(Above photo - Canonbury Antiques - Number One Church Street, NW8 )
It's easy with the benefit of hindsight to look back and see how our business evolved in distinct chapters. With that in mind our five years trading out of a showroom on London's Church Street really was a colourful chapter with a lot of great memories. In fact it probably merits at least two chapters! Church Street is in North West Central London right by the high end neighbourhood of Marylebone and the West End is only 15 minutes away - traffic pending - in a taxi. It's a colourful and vibrant neighbourhood with one end flanked by Edgeware Road and the other bookmarked by Lisson Grove. Read on to hear of our interactions with customers such as the Prince of Thailand, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Pete Doherty.
(Above photo - Alfies Market on London's Church Street, NW8 )
At the time we were there in the early noughties Church Street was an important road for antiques and our address - Number One Church Street - put us right in the heart of the action. Of course the famous Alfies Market is just down the road and had many floors of stalls and vendors selling a range of goods and antiques. I would say one thing that characterised this time in the business was the amount of celebrities that became good clients. As sufficient time has elapsed - over twenty years now - we can tell some of the stories that made this time so much fun. Of course today the business is evolved so that we primarily sell online and we do miss the days of being in store on a colourful street and with all the characters we used to meet. Here's some anecdotes about some of the movers and shakers who graced our store:
(Above photo - Prince of Thailand - he became King in 2016 )
The Prince of Thailand - now King of Thailand - had really first became a customer in our Westbourne Grove / Notting Hill days in the 1990s. We knew a visit was imminent when the Ambassador from the Thai Embassy would call ahead to prepare us for the royal visit. Our first job was of course to clean the whole showroom and prominently disply the types of goods he would like. The day would come and a cavalcade of cars with blacked out windows would pull up with the entourage - courtiers, security, assistants, bodyguards - and of course the Prince himself. Often on these visits he might buy 80% of our stock and a lot of the furniture was bought to furnish Thai embassies around the world. He had a thing for ornate French furniture and loved satinwood furniture.
(Above photo - Madonna's looking for a Regency sideboard )
At the time Madonna lived in London - she'd recently married Guy Ritchie - and had a property close by in Marylebone and a country pile at Ashcombe House in Wiltshire. We first came into contact via her then assistant who came into the store looking to buy items for Madge. Of course we were happy to oblige and ended up extensively furnishing both houses. We also helped organise her 50th birthday which the band Gogo Bordello performed at who were her favourites at the time. For the party we hired lots of antique rugs as part of the overall gypsy bohemian vibe she was looking for and for the guests to sit on. When we came to clear up the next day we saw the rugs were quite stained and dirty from wine and cigarettes and had to suffer a £6000 cleaning bill before returning them.
(Above photo - Pete Doherty with a the leg of a bronze giraffe in his hands. Church Street NW8 Circa 2002)
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive. Post 90s cool Britannia, London still felt like the epicentre of a lot of good things that were going on in fashion, music and art. Of course at the time Kate and Pete were the power couple at the head of the table and you couldn't escape them in the tabloids, often for their salacious lifestyle choices. We furnished their then home - from memory with - a lot of mirrored furniture that was in vogue then. One good memory was Pete coming into the store and buying a lifesize bronze giraffe. When it was loaded onto the van Pete had somehow managed to snap the leg off of the giraffe and was pictured by the paparazzi outside our store holding aloft the leg which he used to chase the photographers. Cleary Pete was having a giraffe.
(Above photo - Nicky Haslem - some Redeeming Features (a great memoir) )
Nicky really was the interior designer of the day and you couldn't escape him in the gossip and celebrity columns. He was a nice chap and a good customer. He particularly liked Grand Tour pieces. Always one for a bon mot, I liked his quip: 'bad taste is excusable. No taste is inexcusable.'
(Above photo - Who's Bad? )
Well as we had the Queen of Pop - Madonna, it was only natural that the King of Pop would be gracing our halls. At that time - just before his death - Jackson was in London preparing for his run of concerts at the O2 Arena on the banks of the River Thames. Jackson and his assistants came and looked for pieces to furnish the large house he was living in Kent. He mainly bought big statues for the garden - bronzes, fountains, cherubs and marble statues. As part of the deal we got two tickets for the 02 show which sadly we didn't go to as he passed away before the date, although I was luck enough to see Michael a few years before then for his 1988 Bad Tour at Wembley Stadium.
(Above photo - Loading a bronze giraffe on to the back of a van for Pete Doherty circa 2002 )
As you can tell our Church Street days were a fun and colourful time and we miss the community. These are just the stories we can tell. The rest - some due to NDAs signed - and others as they are inappropriate for a family publication such as this are just too saucy. Church Street is still a great place to visit and has a market most days and Alfies is still there.
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