Why London interior designers rarely come up in ChatGPT

We asked ChatGPT and Perplexity about London for 23 high-end interior design studios, and 1 came up, once. The answers lean on a few magazine lists. House & Garden was cited in 38 of 86 separate answers, and answers citing its London list usually repeated names from it. A specific question reads other pages, and that is where a studio has room.

What did we check?

This is the London part of our check of 224 studios. Between 24 October and 5 November 2026 we asked ChatGPT, with web search on, and Perplexity three questions a client might type:

• "Who are the best interior designers in London?"
• "Recommend a high-end modern interior designer in London."
• "London interior designer for a full home renovation"

As in the whole check, each question asked for a short ranked list with one line per studio. For 2 of the 23 studios we changed a question to fit their work. That makes 138 answers, 86 of them separate, because studios checked on the same day could share an answer. A studio came up if an answer named it in its own words. The one mention was in a ChatGPT answer to the first question.

These are studios we looked at as possible clients, mostly with a website we thought could be better. So this is not a picture of every London studio, and we don't name them here.

What did the answers cite?

Perplexity's counts are a minimum, because it cites by number and we kept only its first 8 pages per answer. It also looked at far more than it cited: Houzz was among those first 8 pages in 40 of its 43 answers.

So the two assistants read the same magazine differently. ChatGPT mostly cited the HG101, an editors' list. Perplexity mostly cited the round-up.

Do the answers repeat the list they read?

As far as we can measure, yes. 24 answers cited House & Garden's London round-up. 23 of them named at least one of its 22 designers, 2 or 3 on average. In the 48 answers that cited nothing from House & Garden, 8 named one of those 22.

That doesn't prove the list is the only reason. A studio with a strong name tends to get onto lists and into answers for the same reasons. But it shows how closely an answer can follow the one page it read.

Were the studios we checked on these lists?

Almost none. We searched each page for the studio's name and web address:

• House & Garden's London round-up: 1 of 23
• HG101: 0 of 23
• Country Life's list of the best interior designers in Britain: 0 of 23
• Kothea's list of top UK designers: 0 of 23

We could not read the Sotheby's and Best in Hood pages. And the 1 studio on the round-up did not come up in its 6 answers, so being on a list is no guarantee.

Can a studio get onto these pages?

Two kinds of page are at work here. The HG101¹ is signed by House & Garden's editors, and Country Life's list² calls itself "our pick". Neither page says how to be considered.

The London round-up³ is different. It presents 22 members of The List, House & Garden's directory. The List's page⁴ says "To learn more about rates, please apply to join as a member."

We don't know what it costs, and we can't say that joining would put a studio in an answer. If you are thinking about it, ask them how often members appear in round-ups like this one, and how many enquiries members receive.

A specific question reads other pages

On 4 November we also asked two specific London questions, twice each, in both assistants. Two runs are a small sample, but the pattern is clear.

For "Who is the best high-end interior designer in London for a full renovation of a Georgian townhouse?", ChatGPT cited 5 pages. 4 were studios' own pages about one townhouse or historic London house. The fifth was Historic England. For "which interior designers in London are known for warm minimalism?", all 10 of its citations went to studios' or firms' own sites.

Perplexity looked at pages from the BIID, the British Institute of Interior Design, in 3 of its 4 answers, among its first 8 pages. That never happened for the 43 broad answers. It also looked at member profiles on The List for the warm minimalism question. We should say that fioel is an Industry Partner of the BIID, so read that line with that in mind.

What can a London studio do?

1. Ask what your client would ask. Not "best in London", but your area, your kind of building and your kind of project. Do it a few times, in both assistants.
2. Write project pages for those words. The area, the building, its age, whether it is listed, what was done. Only what is true. Our guide to the project page gives the order.
3. Keep your profiles complete. If you are a BIID member, your profile and your projects there. Your Houzz profile too. The same name and description as on your own site.
4. Show your press in words. If House & Garden or Country Life has written about you, say so on your site as text. Press on an interior designer's website shows how.
5. Send finished projects to the magazines. An editor can't list a studio they have not seen. It is slow, and it has no guarantee, but these lists are the pages the answers read.

None of this guarantees a place in an answer. No one can honestly promise that. For the broad question, a list of 4 names in a city this size leaves almost everyone out, however good the work is.

Where do you stand?

Run the free AI check: it asks ChatGPT and Perplexity three questions about your city, live, and shows whether your studio comes up and who is named instead.

fioel is in Amsterdam, not London. We have no London office, and we work with interior studios worldwide, online.