Penny Blood's Black Book » Random Shops

The Last Tuesday Society

Penny Blood — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:49:37 +0000

Now here is a collection of weird shit. So taxidermy and monkey skulls I get, but Labrador’s testicles in jars? It’s hard not to like it here, I mean there aren’t many places where you hear the staff shout, “the ocelot fur coats are in the kid’s coffin under the mortuary table in the back room with Aleister Crowley’s skull and the Vagina grafts” now are there? The stream of people asking what is and what isn’t real must do their head in though. Upstairs there is a conventional gallery but downstairs is Viktor Wynds wet dream, the extensive overspill of his house of madness. With dark red walls and cabinets full of his collection of classical ivory figurines randomly (?) placed next to a key chain of a teddy bear blowing his brains out and a set of goliwogs mixed with shrunken heads and prosthetic limbs. The Last Tuesday Society additionally hold a series of talks on subjects ranging from Hypochondria to Syphilis to bed bugs by renowned speakers who although have a list of great credentials on paper often have a tendency to waffle. I think half the time they are just people Mr. Wynd wants to meet. The shop is a ‘window display’ so to speak for the Last Tuesday Society which hosts debauched and fabulous fancy dress and masquerade balls at different locations throughout the city.

http://www.thelasttuesdaysociety.org

11 Mare Street, London, E8 4RP
07947 049814
Wednesday – Sunday 12pm – 6pm

No related posts.

Le Grenier

Penny Blood — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:46:25 +0000

Le Grenier appears to be the official retailer of 70’s Crockery. Full sets of brown and orange tea cups, sugar pots and tea jars interspersed with eclectic jewellery, retro furniture, exciting knick knacks and old record players in suitcases which are so pretentious it makes me want to throw up. This shop probably survives in large part to people thinking that they will start their own collection of vintage clutter inspired by the immaculate style of this shop, so they start by purchasing one of the gaudy tea sets, but once they get it home and realise how badly it goes with dated Ikea furniture it gets stuck in a cupboard and never sees the light of day. Two years later said tea set ends up in a charity shop where it is bought by a similar posh second hand shop and the price put up by 1000% where it is then purchased by a younger generation of same people. It’s all part of the upper middle class circle of stuff.

www.le-grenier.com

146 Bethnal Green Road, London, E2 6DG
07720 890 393
Monday-Saturday 12pm-7:30pm; Sunday 10am-7:30pm

Beedell Coram

Penny Blood — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:51:12 +0000

Easily my favourite ‘junk shop’ in London. Beedell Coram is stocked full of Victorian paintings, taxidermy, antique furniture, books, postcards and old medicine jars all lovingly displayed with no order or thought to presentation whatsoever. When she’s not drunk in the Golden Hart pub next door this is where ?????* collects her miniature tea sets, the ??????* buy their master paintings before they deface them, where ??????* has bought the odd taxidermy dome and ???? and ?????* purchase a human skull or two. The owner Andrew Coram is a gem in himself, with his gold earring and an east end sales man grin he alone makes it worth a visit.

*I have omitted the names of those guilty out of respect for the proprietor and his gracious message concerning the privacy of his clients. This little antique shop can hold its own without name dropping anyway.

86 Commercial Street, London, E1 6LY

Alfies Antique Market

Penny Blood — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:58:33 +0000

Situated on a street which is home to a scummy street market selling stolen toilet paper and knock off household products with old immigrants and market people yelling at each other and groups of Eastern European and Asian kids hanging out in intimidating groups cutting school is Alfies Antiques Market. A vast cavern of Antique shops, several stories high, there are hundreds of vendors inside specialising in everything from Victorian jewellery to vintage lace, antique paintings, 60’s furniture with the odd junk shop or two thrown in. I can spend hours here, mainly because most of it is expensive and once engaged in a conversation over the price of something that despite the fact is £600 out of my budget I get a kick out of selling working his ass of to convince me it’s a really good price. There is a café too which is a highlight.

http://www.alfiesantiques.com/

13-25 Church Street, London, NW8
020 7723 6066
Tuesday – Saturday 10am-6pm

Kokon To Zai

Penny Blood — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:28:02 +0000

The sister shop to Kokon To Zai in Soho but this one is so much more exciting, marrying together my twin obsessions death and clothes. It’s a menagerie of gorgeous stuff, taxidermy, glass domes, phallic shaped sculptures from A Clockwork Orange, gothic jewellery, weird clothes, beautiful staff, amazing antiques the collection just goes on and on there is so much to look at. Situated on Golbourne road in West London near Notting Hill it’s surrounded by Moroccan and Lebanese cafes, in an area populated with residents that don’t ever seem to work although the type that choose not to I might add therefore possibly the type that can afford anything from this amazing shop. Lord knows how a place like this makes any money, I just got to get home decorating ideas, new ways to display crow skulls and what not.

http://www.kokontozaishop.com/

86 Golborne Road, London, W10 5P5
020 8960 3736
Monday – Saturday 10am-6pm

Past Caring

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:02:13 +0000

This is the kind of place I’d recommend if you were looking for something random like say, a dressmakers dummy or an antique mousetrap. It’s effectively a junk shop but really well organised and edited to only the best stuff without charging a fortune for it. Needless to say they always have vast amounts of 50’s and 60’s tea sets in gaudy colours. It’s well placed, surrounded by a few great places to eat and a good second hand record shop not to mention ‘Get Stuffed’ and amazing taxidermy shop albeit with questionable morals. There are usually a few crazy folk here, the kind of regulars who have lived in council flats in the area for ages and stop by frequently to see what new stuff is in that they can feign interest in buying. I over hear a middle aged lady complaining to the cashier that her mother had be kicked out of the loony bin for depressing the other patients so had come home to depress her family instead and that she was trying to find any reason to be out of the house.

76 Essex Road, Islington, London, N1 8LT

Labour and Wait

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:00:34 +0000

Buying the most boring household items had never been so fun. From enamel colanders and bread tins to horsehair brooms to linen dishtowels to stainless steel kettles and old-fashioned school notebooks. Labour and Wait specialise in all things timeless, traditional and simple right down to the tin lampshades, buying a dustpan and brush has taken on a whole new slant. With a cool calm atmosphere and shelves stacked with an art gallery aesthetic (I find myself trying to think up reasons why I need to buy a another ruled notebook or £18 tea jar? Or who I need to buy a present for (not that I’m that generous to anyone by any stretch) I do find myself getting bored pretty quickly with it all though when I realise it’s actually a giant waste of money and reserved for the frivolous rich only. Just go to IKEA.

http://www.labourandwait.co.uk/

18 Cheshire Street, London E2 6EH
020 7729 6253
Saturday 1pm-5pm Sunday 10am-5pm Wednesday – Friday 11am-5pm

No related posts.

Pierrepont Arcade

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:59:54 +0000

Tucked behind Upper Street, Pierrepont Arcade is a collection of little antique and vintage shops. Tiny but stocked to the rafters, I always come across something to take up space in my closet that I will never actually wear, be it a Barbie themed charm bracelet or a mirrored waistcoat to go with my recent gypsy obsession which is too small as it’s designed for a 10 year old. Additionally located in Camden Passage are a number of nice places including the Elk in the Woods pub and the Breakfast Club. Being off the main thoroughfare, Pierrepont Arcade is not too rammed which due to the shoebox-sized shops is fortunate.

http://www.camdenpassageislington.co.uk

Camden Passage (Angel Tube Station)

Les Couilles du Chiens and Ollie

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:59:14 +0000

You’d be forgiven for thinking that either of these places are cheap, as everything, be it animal trophies, Victorian taxidermy, bevelled antique mirrors, old school science lab work benches, old poison bottles, old fashioned wooden clothes mannequins or stacks of rusty tins are just casually thrown in. Well they are but I imagine that’s because there is a fast turn over and well frankly it’s Notting Hill so over-priced shabby chic is the general theme. They’re not intimidating as the cockney men who run them are funny and love to chat and there aren’t many places left in London where they still call you ’govner. Nothing is outrageously priced and you’ll always find something affordable, perhaps one of those little French cafe chairs or a 60’s lamp either way they are great places to look around.

http://www.lescouillesduchien.co.uk/

Les Couilles du Chiens, 65 Golborne Road, London, W10 5NP
020 8968 0099
Monday-Saturday 9.30am-5pm Sunday Closed

Ollie, 69 Golborne Road, W10
07768 790 725
Tuesday – Saturday 9am-6pm

La Bouche

Get Stuffed

Penny Blood — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:48:32 +0000

It’s not much more than a window display really and by that I mean it’s rarely open, just has a sign with a phone number if there are any enquiries but they never answer the phone. The huge glass windows showcase a menagerie of weird and amazing creatures staring at you through dead glass eyes. If you have a penchant for taxidermy, taxidermy you will find. It’s a one stop shop for all things dead be that dogs, cats, lions, leopard cubs, wild boars, rabbits, eagles, weasels, elephant heads, a lot of which is illegal and totally amoral and which the owner got into a lot of trouble for. I was taught the art of taxidermy from the best, George Jameson and ‘Get Stuffed’ has a real bad name in the business, it does however have an impressive collection and far more interesting than in a museum as it has more of Victorian junk shop appeal.

http://www.thegetstuffed.co.uk/

105 Essex Road, Islington, London, N1 2SL
020 7226 1364 (Mobile) 07831 260062