Roving Reporter: The lengths we’ll go to
If I wasn’t so lazy I’d be that person who got up at 5am mid week to drive to a racecourse-turned-antiques fair for dawn breaking over acres of bargains. But the promise of weak tea and a greasy buttie is not enough to prize me out in the cold at that hour. So, when the need for high class junk furniture strikes, ten minutes drive away from my gaff I give you…. Crystal Palace Antiques.
A local friend tipped me off about this place and I first went with my then five-month-old baby in tow, lugging poor him around the four big, crammed-full floors. It was exactly the thrilling break I needed then from feeding, cleaning, changing nappies… etc etc you get the picture. The jury is still out about what he got from the experience. Anyway, CPA is authentically un-manicured and affordable, knocking the socks off similar haunts in chic-er London hoods. There’s plenty of the unusual – some a bit wrong, but plenty right – among the predictable mid-century mo…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. You can also haggle like a tourist in Marrakech. I had my eye on the lacquered finials (bottom left), which look like giant chess pieces.
Shh. Don’t tell anyone where it is (except me) I love the look of the wooden glass fronted drawer/cabinet. One for me please.
Fight you for it?
I know of the other antiquey shops near the triangle in Crystal Palace but not of this 4 floored warehouse… thanks for the tip, I’ll be checking it out soon!
It’s well worth it, hope you like what you find.