - plus candles, diffusers, room sprays and burning oils. The only outside names are a few bath and body lines. That makes it one of the very small number of places in London where the perfume, the perfumer and the counter are the same address.

The work has been recognised beyond the street: Precious One won Best New Independent Fragrance at the 2012 FiFi Awards, and Angela made it for Kate - the daughter who now runs the house. There is also an archive collection, which for a house of this age is a real one rather than a marketing device.

One practical note that catches people out: it opens Thursday to Sunday only, with Sunday hours built around the Columbia Road flower market (9am-4pm). Go on the Sunday. The market is the reason the shop is where it is.