Antiques Centres

Former courthouse in West Yorkshire opens as antiques centre and community hub.

Doom and gloom surrounds retailing in the UK but in the trade plenty of antique centres are bucking the trend. Here we bring you a short focus on a few of them – ideal places to buy a variety of stock offered from a number of dealers in one spot.

When Natalie Smith opened the Woodbridge Antiques Centre in the pretty Suffolk town 11 years ago, she said she was given a great piece of advice: never compromise on quality and presentation.

A regular stallholder at Arthur Swallow Fairs is Liam Woodgates, director of the Hopkinson Vintage Antique and Art Centre in Nottingham, where a corner display is pictured below.

News from Antiques on High, the antiques centre saved for the city of Oxford when it was bought by antique furniture dealer Vincent Page last year, alerted via a tweet about a story in ATG.

Two years ago we featured ex-paramedic Allun Davies and his business selling vintage luggage in the Gwent town of Pontypool.

The idea to stage a 1940s weekend of events at Hemswell Antique Centres near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire in late July to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the RAF came from some of the dealers based there.

Portuguese silver and jewellery dealer J Baptista is to expand into London by opening a stand in Grays Antique Centre.

A well-known antiques centre on the point of closure last year after 20 years of trading – and saved in no small part by the social media reach of ATG – will shortly celebrate its first year under new ownership.

Buyers of art and antiques are spoilt for choice in London. It’s a city with long-standing streets of antiques dealers and a plethora of fairs and markets, despite the challenges posed by rising rents and rates. Most are complementary rather than in competition with each other. Roland Arkell and Kate Quill report

North-west London’s Church Street is strengthening its events calendar and increasing the variety of dealers with a series of initiatives to attract customers.

In our continuing series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops and centres, ATG talks to John Howard of Antiques at Heritage in Oxfordshire.

According to Wikipedia, the medieval city of Norwich had at one time 36 parish churches, the largest collection of urban medieval buildings north of the Alps.

One of the most innovative vintage costume-style jewellery designers is Frenchwoman Léa Stein.

Before Natalie Smith opened the Woodbridge Antiques Centre 10 years ago in the pretty Suffolk town, she told ATG that she was given a great piece of advice: never compromise on quality and presentation.

In our continuing series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops in 2017, ATG talks to Nigel Bate who opened Bridgnorth Antique Centre earlier this year.

In our continuing series looking through the keyhole of ‘bricks and mortar’ shops in 2017, ATG talks to James Killbery who owns Halstead Antiques Centre on the Essex/Suffolk border.

Rocketing business rates and the impact of building works for Crossrail are to force the closure of Grays Mews.

An Oxford antiques centre facing closure has been rescued after a white knight was made aware of its plight via ATG and Twitter.