Camden Stables And Camden Locks Fire Tragedy

I am grieving for the loss of a fun antiques area in London last week by fire.

The area called Camden Stables Market in northern London
had a disastrous fire the evening of 9th Feb in a favorite area for us to go on our annual English buying trips. The area of Camden Town has several venues including the Stables Market including the old Horse Hospital, Camden Lock and Camden High Street with Camden Passage. The fire involved the Stables Market and part of the Lock market.

The photo at left is the Camden Town Crier outside the market on a Saturday which is a peak time. The man facing the camera in the rear is my DH. The crier was pressed into service this last Saturday as traders set up makeshift stalls and shared whatever areas were undamaged. A neat photo from 2 days after is a local pub with the menu boasrd outside reading "We're not burning...come inside for cold berr...Free drinks for firefighters".

The are has seen it's bit of controversy lately with the redevelopment plans scheduled to close the market anyway and redo it. Many fear it would mean an end to the centuries old small traders...that they would be displaced in the construction with upmarket chain stores which we hope won't happen.

We have formed relationships with several traders in the Horse Hospital adjacent to the Stables Market and it would be a shame to see them routed out by a fancier chain store.
Here are a few fire photos I found from the BBC website. One is of the locks next to the Stables where you can catch a canal boat back through Regent Canal to Regent Park which we loved doing in the good weather at the close of our shopping the markets for a leisurely way back to central London...especially as some of the tube stops don't run on Sat. afternoon.

Best wishes to all the traders at the markets and hope you are back up and functioning soon!
Cheers

Back on the Blogging trail!!!

After being of the blog for a few months...settling in after a move coupled with our busiest season, I'm back at it.

Hope Valentine's Day was a sweet day. Today, the 16th is our 34th Wedding anniversary so we just got back from a fabulous dinner at our favorite restaurant in Sequim called Alderwood Bistro http://www.alderwoodbistro.com. They do a cedar planked fish with fresh organic baby vegetables that is absolutely perfect! Slow food!!!!

Our websites had a wonderful holiday season with lots of business. We are back from a short after Christmas break and are busy loading inventory. We have a bit of stock left from last year's English buying trip and our next is coming up in April so I'm trying to get caught up.

I was also interviewed in the current issue of Tea House Times by Lady Gayle. You can access that at http://www.teahousetimes.com.

We have been adding some great items. We have added some English hallmarked silver watch fobs and watch fobs used as necklace pendants were featured in the January issues of both Victoria Magazine and Country Living. Amazing! They are certainly a fun accessory and I am thrilled that these wonderful ltiile collectibles is gaining recognition and appreciation.
You can see our current stock of these little cuties at Time Was Antiques . Watch fobs were a victorian must-have to decorate a pocket watch chain. Sometimes they were purely decorative and sometimes they were awards and medals. Mostly sterling silver but sometimes decorated with gold appliques or enamel work, with or without a monogram. Many were little works of art with engraving and beautiful cut work as you can see in the example above. They are certainly a neat collectible today.

Well, back to adding inventory to the websites. We recently opened a carton from our last buying trip to England with an estate collection of salts and a collection of British royal commemoratives we acquired while there so look for those items in our New Items category.