Parrot Antiques

Phil asks:

"In November last year, I was having a look in the Stockwell Street Market,in the covered part just off King William Walk. One of the traders wasselling, amongst other things, some nice furniture made from reclaimed Oak.I think they were called Parrot Antiques. The proprietor was a lady called- if I remember correctly - Billy (?!) Having unsuccessfully exhausted Google, I was wondering whether you or any of your readers might know where Parrot Antiques can be found now?"

The Phantom doesn't know where most of the old traders from the Village market ended up - they all just vanished hours after they were booted off the site. To be honest, I don't remember a Parrot Antiques - or even furniture made from oak in that area of the place, unless it was the bit just inside from the open market.

It would be helpful to know where all these traders ended up. You never know when you might need a vintage door fitting or an army surplus jacket. The Old Bottle Shop is now in Trafalgar Road, having teamed up (in a most enjoyably unlikely fashion, with a purveyor of ladies underwear) and the vintage clothing shop's now in the covered market.

But the rest? I just don't know. The one I'd really like to know about is Beehive Coffee. Are they now these guys? There's not much info on the website, but the address looks promising.

A Find...

I've never really had much luck with the 'antiques' bit of Greenwich Market. I'm convinced that most of the stuff I see on display was in a job lot at the auction the week before for a fraction of the price, and although I always have a poke about, generally I come to the conclusion that much of it's just (whispers) tat.

But then I made that one find that negates all the times I've come away with nothing, and my interest has been rekindled.

The sweet old gent who sold me The Queen's London - a massively heavy souvenir book of 434 giant photographic plates, a pictorial record of London life at the time of Victoria's death, told me he was delighted to be selling something that was actually older than he was, and we spent a good 15 minutes flipping through the pictures together before he'd part with it.

It must have cost a fortune when it came out - every page is a full size photograph. It wasn't dirt cheap now (fifteen quid) but it will keep me happy for hours. That's the kind of tragic Phantom I am...

It covers all of London, so most of it's not Greenwich-y, though there are the obligatory pics of the park, the ORNC and a splendidly robust picture of the Royal Gun Factory at Woolwich Arsenal...



...but I love it all, whether it's "Luncheon at Ascot," "Morning Assembly at a Board School," "Teaching Boys to Swim at Kensington Public Baths" or the rustic charm of Mile End Road.

I particularly like the bits where the photograph didn't come out very well or there was a boring section, so they just got an artist to pencil-in figures, such as this dapper chap outside the Military Academy at Woolwich:



The picture at the top of this post was taken in May 1897, when the Prince of Wales ("accompanied by his beautiful wife") arrived at the Northern end of the newly-built Blackwall tunnel, on its official opening day. If you look carefully at the bottom of the photo, the book's publishers clearly didn't think the original picture was festive enough, so they've got their pet artist to draw some extra bunting and another policeman on horseback for good measure...

Just out of interest, the plate facing this scene in the book is ( off-topic, I know, but you've got to see this...) the Field Lane refuge in Clerkenwell, showing a couple of hundred derelicts in flat caps and shaggy beards being doled out mugs of something from a watering can, the poor sods' only solace being quotes from the Scriptures. The Queen's London is impressed - "there are no forms of philanthropy more admirable," it gushes.

Eeek.

So - don't give up on Greenwich Market's 'antique' days. There are gems to be found. It just takes some dedication - and patience...

Greenwich Market

Heavens - it' ALL happening!

Greenwich Council have UNANIMOUSLY REJECTED the plans for Greenwich Market - on a number of grounds - height, overdevelopment, traffic and that all-important, design quality.

I confess I am very surprised - but delighted too. Perhaps GHT can come up with something nice now. A GOOD design could really perk up the market - I am SO not against developing the space SYMPATHETICALLY - perhaps a truly boutique hotel rather than some giant monster, a plan that keeps the historic features, the traders that make the market what it is and the 'feel' f the place, just losing the nasty buildings (I know the 50s ones are 'historic,' but they're not of much architectural merit, even the preservationist in me knows that...)

I know a lot of us didn't have much faith in the council istening to people - but I am very pleased that they actually thought about this considered the views of residents and interested parties. I hope Greenwich Hospital will do the same now.

Just Like Mammas

I may have taken a couple of days off blogging, but I have been squirreling around, honest.

For example, I've been looking at the sad old sight that is the old village market. I guess I didn't realise how much I'd miss somewhere where, apart from Beehive's coffee, I wasn't a regular purchaser. It all looked so forlorn, behind those white 'graffiti-me' hoardings, reminding me that I can't just wander through any more, can't find weird furniture fittings rusting in compartmented boxes or an old military jacket, a belly dance outfit or a Moroccan lantern just any time I want to any more.

There are a few relocations, I notice - the Bottle Shop is now down Trafalgar Road, in the old print works (which in turn is now in Crane St.) 360 Degrees is now in a much smaller shop in the covered market. But the randomness, quirkiness and - let's face it, tattiness - is quite gone.

But I was cheered by a new stall in the covered market. Just Like Mammas isn't actually new - but it's been tucked away round the back since it's opened. Yesterday it was in the main part of the market and the poor guys seemed a bit overwhelmed by the sudden influx of trade.

I'll guess it's a family business, Dad(who at least sounds Italian), Mum and kiddie, who have bought a real wood-burning pizza oven (I suspect you can buy such things in the Italian equivalent of B&Q but I've never seen one before) and make proper thin-crust pizzas while you wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Poor guys - in that tiny stove they can only make one or two at a time and though they were working flat-out, and though the pizzas themselves only took minutes to bake, the wait was looooong.

Thing is, the pizzas just looked so good, people all around me were ordering and ordering, which gave them a backlog that was quite scary. They just weren't used to actually having people wanting their goods and they looked a bit flustered. But they were fun and friendly as they worked and the queue atmosphere was not unpleasant. And I got time to see the stall.

They have a little table and chairs painted in red, white and green (the table has a little Lambretta sign on it, and the sandwich board what looks like a scooter headlamp. I was also pleased to see a fire bucket just in case...

So was it worth the wait? Yup. Crispy, crusty and with nice-quality fillings. Nothing too fancy - there are only four choices - very Neapolitan - but all done well. Prices average for Greenwich Market - £3.95 for a basic Margarita, £4.95 for the other three - Vegetariana, Spinach & Gorgonzola and Salami.

They were only in the main part of the market because it was a Bank Holiday weekend and someone had taken the time off, so if you want to find them in future, you should look down the little side street that goes down to Beachcomber restaurant. And hey - there the wait might not be so hellish...

RIP Village Market

I wasn't going to revisit the sorry state that is was the village market - one of the very last bastions of old, scruffy Greenwich before we're forced to hand the baton of bohemianism over to Deptford, and acclimatise ourselves to a future of conformity and blandness. I really wasn't. I made sure I was geographically nowhere near the last day of the market yesterday, it would have been too depressing.

But Scott braved the very last day and sent me some pics, and I guess it's an passing that does need to be marked.

The handful who made the trip wandered around around the final fraction of the usual cheerful tat, heavily discounted for quick sale (no one ever said the stuff there was top-quality; the thrill lay in the quest for the single jewel amongst the jumble.) Most were puzzled as to why the market had to close now, since there don't appear to be any concrete plans to redevelop the spot in the immediate future.

I agree with them. I can't see that the market was doing any harm as it was. It couldn't have made the land's asking price artificially low as some kind of 'sitting tenant' problem as the speed of the closure shows - the vendors were given a couple of months to get out - and they did. Clearly they could have been 'got out' at any two-months-notice. Why now? I have absolutely no idea. The general consensus among shoppers, of the people that ordered this, seems to agree with this album cover...

So. What is to become of this scruffy piece of real estate in the short term?

I can only assume it will become a temporary car park. Which, as my dad's cynically pointed out, will garner the site's owners much more hard cash than renting it out to a few stallholders ever would have.

But for now - let me leave you with Scott's last vision - the sunset on Greenwich Village Market.

The World's Shortest Let

What an amazing weekend. The first proper day of spring. Hell - I was even able to strip off the cloak and boots and bask in my frilly shirt, frock-front waistcoat and straw tricorn...

Benedict sent me a lovely pic of daffs in Greenwich Park which lifted my spectral heart - though I confess to also having a soft spot for the slow-burner versions outside the Maritime Museum - which open in blocks, slowly, over the next few weeks.

We must have ALL been in Greenwich Town Centre on Sunday judging from the crowds - there were moments in the covered market where I stopped even trying to walk on my own feet, and just let the crowd carry me along.

But there was one place I couldn't bring myself to go to - the last day of the Stockwell Street market.

The whole shutting of the market has been shrouded in mystery and unanswered questions - for instance - why now, when there doesn't actually seem to be anything in the way of concrete plans to do something with the site? I can see it sitting there for years now, an unofficial car park, shopping trolley repository and buddleia plantation, instead of being a vibrant, slightly bohemian part of an increasingly 'official' town.

I've been watching it week by week as more and more stallholders give up and leave, and I just couldn't face seeing it in its final death throes, but Benedict, on his way to the daffs, did manage to get this photo - of the world's shortest-term let:

Greenwich Market Plans

Dennis has kindly sent me some of the latest plans for Greenwich Covered Market. He tells me they were buried in a press release - which is why, presumably, they're new to me.

I'll give them to you straight, and for once not blather on, save to ask - was I the only one to whom it never occurred there would be more than one floor?

Take a look for yourselves...
Ground Floor
First Floor
Cross section - can't tell if it's in or outside the market
Another cross-section - same problem

Well - what do you think?

Last Knockings Of The Village Market

Folks, if you're free this weekend - or, indeed, any weekend up until the 21st/22nd March, get yourself down to Greenwich's Village Market and soak up the atmosphere while you can. It's all being bulldozed after then, and the charming, ever-so-slightly scruffy market will be no more.

I, for one, am very sad about this. It's this kind of quirky, not-squeaky-clean-but-full of-atmosphere thing that tourists (and locals) love, and authorities hate. It's a few square yards of real estate in the centre of town that isn't developed into something anodine and safe, but only for a few more precious weeks. No longer will the delightful giant Geisha adorn the outside of the Bottle Shop. No longer will you be able to buy the world's tattiest umbrella stand, cunningly fashioned from a motheaten stuffed polecat. No longer will students be able to purchase military jackets from obscure eastern block countries as they have done since Time Immemorial. And no longer will my fave jewellery stall ply its funky beadware to the delight of my friends and relations. I'll just have to do my Christmas shopping elsewhere. And HFH Designs, along with all the other stallholders will have to find somewhere new to be non-conformist as something clean and dull replaces scruffy but interesting old brick warehouses.

So - in the next few weeks, do take the chance to visit this bizarre one-off one more time. And take me some pictures, eh...

Make Do And Mend

I've come over all "Dig For Victory" after having visited the latest pop-up shop* in Greenwich. I wasn't going to talk about it until I did a post about Christmas shopping, but then Annette from North West London asked me about it and - well, I might as well rave about it now, I guess. Carpe Diem, eh, Annette...

The shop doesn't have a name, as such, as far as I can tell, though it might be called "Authentic Parachute." It's next door to Johnny Rocket and it's run by a lovely artist from Cockpit Arts called Debbi Little.

The most instantly-arresting things about the window display are the curious printed-cloth Union Flag items that look like a cross between Punk London c. 1977 and something your Great Gran would have in the Best Sitting Room , but once you're looking, it's the parachute stuff that grabs you.

Making dresses out of parachute silk was a bit of a no-brainer in wartime Britain - fabric was rationed, and women soon caught onto a whole bunch of silk going begging, whatever the source. Wedding dresses and ballgowns with big flowy skirts were particularly popular. But I haven't seen it done by anyone since (come to think of it, despite my feeling 900 years old, I didn't actually see it done the first time either...)

Debbi Little does just that, though, dying old parachutes funky colours and creating timeless little strappy dresses. Some of them are original '50s models; others are modern ones - and she designs each one slightly differently according to the 'chute in question. The blood-red one is particularly fabulous. She describes them as 'ballgowns in a bag' - I assume that they fold up into the original parachute cases, but I didn't see any.

They're not cheap - but they're not going to date, either. I can't think of an era in the last - well, the last 60-odd years - when they would have looked out of place. Spaghetti straps and flouncy skirts just always look good on a girl...

There are some great young artists around just now and many of them sell things on Greenwich Market. Few of them are able to afford actual shops, despite the sheer number of empty premises, which I find frustrating.

Of course, every so often you can visit them on Open Studios days - Blackheath, Greenwich and Deptford all do them from time to time. Cockpit Arts has one this weekend, if you're at a loose end. You could even win this year's Christmas Tree, decorated with designer baubles...


* I know, I know - 'pop-up' sounds like one of those kiddie books with 3D pages, but it's actually just a fancy name for short-lease shops, which suit people who can't afford the astronomical rates charged by a certain Hospital Trust...

Hidden Victim - or Good Riddance

Today, folks, I bring you some modest little buildings. They're not the grand stuff of Georgian Greenwich, they're not fabulous architecture, but I'm arguing that they say just as much about Greenwich's history as some of the grander places around here.

Something of which we are guilty in this town is that in preserving our pomp, in bigging-up our Royal and nationally-significant history, we overlook what really made Greenwich tick - the ordinary people, the industry and the day-to-day running of the place. In the couple of years I've been writing this blog, I have found it far more difficult to find anything out about working or middle class Greenwich - virtually every history book and most of the documents I've seen have referred to its glamorous side (with the honorable exception of Mary Mills and the sterling work of the Industrial History Society).

So. Where actually are these buildings? Round the back of the market, slotted in between the 1830s fronts and the hastily-erected 70s nightmares that actually line the business area. I bet you didn't know it was actually called Durnford Street. They are described as "storage" in the only reference to them in the Greenwich Market Consultation.

"The building to the west of the market will be built further back, into the car park yard beside Durnford Street, which is currently used for storage."

Now. I'm not arguing that these are gems of architectural history. They're functional, sturdy (if you ignore the scaffolding, presumably left up because they're being nixed) and rather pretty - who puts little curly pinnacles and roundy leaded lights with little corbels on a back-building or gives a garage door a little brick arch and curved windows these days? I can hardly stand on a soap box, hand on phantasmagorical heart and say these are either architecturally meritorious or even particularly rare as the country goes. But they are a link with what the market was really about, as opposed to what it will become.

I am sure that the market in its new form will continue to be a draw - and attract thousands of tourists to buy sandals made out of car tyres or rude-shaped candles every weekend. But I somehow mourn the loss (for I am sure that these sweet little outbuildings will be lost, given the plans available and the fact that they're playing that area down, hoping no one notices, and let's face it, perhaps no one has...) of harmless buildings that could present a solid link with the Victorian aspect of the market (which will be totally lost - Georgian, and Williamsian (is that how you call it?) yes, Victorian, no) and keep a little of Greenwich's industrial soul.

More and more in London I see the facades of buildings preserved (because developers are forced to,) painstakingly held up with scaffolding while a modern building is slotted in behind, and I guess it's a move in the direction towards keeping at least some of our history. I certainly don't want to live in aspic. But I do wonder whether if that's exactly what we're doing with the market - keeping the 'look' of the place, with the Georgian facades acting like stage flats but actually chucking out the gritty reality of our past, to be replaced by GreenwichLand Theme Park, forever doomed to play the part of 'anywhere' in Hollywood movies?

So - what do you think? Am I being a Sad Old Luddite, clinging onto the past here, spectral nails scraping down the blackboard of change? Or am I not the only one who rather likes this little jumble of Victoriana?

As a PS to this post, Rob has sent me a link to his website, which has a feature by Andrew Gilligan, where he discusses the bloody awful mess that Nelson Road's turned into recently...

New Food Market

Greenwich Market, Wednesdays to Sundays.

Several of us have been keeping an eye on proceedings at Greenwich Market's new foodie section (or the expansion of the old section) - and yesterday was the first day.

I confess I hadn't been that excited about it - the one that operates on the usual busy market weekends perhaps wisely concentrates on tourists - so the food tends towards the scoff-it-on-the-spot variety - interesting enough, but not the kind of ingredients you can get somewhere like Blackheath Farmers Market. I had assumed an expansion of the same.

Still - I had to go and have a look. Obviously.

It's clearly early days - there can't have been more than half a dozen stalls, spaced out in the market - very open and airy, but slightly empty-looking. And some of them were the usual suspects - as I say, nice enough, but not somewhere I'd go for my groceries. But I was very pleased to see at least two 'proper' fruit and veg stalls - one selling Kentish farm goods - from free range eggs, tomatoes and cucumbers to first-of-the-season strawberries, the other the Greenwich Community fruit and veg stall - extremely good value.

There were sundry bigwigs wandering around while I was there (that's how I could tell it was the first day - nothing if not observant, me...) and photographers, presumably for the local papers, but my own pics turned out utterly rubbish. Just imagine a fairly empty Greenwich Market Hall with a few very nice-looking stalls (the fairy cakes stall is scrummy - and no, I refuse to call them 'cupcakes...') and you'll have it.

The service on all the stalls was welcoming and friendly - if a little slow, as the stallholders chatted with everyone - a throwback to ye olden days when shopping was a social experience.

As I say, it's early days. There aren't that many stalls. But it's definitely worth a look - patronise it now and there will be more...