Dirty is in her lover's arms, it is London in the morning

Word up, readers. A number of you have, in the past few months, written in asking for plus-size shopping recommendations in London. And each time I've lazily replied, with some hilarious comment about how I'll be sure to put up my answers on the site soon, totally look out for them, etc., etc. It took Miss J's fabulous and popular innovation, Ask TFFF, to spur me to action. That, and threats of violence.

Remember, we're weird here in the uck, as no-one pronounces 'UK', so you need to add two sizes to your US size to work out your UK size. E.g. US 16 is a UK 20. All the sizes in this post are UK.

Let's start with Zone 1's shopping hub, around the misery-fest of Oxford Circus and Bond Street tube stations...

High Street

Store: Primark
Flagship: Oxford Street
Tube: Marble Arch or Bond Street
Sizes: Up to 18/20, generous

High-street mecca for everyone because dresses cost £10! Knickers for a pound! Scarves, earrings and bags abound for a fiver! Definition of fast fashion, it's very trendy but very unethical, made by orphans in far distant lands, etc. But their stuff is totally cute, so...every cloud.

Store: Monsoon
Address: Oxford Street/London-wide
Tube: Oxford Circus
Sizes: 8-22.

Think 'Boho Luxe': lots of blouses and dresses, very silk/satin/embellished. They have lovely accessories and jewellery too, very affordable, and a sister shop called Accessorize which is (clue in the name...) accessories only.

Store: Evans
Address: Plaza Centre, Oxford Street/London-wide
Tube: Oxford Circus/Tottenham Court Road
Sizes: 16-32.

Great for knee-high boots with room in the calves. Owned by the same company as Topshop, it used to be terrible but it's getting better, though still quite polyester-focussed.

Store: Dorothy Perkins
Address: Oxford Street
Tube: Oxford Circus/Tottenham Court Road
Sizes: 6-22.

Marginally less cool than Topshop but also less expensive, owned by the same umbrella company. Cute tops and blouses, although it's somewhat mumsy -- think Marks and Spencer for old-before-their-time twenty-somethings. Uh, but you can find nice things if you have a rummage, and it's all in sizes 6-22, rather than a separate plus range. Plus Tall, Petite and Maternity ranges.

Store: New Look
Flagship: Oxford Street
Tube: Bond Street/Marble Arch
Sizes: Inspire Range, 16-26

The flagship is a walk-up with fabulous gold steps leading into HEAVEN: New Look has the BEST range of shoes on the high-street. That's fact, and not journalistic hyperbole. The clothes are so-so, but I've found some fab H&M-esque numbers there, and obviously OMG GILES DEACON!!! does a range. Walk right past the Lily Allen tat though.

Department Stores/Boutiques

Store: Base
Address: Monmouth Street, Covent Garden
Tube: Leicester Square/Covent Garden
Sizes: 16-28

Specialist plus-size only boutique.

Store: Selfridges
Address: Oxford Street
Tube: Bond Street
Sizes: up to 26 for selected brands.

Stocks Marina Rinaldi.

Store: Harrods
Address: Knightsbridge
Tube: Knightsbridge

Harrods' Plus Collections department stocks Anna Scholz (up to size 28), Elena Miro (Elena Miro also has a shop on Regent Street), Gianfranco Ferre, and Persona.

Store: Beige
Address: New Cavendish Street
Tube: Bond Street
Sizes: 16-28

Specialist boutique that stocks Elena Miro, Persona, Oui, Hucke, Wille, Elena Grunert, Alain Weiz...

Underwear and Hosiery

Store: Rigby & Peller
Address: Conduit Street (pronounced 'Cund-it', which, whilst not rude, for some reason makes me snort and chuckle)
Tube: Oxford Circus
Sizes: up to 40G

Titty galore! R&P does expensive, but fabulous, lingerie. They have a super-strict measuring service (their mission is to get people into the right bra!), without being Trinny and Susannah-ish about their titty-wrangling, and carry sizes up to 40G. It's fairly expensive but so, so worth it for their stuff, or even just to get measured right as they really know what they're doing.

Store: Marks & Spencer
Flagship: Oxford Street
Tube: Bond Street/Marble Arch

Cheap and basic bras, but a great selection: black/white/beige/nude T-shirt bras; multi-way bras, strapless, bright colours, lacy, sports, underwire-free, shaper, minimiser, maximiser... M&S is boob central, basically.

As in my last post, Marks & Sparkles also do plus-size hosiery, and lots of plus-size items. Most of their clothing is horrifically frumpy, but - and Jeremy Paxman be damned - for bras, knickers, vests, socks, hosiery, and basics, you can't go too far wrong.

Accessories

Store: Topshop Flagship
Flagship: Oxford Street
Tube: Oxford Circus
Sizes: N/A

Philip Green is an evil skeezeball, and Topshop's sizing system verges on sadistic, but daaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn the ground floor accessories section at their flagship is worth it. Handbags, belts, purses, scarfs, hairpieces, makeup, telephones and household items, earrings, necklaces, concessions and pop-up shops, everything... You'll find shoes in the basement, too.

Store: Liberty
Address: Regent Street/Great Marlborough Street
Tube: Oxford Circus/Piccadilly Circus

Liberty is lovely. It's like Tiffany's. It can do no wrong. Be soothed by designer handbags, inordinately expensive perfume and lovely, lovely things on the ground floor, before tripping up the fabulous staircase to the shoe section... Plus you can have Champagne & oysters there...yum.

Vintage and Ethical

From Liberty, stroll through Carnaby Street (ignore American Apparel and check out shoes in Office and bath things in Lush) to Soho, which has a bajillion adorable little streets where porn shops/sex cinemas sit cheek-by-jowl with little boutiques/vintage shops. Do try not to mix the two up.

West London: Rellik (vintage), and From Somewhere (ethical).
Soho and East London: Beyond Retro (vintage), and Junky Styling (ethical).
Victoria: Cornucopia (vintage).
South: Radio Days (vintage).

Apparently London has all this other shit, like Buckingham Palace, the Queen, Royal Parks, the Tower, Dungeons, museums, galleries, theatres, and shit. But who cares, right?

Readers' Recommendations

Don't forget to check out the comments to this post, which is full of personal recommendations from fashionable Brits: including suggestions for larger-sized shoes, a couple of mentions for excellent lingerie company Bravissimo, which I shamefully forgot to include, and other tried-and-tested outlets.