Fairs, Markets, Shops and Centres

One of the highlights of the upcoming International Antique Doll, Teddy Bear and Toy Fair: 200 Years of Childhood at Kensington Town Hall will be an exhibition of toys to commemorate the centenary on November 11 of the end of the First World War.

The toy fair at Sandown Park in November is usually “the busiest one of the four we hold there each year”, says Barry Potter, founder in 1979 of BP Fairs, which first launched at this racecourse venue 31 years ago.

Launched in 2016, the fleamarket which runs every weekend at Flat Iron Square around seven railway arches on London’s Bankside in Southwark Street, SE1, has now extended into adjacent Union Street.

Schedule change for Lincolnshire Showground marks a shift in strategy but other organisers are more cautious.

Grandma’s Attic Fairs has had to postpone its fair at the Potters Heron Hotel in Romsey, Hampshire, due to take place on Sunday, October 28.

“The only downside to the fair is that we are having to turn dealers away.”

Plastic has gained a bad name when it comes to the environment – clogging up oceans for a start.

Vivienne Knight and Vanessa Turner are two specialist dealers in perfume bottles who will be setting out their vibrant stalls at the two-day International Perfume Bottle Association’s UK convention.

The long-awaited relaunch of Halcyon Fairs’ antiques fair at the restored Victorian Octagon ballroom in Buxton’s Pavilion Gardens has finally arrived.

Since the first Festival of Music and the Arts took place in 1951, the annual Wexford Festival Opera in the south-east Irish town has specialised in neglected works and has become one of the world’s leading opera festivals.

Science fiction is the theme for the 110-dealer BiblioMania in Paris’ 17th arrondissement, held at the Espace Champerret from Wednesday to Sunday, October 17-21.

Midcentury East is back in London’s East End with its biannual selling show at the Brutalist-Modernist Haggerston School on Sunday, October 14.

Fair organising runs in the family for Gary Sheridan and his daughter Emma.

Despite the fact that smoking cigarettes has been ostracised, the rise in interest for vintage smoking paraphernalia has increased.

British Horological Institute among exhibitors for ‘biggest of the year’ October showground fair.

Matthew Adams’ monthly Frock Me! vintage fairs returns to Chelsea Old Town Hall on Sunday, October 7 after an extensive refurbishment at the hall this summer.

Trading as Discover Vintage, Keeley Harris runs shows in Coventry, Manchester and Leeds – the next on Sunday October 7 at the 1970s-built Pudsey Civic Hall, on the outskirts of Leeds.

The annual London Writing Equipment Show at the Holiday Inn in Bloomsbury on Sunday October 7 will be a sell-out, says coorganiser Jeremy Collingridge.

There is a full load of arms fairs this month including the Antiques Arms Fair at Olympia on September 29 (see Dealers’ Diary, ATG No 2359) and the now triannual Kempton Vintage and Classic Arms Fair. Launched at Kempton Park Racecourse last year, it followed the demise in 2016 of the specialist event held for many years at the National Shooting Centre in Bisley.

Based just outside Norwich, Holly Graham is a music teacher, singer and a director of assorted local theatre groups including the city’s Threshold Theatre Company.