London has fallen off the international design community's radar and must fight to reclaim its position as a global design destination, according to Alex Tieghi-Walker, the new curator of Brompton Design District for this year's London Design Festival. The Welsh gallerist, who runs the popular New York design gallery Tiwa Select, believes the British capital has lost much of its international appeal in recent years.
"People don't necessarily see the UK as being very sexy," Tieghi-Walker joked during an interview. He hopes his international programming will help reestablish London as a key stop on the global design calendar, which has been increasingly dominated by Milan, Copenhagen, and Paris. "I would love to hear my peers in New York be like 'we're going to the London Design Festival this year' in the same way that they do with Salone," he explained.
Tieghi-Walker brings an outsider's perspective to the role, having moved to the United States in 2016 after working in London's publishing scene at Wallpaper and later at Dazed. He's taking over the curator position from Jane Withers, who held the role for 18 consecutive years. His programming reflects this international viewpoint, bringing together global voices including American designer Tione Trice and Tbilisi's Rooms Studio, alongside rising London stars like Charlotte Taylor and Andu Masebo.
The curator argues that London's recent struggles are partly due to Brexit, which took effect shortly before the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. "With Brexit, the UK lost a lot of creative energy," Tieghi-Walker said. "It was amazing to live in my twenties in a city that was so open, where we had students, designers and artists from all over Europe flocking to live in the UK." The numbers support his concerns: while London Design Festival celebrated a record 600,000 visitors from more than 75 countries in 2019, attendance dropped to just 506,000 people in 2024.
The festival has also lost several key components in recent years. Major trade fairs like Design Junction and the London Design Fair have shut down entirely, while the Decorex interior design show moved to October. "Post-Brexit, you sort of see the creativity shifting to other cities," Tieghi-Walker added. "And it's like, I love that Paris is having its moment right now, but as someone from the UK, it breaks my heart."
Interestingly, Tieghi-Walker notes that his adoptive home of New York faces similar challenges. The city's design week has historically failed to draw huge international crowds, a situation that has been made worse by recent trade policies. "New York design week somehow also falls under the radar internationally, which I think is a real shame," he explained. "As a gallerist living in New York City, it's difficult for me to show artists who aren't based in America because we've elected a freaky government that has made shipping harder and added tariffs and all sorts of things."
Despite these challenges, Tieghi-Walker believes London's diversity gives it a unique advantage in rebuilding its international appeal. "It's a very exciting, dynamic city; it's incredibly multicultural; it's incredibly celebratory of different types of people," he explained. "Milan does feel very Italian in its presentation of design, whereas London is much more of a global city, and I think it has the opportunity to tell a much more global story about design."
With this vision in mind, Tieghi-Walker has set an overall theme for this year's Brompton Design District called "A Softer World," championing a less rigid, more craft-led approach to design. He's handed over the curation of various exhibitions to designers from different backgrounds, allowing them to spotlight younger, emerging talents from within their communities. Charlotte Taylor, for example, is bringing together 30 female designers for a group show set in a single bedroom, while Trice has teamed up with London fashion designer Ronan McKenzie to spotlight projects from the African diaspora in an old storefront.
"I was very excited when I was invited to curate, knowing that Brompton has spaces available that you can hand over to curators and really give them space to exhibit in a way that they might not be able to otherwise," Tieghi-Walker explained. "I don't want this to be necessarily the same voices that Londoners are hearing over and over again. I want visitors to the Brompton Design District to be exposed to as many stories, as many perspectives as they can."
Many of this year's shows are set within unconventional spaces across the district, including a former bank, Brompton Cemetery Chapel, and two historic mixed-use buildings on Thurloe Place from the early 20th century. "The design world can be so insular; I really wanted to expand it," Tieghi-Walker said. "In the past, I feel with events I've been to at LDF or during New York design week, they're just taking place in galleries, which is sort of where you're seeing those works anyway."
As a self-taught gallerist, Tieghi-Walker often highlights similarly autodidactic makers who blur the boundaries between design and craft. He recently premiered a series of hand-painted lights by British designer Faye Toogood through his Tiwa Select gallery. This same disregard for traditional boundaries extends to his Brompton District curation, where Norwich-based OTZI Studio is presenting furniture made from regenerative British pasture leather and Purdy Hicks Gallery is showing 19th-century photographs by PH Emerson documenting agrarian life in eastern England.
"I didn't want this to necessarily be design, design, design," Tieghi-Walker said. "I wanted to factor in the history of design and how we got to where we are, which was through craft, and to celebrate the more handmade elements of design. But why limit design to sleek chairs and light fixtures? I love the blurriness." The London Design Festival takes place from September 13 to 21, 2025, offering London a chance to prove it can once again compete on the international design stage.
