Antiques Centres

THE owners of the King’s Road antiques centre Antiquarius have had their plans to redevelop the premises rejected by the council for the second time.

HENLEY Antiques Centre may close at the end of September if the Grade II Listed building in Reading Road is sold to Henley-based property developer Nicolas Piasecki for a sum thought to be in the region of £1m.

THE embattled dealers at Antiquarius have cautiously welcomed the news that the Kensington and Chelsea council have rejected the landlords’ application to redevelop part of the antiques centre.

Talbot Walk Antique Centre of Ripley, Surrey is to relocate to Dorking where it will take over the building currently trading as Great Grooms Antique Centre at 51-52 West Street.

Burglars made off with a large cache of Doulton figures and silver in a sophisticated raid on Bagham Barn Antiques of Chilham, Kent last month.

EASTER weekend saw the opening of The Antiques Storehouse at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

A LARGE number of dealers at Antiquarius in London’s King’s Road will have to quit the premises next year following the landlord’s decision to redevelop half the property.

THE antiques and collectors fairs at Alexandra Palace will not be returning following a breaking off in negotiations between the organisers and the venue’s new owners.

TRACEY Emin, who recently launched a scathing attack on Tower Hamlets Council after it granted a licence for a controversial three-month “city beach bar” in a car park yards from her Spitalfields home, is a regular visitor to Spitalfields Antiques Market, most recently looking for a tiara to wear to charity balls.

“Dealers in fear of a turfing-out” ran the story in ATG No 1722, January 14, which told the story of the Somerton Antiques Centre, home to 27 dealers.

DAN Godfrey is opening an antiques and collectables centre at the Grade 2 Listed late-18th century watermill at Barton Le Clay, north of Luton in Bedfordshire.

ROBERT Dodd is the director and auctioneer at Greenwich Auctions Partnership, in the Old Woolwich Road, just a cough away from the River Thames.

LAST month at Hemswell Antiques Centres in Gainsborough, north of Lincoln, whose website proclaims it to be the largest antiques centre in Europe with 300 dealers in three buildings and 1000 antiques available online, ten of the centres’ customers were offered the opportunity to learn about antique furniture from an experienced dealer.

THE new owners of Atlantic Antiques have set out to reassure dealers at Antiquarius, The Mall in Islington and Rogers Antiques Gallery in Portobello about plans for the future. Following last week’s ATG report, they say that there will be no significant changes or rent rises, that the centres have enjoyed a recent revival and that they will concentrate on letting several unoccupied properties acquired with the portfolio.

THROUGHOUT the 19th century, Burnley was one of the world’s largest producers of cotton, with many mills built alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Just north of the town, Harle Syke became the most important weaving village in Lancashire.

OPENED on August 26 by Tim Wonnacott is the new £1.2m Peterfield Antique Village in Gosfield, Essex where £20,000 of trade was done on the day by the 236 dealers working at the centre’s 12 shops and from the cabinets.

THREE of London’s longest established antiques centres have changed hands following the acquisition of Atlantic Properties Ltd by London & Associated Properties PLC.

The Great Grooms brand of upmarket antiques centres is to move to London’s Furniture Cave.

POLICE are warning antiques dealers to look out for the two men, pictured left, who they believe are professional thieves targeting antiques centres and shops.

One of Manhattan’s best-known antique centres, The Showplace, is expanding its 30,000 square ft premises with the addition of a new floor that will open in early October.