Fairs, Markets, Shops and Centres

Sunbury fair debut on London SW19 playing fields draws the Sunday punters after swift launch

Though the first human in-socket artificial eyes were created by Venetian glassmakers c.16th century, the earliest evidence of ocular prosthesis was found in a female burial plot in Shahr-I Sokhta, Iran – dating back to 2900-2800 BC.

Barney and Sam James own a huge warehouse showroom called The Home Bothy near Crawley in Sussex, currently only open by appointment.

The two-day Hackney Fleamarket is back at Abney Hall on Stoke Newington’s Church Street with all sorts of vintage pieces including lighting (as in this picture below), suitcases, posters, maps, furniture, ceramics, glass, jewellery and records.

Cornish event returns for second staging after ‘excellent response’ from dealers and visitors

Following the cancellation of the popular vintage bazaars at the Cheese and Grain arts centre in Frome, Somerset, textiles dealers Liz van Hasselt and Clare Powell have been doing the next best thing: organising the events online via Instagram.

Organiser of events across the country has fingers crossed for fairs scheduled later in 2020.

PBFA (Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association) has held four monthly online book fairs, with the fifth going live to the public at noon on Saturday, August 29. Up to 15 books/items can be put up for sale by each bookseller member.

Suzanne Hall is the organiser of a small monthly midweek antiques and fleamarket in Old Windsor which is reopening as lockdown eases on Wednesday, September 2, at the Memorial Hall.

Thirteen-year old Miles Raymond from Tunbridge Wells started collecting after he found an old bottle in his grandparents’ garden. He would like be a dealer in the future, but his career path also leans towards design and engineering – with his interest in antiques a useful influence.

“We opened at the earliest opportunity two months ago and were immediately ridiculously busy,” said David Skeet, general manager of the Brighton and Lewes fleamarkets.

Gary Wallis, organiser of the 'Henley Decor Fair', is delighted that all the exhibitors who booked for the original May/June event at Greenlands Park beside the Thames are on board for the reorganised dates following its cancellation due to the pandemic.

Kate Lee, an antiques dealer in Beccles on the edge of the Norfolk Broads, is also co-organiser of the Beccles Antiques Market.

The timing could have been a disaster, but three dealers who opened an antiques centre in Dorking at the beginning of the month have been rewarded for their ambition by a very encouraging start.

Nathan Alexander is a busy man. He has opened three antiques centres in three years with two in Southampton and a third in Fareham, all under the same title of Robin’s Nest Emporium.

Dovehouse Fine Antiques Fairs’ mid-summer fair at the Dorking Halls on August 16 has been cancelled.

The planned reopening at Easter of the former antiques warehouse in the Suffolk village of Long Melford was one of the last features to appear in this column prior to lockdown.

Towy Events organiser and dealer Robert Pugh has cancelled his August antiques and fleamarkets monthly event at the Carmarthen Showground and will await government guidance about when he can restart.

As foreign travel is greatly restricted for now, we can feast our eyes instead on this extravagant poster of the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco.

Six months after the last Shepton Fleamarket was held at the Bath & West Showground in Somerset, the event returns on Sunday, August 16, with more than 250 stalls.