Leather Goods Shop in Mayfair From £195: Globe-Trotter

Globe-Trotter's London flagship is a three-storey leather goods shop at 60-61 Burlington Arcade, 51 Piccadilly, London W1J 0QJ, open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm and closed on Sundays. It sells suitcases made of vulcanised fibreboard finished with hand-stitched leather corners, straps and guides, plus a run of passport sleeves and card holders. The cheapest leather piece on the current list is the Jet Passport Sleeve at £195, while the Original Carry-On starts at £1,395. Green Park and Piccadilly Circus are the closest Tube stations.

The company dates to 1897, when David Nelken established Globe-Trotter in Saxony, Germany. In 1901 it patented the use of vulcanised fibreboard, a layered paper material that is light but very hard, and that patent still shapes every case it sells. Production moved to England long ago, and the brand says its cases are still made by hand there. The factory address on its contact page is on Bingley Road in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.

Its customer list is the reason people walk in to look. Globe-Trotter says Queen Elizabeth II was gifted one of its suitcases for her honeymoon in 1947, and that Sir Edmund Hillary carried one on his 1953 Everest expedition. Winston Churchill is named among the leaders who used the cases. The brand lists Daniel Craig, David Beckham, Kate Moss and Emma Watson as modern owners. None of this comes with a royal warrant, and the shop does not claim one.

Globe-Trotter first traded in Burlington Arcade from 2004 to 2014, then moved to Albemarle Street for a period. In 2020 it returned to the arcade at numbers 60 and 61, a move its own journal calls coming full circle. If an older guidebook sends you to Albemarle Street, ignore it. The current shop is the arcade unit, and its address on the official stores page reads 60-61 Burlington Arcade, 51 Piccadilly.

The building suits the product. Burlington Arcade was designed by Samuel Ware in 1818 and opened in 1819, and beadles in top hats still patrol it. Inside Globe-Trotter, the ground floor holds the cases and small leather goods. The shop also houses a repairs and personalisation workshop, and downstairs there is a Globe-Trotter bar. The arcade itself opens on Sundays, but this shop stays shut, so plan a Saturday visit if a weekend is your only window.

The Original Carry-On with four wheels, in brown fibreboard with brown leather and gold fittings, costs £1,395 and is the cheapest route into a full case. The Metropolis 24 Hour Carry-On in black with chrome fittings is £1,495. The Centenary Carry-On in oxblood with black leather corners and straps costs £1,895. At the top, the Crafted Carry-On in Sherry Red is £3,395, and the limited Aston Martin F1 AMR26 carry-on, numbered and made in a run of 100, is £2,795.

Smaller leather goods fill the lower shelves. The Original Document Sleeve in black is £395 and is marked handcrafted in Hertfordshire. The GT Passport Sleeve costs £250, the Jet Passport Sleeve in orange and London Stone is £195, and the Metropolis Credit Card Holder is £225. Our honest call is to skip that card holder if English making is the point of your visit. Its product page says it is handcrafted in Tuscany from Italian leather, so the Document Sleeve is the better English-made souvenir.

Personalisation is done in the shop. Customers choose the typeface, size and colour of their initials at the flagship, and the site says the work generally takes from one week. It does not publish a price for initialling, so ask at the counter when you choose your case. The website banner promises a five-year warranty, and the flagship offers in-store appointments for custom consultations if you want a colour combination outside the standard range.

Repairs are booked through the same shop. The site asks owners to book an appointment with the repairs specialist at the London flagship, which makes this the place to bring a scuffed corner or a loose strap. Return shipping after a repair costs £20 within the UK. Bring the case in person if you can, since the fibreboard corners and leather guides are easier to assess on the bench than over email.

The shop makes most sense for three kinds of visitor. The first is a traveller buying a first serious case, who can compare the £1,395 Original with the £1,895 Centenary side by side. The second is someone buying a wedding or graduation gift and adding initials, a fitting echo of the case Queen Elizabeth II received for her 1947 honeymoon. The third is a collector after the numbered Aston Martin run, which is capped at 100 pieces.

Come with a size in mind. Every case named above is a four-wheel carry-on, so check the carry-on rules of the airline you use most before you choose a colourway. If you only want a small leather keepsake, the passport sleeves are the quickest purchase and fit easily into a coat pocket. Arriving soon after the 10am opening on a weekday gives you the bay window and the staff largely to yourself, before the lunchtime arcade crowd.

Step out of the arcade onto Piccadilly and turn right for Hatchards at 187 Piccadilly. John Hatchard founded it in 1797, and it calls itself London's oldest bookshop. A few doors further, Fortnum and Mason at 181 Piccadilly was founded in 1707 by William Fortnum, a footman in Queen Anne's household, and his partner Hugh Mason. Its tea hall makes an easy stop if you want a gift to tuck inside a new case.

Across the arcade's southern entrance stands Burlington House, home of the Royal Academy of Arts, founded in 1768 under George III with Joshua Reynolds as first president. Its courtyard is free to walk into. If you want another leather maker afterwards, Swaine's flagship on New Bond Street is a short walk north and sells bridle leather briefcases and umbrellas, which makes a good comparison with Globe-Trotter's fibreboard.

Address: 60-61 Burlington Arcade, 51 Piccadilly, London W1J 0QJ. Hours: Monday 10am-6pm, Tuesday 10am-6pm, Wednesday 10am-6pm, Thursday 10am-6pm, Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday 10am-6pm, and Sunday closed. Tube: Green Park or Piccadilly Circus. Prices on the current list run from £195 for a passport sleeve to £3,395 for the Crafted Carry-On.

Book ahead for a repair or a custom consultation, since both run by appointment through the flagship. Allow at least a week for initials before a trip. The Karpo APP can suggest a lunch spot on Piccadilly or a quieter cafe in St James's while your case is being initialled, and help you line up other Mayfair leather shops for the same afternoon.