Back in the late 1980’s I was introduced to the art of dyeing wool using natural dyes.  I remember collecting nettles, gorse flowers, bracken and boiling them to extract the dye, then using the resulting colours to dye the wool.  What lovely subtle shades were produced, unlike today’s chemical dyes which can appear harsh and crude.  Needless to say I didn’t carry on with the technique, due work constraints and C & G commitments.

When I learnt that Joan Braganza (FLEWS group and co-ordinator of Region 3 IFA) had invited Victoria Vijayakumar from Aranya Natural, Kerala in India to come to England and run a couple of courses in Natural Dyeing, I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss.

I have just spent 5 days immersed in the technique of dyeing silk, using many of the natural dyes that originate from India.  Victoria, who supervises at Aranya Natural, was a brilliant teacher who explained every process in a very professional way, starting with an overview each day of what we were going to do.  This was followed by detailed instructions of the processes involved and then onto the exciting bit of a demonstration so that we could then have a go ourselves.

The room soon became a witches cauldron as pans of water boiled and bubbled, steam rising in the air.  Morning and afternoon saw different dyes being extracted from Indian Madder, Acacia, Pomegranate, Eucalyptus leaves (which did my cold the power of good), Marigold flowers with Turmeric and Tea waste (after all they do grow a lot of tea in India).

The processes involved wetting out the silk in a bucket of water before transferring it to the mordant.  The mordant allows the dye to ‘stick’ to the fibre and at the same time make it colourfast.  Four different mordants were used – Alum, Copper Sulphate, Ferrous Sulphate (Iron) and Potassium Dichromate (used very very sparingly as toxic and possibly harmful to the skin).  Each mordant affected each dye in a different way, producing either a different tone or shade and this was shown very clearly on a sample sheet that Victoria had provided us with.

After soaking in the mordant the silk was then transferred to the dye bucket and we watched excitedly as the fabric gradually changed colour, the longer the fabric was left in the dye, the more intense the colour.  Occasionally the fabric was transferred between the mordant and then back into the dye bath.  We continuously watched the clock, timing each immersion until it was time to rinse the fabric and then let it dry.  After drying and leaving for about 24 hours the fabric could then be thoroughly washed using pure soap before drying and ironing.  

As well as dyeing the silk a plain colour to start with we also began to experiment with various over-dyeing techniques such as tie dyeing, shibori, knotting and other methods of resist dyeing.  The results were amazing and we drooled over the myriad of scarves that Victoria had brought along for us to see, using all the different techniques. 

After 5 days of intensive work (and fun) it was time to admire our own efforts – it was worth it!.

 The Spanish shawl or Manton de Manila, as the Spanish call the shawl which has become a quintessential accessory of adornment to the Spanish woman, most specially to the women of Andalusia and Madrid, has a long and interesting history, for the origin of this shawl is not in Spain but in the Far East, in China.

Soon after the first circumnavigation of the globe and the discovery in 1521 of the islands Caroline, Marianas and the Philippines (the Spanish East Indies), the ports of Manila and Guam in the Marianas were busy commercial centres transporting goods from the Orient; silks, porcelain, rare woods, spices and other highly desired exotic luxuries to New Spain (Spanish America before independence) and Europe.

Another port which grew in importance was the old Chinese port of Canton (Guangzhou). It was from here that the Spanish merchants obtained most of these goods and where China received European manufactured products.

In early spring to avoid the storms of summer in the Caribbean, a convoy of merchant ships escorted by two Galleons of the fleet, sailed from Spain and crossed the Atlantic to her colonies in the West Indies and New Spain with a cargo of European goods. From the Atlantic port of Veracruz (Mexico), the goods destined for the East Indies, China and Japan were taken over land to the Pacific ports of Acapulco and Lima to be transported, across the Pacific Ocean, to Guam and Manila by the eastern fleet known as the Manila Galleons. (Galleons were war ships, unarmed merchant ships were defenceless against attacks by pirates and privateers).

In June, taking advantage of the monsoon winds, the Manila Galleons set sail from the Philippines on route to Canton and Japan, the fleet then crossed the Pacific to arrive at Upper California (today in the USA). It continued sailing down close to the coast distributing merchandise all the way to Acapulco and Lima. The goods destined for Spain were taken over land from Acapulco to the port of Veracruz and transported to Cadiz by the western fleet, the Galleons of New Spain.

The increasing trade between the East and Spain attracted large migrations of Chinese to the Philippines where the majority settled in the district of San Fernando near Manila and thus making the port an important commercial centre, a large warehouse for the distribution of all the merchandise going to and coming from the colonies and Europe. This is why the Spanish refer to the shawl as Manton de Manila.        

 An item the sailors much admired was the colourful embroidered silk square worn by the Chinese women of that era. It was the present to take back home to wives, mothers, sisters and sweethearts. These squares were viewed only as house adornments for although much admired they were a great contrast to the richly decorated but elegant sober fashion of the Spanish court.

In contrast to Spain, in the Americas the women quickly accepted the Chinese squares, both the Aztecs and the Incas considered textiles their most priced possessions. Writings of the Spanish chroniclers sent at the time of the conquest, describe in great detail the complexity of the Indian patterns and the beauty of their textiles and how, using cotton and other native fibres, the women were very skilful in the art of spinning and weaving.

From Spain came new dyes, fibres; flax and hemp for linen, wool from the Iberian merino sheep and tools from Toledo; steel needles which did not rust or bent so easily, scissors, new stitches etc., and the most important, the spinning wheel and the treadle loom to weave cloth with broader widths which is not possible with the back-strap loom. The skilled weavers soon mastered the use of the new tools and by the end of the sixteenth century New Spain had a well established textile industry. This industry was to expand with the introduction from China of silk worms and plantations of mulberry trees.

The regions of Oaxaca and Puebla in Mexico, become important centres of silk production making possible the growth of another thriving industry, the manufacture of embroidered squares in the Chinese style. By enlarging the size of the square it changes from adornment to a garment covering the body. This shawl or manton was very popular throughout the American continent and for Mexico, an important source of revenue. Based on the Spanish dollar Spain allowed her colonies to mint their own coinage, to trade between each other and not be dependent only on the mother country

The Chinese symbolic motifs and mythical figures gradually disappear, butterflies and floral motifs remained with the addition of native flowers. Designs become larger, the colours stronger much brighter, new stitches are added and the manton loses its Chinese look. Though the strongest influence in the embroideries of New Spain is Spanish, the influence of Chinese embroidery remains strong especially in the stylised decoration of blouses and skirts. 

However, this manton found little demand in the mother country where the Chinese squares were much admired for the delicacy of the embroidery and the superior quality of the silk and when, in mid-seventeenth century, the Chinese emperor decreed a change in dress style the commercial production continued. These embroideries were very profitable merchandise which both the Chinese merchants and Spanish importers had no wish to lose.

Without the restrictions imposed by fashion and to meet the demands of the now exclusive European market, it was possible for the importers to introduce a wide range of new designs and colours.

Like the Mexican manton these squares also lost the mythical Chinese figures though some kept butterflies and peacocks. The floral designs included European symbolic flowers, roses, carnations, rosemary etc. For durability the double sided embroidery, mostly in satin stitch, was and is still done using only twisted silk threads.

Dear Members

Apart from working for the exhibition, another project has been exercising the minds of several of us, namely the Culture-Clash project initiated by David Littler, Director of the London Printworks, Brixton.   After I gave a brief resumé at our AGM in March, about  9  members signed up to an initial meeting on 2nd May.  This took place at the Constance Howard Study and Research centre at Goldsmiths’ College when David, a textile designer and DJ, introduced the project with a visual presentation.   His aim:-  To bring the two different worlds of textiles and music together under the general heading of ‘sampling’, a technique common to both embroiderers and musicians; the outcome to be open-ended with an emphasis on research.

Our first series of workshops took place over a five day period starting at the V&A when Clare Browne, curator of textiles (and  co-author  with Jennifer Weardon of Samplers in the V&A Museum) and Lyn Szygenda, curator and deputy director of the Embroiderers’Guild, showed examples of historic band, spot and text samplers from their collections.  Our NEG members, joined by two from the Embroiderers’ Guild then had the opportunity to talk briefly about their own work. This was followed by Jason Singh, musician and DJ, who demonstrated beatbox techniques and talked about his interest in sound and graffiti. Complementing him, Yusra Warsama, a poet and actress, gave an unusual performance of words set to a rap rhythm.  Other participants included Jan Gilbert, artist and administrator from the Constance Howard Study and Research Centre, Janson Hews, V&A schools officer, and Srdjana Sarceric who filmed the proceedings.

For the next two days the embroiderers met at the London Printworks with David, Jason, Yusra and Srdjana.  Participants were asked to write down any words or phrases which related to the previous day’s meeting.  For example, diligence, discipline, contemplative, subversive etc.  After a series of short warm up exercises using sound Yusra asked us to imagine a girl who had made a sampler coming towards us and giving us a gift of some description.  We then wrote down words to describe our imagined scene and combined the sentences to form a poem.  After the poetry readings, Yusra asked us three important  questions:  Who taught you to sew?  Why do you sew?  What do you love the most?  This was followed by a game of consequences,  based on our writings, which was used to create four line verses.  When read aloud, these triggered memory and generated a surprising amount of emotion.  The ‘consequence-style’ poems were then collected by Jason to use in a computer programme called Life to make sound loops from words.  He explained that ‘sampling’ in music means any kind of work which can be copied or imitated.  For example, taking a sound and changing it into something else or using sound as paint would be applied on canvas with technology as an integral part of the performance.   At this point, we discussed ways in which sampling is used in embroidery and it was decided to use canvas as a suitable ground fabric for our first experiment.

On the Wednesday we started embroidering our samplers with a variety of threads, strips of fabric and ribbon, simple shapes and patterns.   Jason then transposed them  on to the computer and produced a range of sounds from percussion to flute.   We listened intently and found the results quite fascinating.

Thursday and Friday were spent at ‘Raw Material’, a nearby recording studio.  Here with the aid of Ben, a sound specialist, we recorded our poems and prose, some verses from old samplers and the letters of the alphabet, the latter being a recurring feature in many band samplers. Then a musical note was introduced and Pat Cove entertained us with a particularly relevant song ‘The sewing machine, the sewing machine, a girl’s best friend….’   This was recorded.   Later Jason presented some of the music he had made from the sound loops and Yusra performed another extraordinary rap poem.  Meanwhile, we sat, stitched and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in a very relaxed atmosphere! The week concluded on a very positive note and it was decided to take the sound into the visual by using the alphabet as a standard to create further patterns in stitch.  It was emphasised by David that there were no boundaries to this piece of research.  Depending on funding, further workshops will take place to develop this fascinating project which is helping to change our perceptions and unite the worlds of stitch and sound.  

Here is a  wise verse from a sampler:

‘Look well to what you take in hand

For larning is better than house or land

When land is gone and money spent

Then larning is most excellent.’

Mary Groome 1704

See www.londonprintworks.com

*participants:   Liz Ashurst, Pat Cove, Kate Davis, Moyra McNeill,  Janice Lawrence, Jackie Martin, Kathie Small, Suzanne Newton plus Embroiderers’ Guild members, Gillian Davies and Jackie Rayer

In the early post-war period, science enjoyed great popular appeal. X-ray crystallography - the study of the structure of molecules - was one of the most exciting fields at the time. In X-ray crystallography a narrow beam of X-ray is passed through a crystal formed of the target substance in regular arrays. The shadows cast by the diffracted X-rays are then photographed.   The diffraction patterns are then analysed and the arrangement of atoms calculated.  It requires skill to create suitable crystals for analysis and even more skill in analysing the resulting diffraction patterns.

Dr Helen Megaw, a professional crystallographer with great experience in producing these analyses, saw both the scientific explanatory power of these techniques and the aesthetic qualities of the images.  She believed that her science intersected art and that the results of her and her colleagues’ work could serve as a powerful stimulus to both artists and designers.  The resulting patterns would serve both as a celebration of these scientific achievements and provide a distinctive aesthetic matching the spirit of optimism and progress which the imminent Festival of Britain was to embody.  

The Festival Pattern Group (FPG)

In 1949 Dr Megaw was invited to act as the scientific advisor for the FPG.  The Group was a unique collaboration between X-ray crystallographers and designers, who took crystallography diagrams as their inspiration and applied the patterns to everyday items, such as wallpaper, fabrics and carpets.  The repetitive molecular structures within the crystal array form an analogue to the cellular structures of many designs for textiles.

Although the public and manufacturers found the designs intriguing, they were never a great commercial success.  The most successful patterns were the small-scale ones for

jacquard-woven silk ties.  The Group’s legacy was to provoke a popularity for spindly linear patterns evoking molecular forms and micro-organisms on 1950s textiles.  Three-dimensional atomic structure models led to a craze for accessories with ball-and-spoke structures, such as magazine racks and coat-hangers.

Many of these exhibits had been stored unseen in the vaults of the V&A Museum but, fifty years on, the work of the FPG still has an intriguing quirky quality and also the potential to be exploited once more by artists and designers.

Haemoglobin (a vital oxygen-carrying protein molecule in the blood) – the most widely used pattern – was applied to printed and woven dress and furnishing fabrics, lace, tie silks, leathercloth, plastic laminate, wallpaper, wrapping paper and ceramics.

Myoglobin (an oxygen-carrying protein molecule active in muscle tissue) – upholstery fabrics and wall coverings.

Insulin (an essential hormone secreted by the pancreas) -  wallpaper, carpets, plastic laminates, linoneum, leathercloth, lace and ties.

Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE

24 April – 10 August 2008

exhibition website

For those who missed the exhibition and are interested, a book has been published on the exhibition:  

Jackson L 2008 From Atoms to Patterns.  London, Richard Dennis.

For more information than you will ever want to know about the Festival of Britain, visit:

http://www.packer34.freeserve.co.uk/index.html

Some interesting facts: 

*Indigo dye can be extracted from at least six different plants including Indigofera tinctoria, In Native of China and India and Lochocarpus cyanescent used in West Africa to Polygonum tinctoria used in Japan. 

*Woad 

The woad plant Isatis tinctoria is in chemical composition, methods of use and colour the same as indigo. It is known to have the properties of removing swelling and smoothing the skin. 

According to Pliny in AD44 and 45 the Romans encountered ‘Celts dyed blue in order that in battle their appearance be more terrible.

*Indigo has been applied to the skin in many countries, as an antiseptic as well as for adornment and protection, also used for tattoos. It is being studied today as a cure for cancer. 

*After Vasco de Gama’s discovery of the sea route to India in 1489 European dyers switched from using woad to using tropical indigo because it was more suitable for dyeing imported Indian silks, muslins and cottons. Later indigo plantations were established in the West Indies and America. 

*Cloth emerges from the dye vat yellow in colour and turns blue in contact with the air. Many superstitions arose from this strange alchemy. The temperamental dye bath with its phases of fertility, often being compared (by men of course) to the unpredictable behaviour of women. 

*Indigo is not suitable for printing but is used as a dip dye. Methods are resist pastes, 

batik, ikat, tie dye, or stitching and pulling up tight known as adire alabere in West Africa or tritik in the East. 

William Morris bleached out the indigo dye from parts of some of his designs using printing methods. 

*Cloth dyed with indigo until it is nearly black can be burnished when it can look almost like metal. Seen in the deserts of the Sahara and Southern Arabia. 

*Indigo’s use as hair dye goes back to the time of King Darius of Persia in the 5 century BC. Bluebeard, the Hindu god Krishna and Braveheart also have associations with indigo. It adds lustre and repels insects. 

*In the past indigo work wear has been worn in many countries including, China, Europe and America. In 1873 Levi Strauss Patented (waist overalls) made from cloth woven and dyed in Nîmes, France, known as ‘serge de Nîmes’. Natural indigo was used until synthetic indigo was developed by the German company BASF at the very end of the 19th century. 

*Now over a billion pairs of jeans are made each year and they are worn by all strata of society. 

 Lacroix left the south of France where he was born in 1951 and went to Paris at twenty two years of age to study Art History at the Sorbonne and at the Ecole du Louvre, thinking he would become a curator of textiles. Something happened, perhaps meeting his future wife, for he then turned to designing. 

*It is easy to think you have plenty of time – you haven’t – so cut back on as many commitments as possible – get the full co-operation of husband/partner (this is quite difficult when you have been married for forty-five years) and family.

*A budget – mine was only in my head from savings, I was not out to make money, but clear the house (and to show off!).

*Keep a notepad and pencil with you at all times, jot down the name of anyone who sounds interested in your project, or who will be useful (ie:- photographer, printer ).

If possible get someone who doesn’t know you well, but whose knowledge of your subject you respect, to sift through your work. Have three piles: 1) mount/frame, 2) keep for memories, 3) dustbin. This I found worked wonders.

*Look carefully at other exhibitions, how they are hung, the size of work, the frames.

*Before framing be sure to take a photograph of every piece, especially if you are selling

*Try to get an overall ‘look’ into your mounting and framing. 

*Early on look for copy and publication dates of magazines and press (this is important).

*‘Private view’ flyers and posters – choose something that reproduces well and incorporates aspects you wish to advertise.  As I was showing and selling both paintings and embroideries, the picture on my advertising matter showed both aspects.  

*Keep typeface simple and format clear and uncluttered.  Get it checked by the gallery before printing. I had to have a logo on mine.  Clear directions on how to get there, and maybe a map makes it easier for visitors to arrive. Computers are useful.

*Post private view invitations at least six weeks in advance, let local press know what’s happening.

*Have a scale plan of the gallery, then make a hanging plan, visit the gallery at different times of the day to find out how the light falls. Be prepared to alter your plan if needed. 

*Use help when it is offered, it is necessary and my students were wonderful (so was the work they exhibited with me).

*Have cards, Craft Creations provide the blanks, Quick Imaging photographs (you can order as few as fifty, so provides variety). Have address labels. If you have time make some of your own – BUT time gets limited!

*Pricing is a difficult one – I had about forty paintings mounted but not framed, these I was able to sell at a very reasonable price, they could be taken on the day of purchase. I came home with five. Cards sell well in packs of five for 5p less per card than when sold singly.  Otherwise pricing is up to you.

*In summing up the whole experience, the help and support I received from my students (friends) was incalculable.  David was wonderful, once he understood how much I was depending on him with the computer etc.  Everyone including David and myself were surprised at the wide variety of work I had produced over the years, and how much there was!  Janice Lawrence wrote a very nice review. The role reversal (me first) in the family was the most difficult part, and I wondered at times if I was being selfish – having said that, I couldn’t have done it successfully without putting my whole mind and body into the project.

I exceeded my ‘mind budget’ by £70, and still made enough to pay for the rug being woven to my design in Nepal.

Was all the hard work worthwhile?  YES, IT WAS.  But don’t ask me to do it again for a few years!

Jane Walmsley is the designer who has created our new logo and publicity leaflet.

Liz: Do you remember meeting at Botanical Illustration in Redhill about ten years ago? I thought you were by far the best in the class and admired your exceptionally sensitive drawings.  You were very modest in all respects and it was only later that I discovered you were also a whiz on your computer.  Your name also sounded vaguely familiar:  then it slowly dawned on me that I had a small Gallery Five card designed by you resting on my dresser. 

I believe you originally trained in Textiles?

Jane:  Yes, I did Textile design at the Central School from 1970 to ’73 specialising in printed textiles and costume design for the stage.

Liz:  What did you do when you left college?

Jane:  My Polish tutor knew a Polish illustrator who was looking for someone who could combine a bit of stage design with a bit of textile design and was interested in illustration.  His name was Jan Pienkowski.  I worked for him as a full time art assistant for seven years.  When I first joined his studio he was designing a ballet for the Royal Opera House, producing a large collection of wallpapers for Coloroll and working on his 10th childrens’ book.  He was also the Art director of his own company, Gallery Five, which produced greetings cards, wrapping paper etc.  As well as assisting Jan with his projects I also created many designs for Gallery Five.

Liz:  What was the inspiration for these designs?

Jane:  I designed for Gallery Five over a 20 year period so obviously they varied widely.  Many of them were inspired by medieval art, illuminated manuscripts and poetry.  As a result the cards often had words incorporated into the design.

Liz:  Was the card which I kept for so many years one of your earliest designs?

Jane:  Yes, it was one of the first.  The cards and wrappings papers could vary from a whole poem being used to endless repetition of a word such as ‘Noel’. Other designs might have been cartoonish characters such as Santa Claus, snowmen and cats in cut out paper chain form using bold colours.  In 1980 I went freelance and continued to help Jan with his books and sell designs to Gallery Five who liked their artists to be exclusive to them.  Otherwise I did a great deal of layout and paste up work for childrens’ books chiefly for Heinemann and Puffin.  I also designed the junior Puffin club magazine for several years.

Liz:  What are you currently involved with?

Jane:  I’m still helping Jan with his books, the latest publication being ‘The Thousand Nights and One Night’, but generally I’m mostly focusing on fine art.

Liz:  What is your main subject matter?

Jane:  Botanical subjects, some of which are treated in an academic manner, that is, as realistically as possible, and others are in a painted graphic style with gouache.

Liz:  Is there any particular subject which interests you more than others?

Jane:  British native plants.

Liz:  Where do you find them?

Jane:  Whenever I go for walks I gather them from the hedgerows, as you know Liz,  for you are often with me.  I also try to grow my own in  my small garden which to the casual observer looks like  a heap of weeds.

Liz:  What kind of media do you prefer?

Jane:  Pencil, on its own, gouache or gouache with pencil shaded on top.  I love strong, rich colours and find this medium produces intense colour and realism.  Watercolour is just a little too wishy-washy for me.

Liz:  You are also an obsessive recorder;  whenever we are out you take your sketchbook and note every plant in flower, this could be a hundred or more species in one walk. 

Jane:  I actually have this mission to show people that our wild flowers and even our weeds are as beautiful as any garden plant.  As it happens this ties in with present wild life and environmental concerns.

Liz:  What do you intend to do in the future?

Jane:  I’m hoping to sell more of my own greetings cards and wrapping paper and to sell designs to card companies. The Society of Botanical Illustrators will be exhibiting at Westminster Central Hall in London in April and I would like to show my work as a non member.

Liz:  Thank you very much Jane and we wish you every success with your future work.

I always think it’s fascinating when an embroiderer has a retrospective and you can see the development of style, skill and ideas and the changes that occur from outside influences from the sixties, say to the eighties, nineties and now the noughties, but the childhood pieces are never featured.  It would be fun to hear how other members of The New Embroidery Group started their embroidery journey.  Here’s my story.

I went to boarding school aged 4 – yes, I know it was rather young but the headmistress was a friend of my mother’s and I had rather elderly parents. It probably accounts for my nervous tic and the fact that I am in and out of prison   (only joking! ) The school was very old fashioned and very keen on sewing and embroidery. I made a canvas-work needle case that my mother used all her life and I now use, a shadow-work lamp shade (very ambitious and long since thrown out) a canvas-work belt for my sister–in–law (my half brother was much older than me ) It was just long enough to fit a rather small teddy bear and proved a lasting joke between us, remembered long after the belt had gone, and as a pièce de résistance, when I was eleven, a canvas-work sampler. This last I was very proud of and it hangs above my computer today, as I type. It is truly ghastly! It is worked in wool, on 10 stitches to the inch canvas and has my name underneath the date and the initials of the school, and round the outside are flowers, rabbits and cats etc and the background is beige tent stitch. It is full of missed stitches and mistakes. There is rather a lot of the beige background and the frame is gold. Yes, I did say gold. Much too grand for such a horrible offering but my mother was very proud of it. 

Across the hall in our bedroom hangs a sampler worked in silk on linen, in about 1790 by an ancestor of my husband, when she was ten years old. It has about 28 stitches to the inch and is very, very pretty, with the alphabet and numbers and a beautiful scrolling border. I don’t think I have ever or will ever, work anything as fine, in both senses of the word, as this. I leave you to draw your own conclusions!

Some of them are expensive – I believe you have to pay royalties on designer fabrics – but for the price of a rather ordinary ready-made garment you can make something striking. I made a silk shirt from a length by Yves St. Laurent, a waistcoat of embroidered Indian silk and an evening skirt of devoré velvet. The latter is really unusual, having a background of unevenly hand-dyed silk in a greyed raspberry pink scattered with trailing velvet roses in shades of burnt orange, and green foliage. It attracts a lot of attention, which is always nice!

If you show an interest in anything in particular, the sales assistants unravel the rolls and toss them around to show how they hang. Don’t feel obliged to buy something just because you have a dozen rolls draped around the shop for your benefit – they do it all day long! I took a friend recently who has granddaughters, and Mr Joel found her cheap pretty remnants for little girls’dresses. Janice Lawrence and I had a lovely time interfering with a lady trying to choose material for her mother-of-the-bride dress. She took samples home and we just hoped her family (she called them ‘the committee’) were not going to undo all our good work and make her wear something boring and unflattering. There are quite often veiled Arab women shopping there, on one occasion accompanied by bodyguards who stood, like bouncers in the corners of the shop,  getting thoroughly in the way. Do go and have a look. You will be amazed.

The street market outside sells lovely cheap fruit, veg. and fish plus other bits and pieces.

Well, if all that weren’t tempting enough, further along the road on the other side is Beverley, who sells mostly 1930s china, which is incredibly pretty so was often given as wedding presents, but not being the most practical shapes, remains unused and perfect. Beverley’s shop is always choc-a-block with boxes about to be unpacked or sent elsewhere and she invariably greets me with  “I’m afraid I’m in a bit of a muddle at the moment” I tell her if she’s ever not in a muddle, I shall worry about her. No credit cards.

Almost next door is Cristobal, where Steve and Yai (spelling?) sell some antique furniture but mostly vintage costume jewellery. I have been collecting this for some time. Pieces from the forties and fifties are interesting and beautifully made compared with modern dress jewellery. Especially good if you like a bit of bling! They do go up in value and are a fun thing to invest in, not taking up too much room and entertaining to wear. I usually browse for about an hour, go away and have lunch and then back for another long look. I have introduced many friends to this wonderful shop and taken several husbands there for their Christmas shopping. The owners are very charming and tolerant.  

Back on the other side of the road is Alfie’s Market (indoor), a bewildering labyrinth of stalls selling antiques and C20th collectibles. You never know what you might find at Alfie’s, but right at the top is a café/restaurant where on a fine day you can eat out on the roof terrace. Not haute cuisine but not bad either. Walking down Lisson Grove, you come to the Sea Shell which I believe is quite a well known fish restaurant. Traditional food but good enough if you are in the mood. It’s a place where Japanese tourists are taken to sit in solemn and perplexed silence in front of their cod and chips. I’m sure there are some good middle eastern restaurants round the corner in Edgware Road but haven’t tried them yet.

There is a car park just south of Church Street in Penfold Street (I can get there without going into a congestion charge zone) and exceptionally clean public loos at the junction between Church Street and Salisbury Street. There are other antique shops too but I have only described my favourites.