About Us - The Fleet London Story

Fleet London came into being when our founder, for many years a finance guy, couldn’t source sensibly priced casual shirts made from quality lighter cotton and with pockets, and when his favourite brand of classic cut boxers suddenly evolved into a wider-legged loose-fitting form.
Why Fleet London? Fleet is a synonym for quick, and the company is based in Soho W1, close to the now almost completely built over Fleet river, which flows from the ponds of Hampstead and Highgate under Fleet St and into the Thames at Blackfriars.
We have adopted the noble atlantic salmon ( salmo salar ) for our logo, a fish that has started to re-appear in the Thames in the last few years for the first time since the 1830s, a clear signifier of the cleaning and rebirth of London’s river system.

Fleet London has two principal aims:

To create a range of smart casual shirts for the office or for leisure, with the practicality of a breast pocket, the neatness of a button collar and the refinement of a light and smooth quality cotton material.

To provide a slim cut alternative to the bagginess evident in so many traditional boxer shorts today.

Environment and human rights

All Fleet cotton is sustainably sourced in accordance with the Better Cotton initiative and is Oekotex compliant. All of our shirts are made of 100% cotton poplin, rather than the heavier oxford, and our boxer shorts are 96% cotton and 4% elastane for a slimmer cut.

All of our clothing is designed in Soho and made in small batches in Portugal. Our Portuguese fabric mill has solar panels, pays at least the Portuguese minimum wage, practises rainwater recycling and operates a large crêche for its mainly female workforce. Our packaging contains no plastic and is FSC-compliant, our shirt boxes are 100% recycled. We do not source any product nor any packaging from non-democratic countries.

Fleet London comprises a small, experienced team of industry professionals and is based in Hollen Street, Soho, London W1.

Richard Bayley. Founder who spent more years in finance than he cares to recall.

Lucy Haine. Our pre-launch consultant, a highly experienced brand and retail specialist and now trade advisor in fashion at the DIT.

John Lundy. Senior buyer and production manager with 15 years’ experience of UK brands.

Marton Galgoczi. IT consultant with 8 years of experience in website design.

Mikolai Berg. Professional fashion photographer and lecturer with 11 years' experience.

Nikitah Patel. Social media consultant.

Email: info@fleetlondon.co.uk

The Fleet river rises as two springs feeding the ponds of Hampstead and Highgate and flows down through Belsize Park and Kentish Town before merging just east of Camden. The river then meanders passed King's Cross, formerly known as Battle Bridge. In Roman times the river here was 20 metres wide, and the bridge was the scene of a major battle between Boudica and the occupiers in AD60.

The Farringdon Road then maps its path, passing by Smithfield ( Cowcross Street is so named because cattle forded the river here on the way to market ) and close to St. Paul's before flowing into the Thames at Blackfriars. Fleet is derived from flēot, the anglo-saxon word for tidal inlet, and before human intervention the marshy basin where the Fleet met the Thames was over 100 metres wide.

The river Fleet today is not visible between the ponds of NW3 and N6 and the Thames, but in certain places en route you can hear it..