If you take a walk around the City of Westminster, you may notice something unusual about the lampposts lining every street. Painted in gold on a background of black, the unmistakeable shape of the Chanel logo — two interlocking letter Cs — appears on post after post. Is this architectural detail really a homage to the iconic French designer? Or is it just a very fashionable coincidence? Before we answer that, a little back story on Chanel’s deep and well-documented links with London.
Coco Chanel is of course primarily associated with Paris. Her apartment was located above her couture house on Rue Cambon, in one of the city’s most rarefied districts. Paris is where her collections were launched, where she worked from her atelier, and where she died, aged 87, in 1971.
But the influential designer also had strong ties with Britain — and British aristocracy in particular. As well as well-documented associations with Winston Churchill, Edward Prince of Wales and other members of the royal set, Chanel was in a romantic relationship with Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, the second Duke of Westminster, for a full decade.
The Duke was reportedly besotted with Chanel. Legend has it that as a token of his devotion, all the lampposts in Westminster were embossed with her CC logo in gold, alongside his W crest — W for Westminster. The story goes that this was a precursor to a marriage proposal, which Coco declined with one of fashion history’s most celebrated put-downs: “There have been many Duchesses of Westminster, but there is only one Chanel.” Their affair ended in the early 1930s, and the Duke was said to be left heartbroken.
The truth, unfortunately, is rather less cinematic. Chanel herself denied ever delivering that famous line, saying of the Duke: “He would have laughed in my face.” And while he did gift Chanel with land on the French Riviera, the lampposts of Westminster have no connection with their relationship whatsoever.
Westminster City Council has a far more prosaic explanation: CC simply stands for City Council. “It’s a nice idea, but no,” said Martin Low, then Commissioner of Transportation for the council. “The lampposts didn’t actually get installed until the 1950s” — long after the affair had ended and well into an era of municipal infrastructure rather than grand romantic gestures.
Another fashion legend quashed. But Coco’s spirit still lingers unmistakably in London. Her flagship boutique at 158–159 New Bond Street in Mayfair — a sweeping 12,000 square foot space designed by architect Peter Marino, with a Jean-Michel Othoniel pearl sculpture at its heart — is one of the grandest retail experiences in the city. And in 2025, Chanel moved its global headquarters to 38 Berkeley Square, also in Mayfair, cementing London’s place at the very centre of the brand’s modern story. Lampposts or not, the connection runs deep.
