Shoegazer Visits: Lewes

This weekend I headed to Lewes for a good old rummage in the many lovely antique shops the little town boasts. As I've blogged about in the past, the shops are jam packed full of unusual antiques, vintage items and trinkets. I'll follow this post up with a haul post of some of the bits I bought, but for now here are some snaps I took as I was going round...

Shoegazer Visits: Angel, London

I'm a regular in Angel, London on a Saturday night but last weekend I ventured there in the afternoon to have a look at the antique stalls and unusual little shops. I picked up a bird brooch and a very cute antique His Master's Voice grammar phone needle tin to add to my various collections.

Now let's let the pictures do the talking . . .

If you like hunting out little oddities then it's well worth a visit when you next have a free Saturday, I much prefer these informal market stalls and jam-packed, quirky little shops to snobby, over-priced, off-putting "proper" antique shops. Just sayin'.

After visiting the Antique places, we went in a lovely shop called After Noah. From the front it looks like a children's toy shop, and infact half of the shop IS dedicated to traditional, unusual children's toys - but the other half is full of a mix of old and new finds - from furniture to tin robots and pretty stationary. Lovely! Here are some shots from the shop . . .

Up next: I will show you the little tin I got along with some more of my vintage tin collection.  

Shoegazer Visits: Lewes

Last Saturday morning I popped to the Old Curiosity Shops of Lewes and as ever, found some amazing, intriguing, weird and wonderful things in the higgledy-piggledy hideaways. Excuse the poor quality of these images, I was snapping away on my iPhone so as not to annoy everyone with a flash. 

Above: The attic of the flea market. Strange mannequin heads... bunting... fairy lights... what's not to love?

 

Above: Birdseye views of the antique shop situated in an old church.

Above: The poor things were draped over the biggest bird cage I've seen.

Above: Vintage Snow White silk (£90 for a metre!)

Above: Perm wig, garish jumper, floppy yellow gloves - I don't know who dressed this mannequin... but they toatlly deserve a job as a stylist, riiight?

Above: Vintage clothes, bags and ... lamps.

Above: One seller clearly loved the Bauhaus movement.

Above: The face of a massive, beautiful old grandfather clock.

Above: A dresser full of china.

Above: Beautifully embellished, hand stitched oriental fabric.

Above: I had to take this photo on the move as the bear is in a private office... but isn't he jaunty?! I like to pretend he owns the flea market and bumbles round at night and who knows, maybe even dances with the taxidermy bore? I hope so anyway.

 Coming next is a haul post showing some of the bits I bought :)

Where are your favourite places to go for vintage finds?

The Old Curiosity Shop

Today I went to Lewes - the picturesque county town of East Sussex well known for it's range of antique shops. I'm not a big antique fan by any stretch, but many of the "antique" shops in Lewes are much more like "curiosity shops". They seem to go on forever, in all the nooks and crannies of these winding old shops that go up and up and up again and then deep down in the cellar where every surface is drowning in peculiar little things. Needless to say, I spent hours in these places!
I'm not sure is photography was allowed, but I tried to get some sneaky snaps for this blog . . .

Above: Part of Lewes Highstreet - You can just see the Lewes Antique Centre on the left.Above: Camp Pink Panther lamp anyone? Above: Is that a boar in a fez?Above: Yes. Yes, it's a boar in a fez. I'll have one to go please. Above: I absolutely loved this bashed up old bird cage!Above: The brilliant flea market! Next post: Today's haul!