 With all the tools, timber, and workshop paraphernalia we collected, we always had a space problem. When a new market opened on Camden Lock, i was among the first to sign up for a stall. I seem to remember that was sometime in the fall of 1975, possibly the first week in October. There is no greater joy than selling things that you have too many of and creating space, but of course, the temptation is to always buy more. There was seldom furniture at the market, but I had a love affair for elm seat country chairs. Ergo, I would find myself on Saturday mornings first looking at everyone else's stalls and then trying to sell the stuff on mine. Usually, I went away with about the same amount of things that I started with, plus a pair of very cold hands and feet. London weather post September is usually wet and cold and when you are on a stall all day trying to sell stuff, your hands and feet suffered. I don't look back wistfully on that stall, although I do remember lunch breaks listening to music in Dingwall's, a warehouse turned bar, that was home to itinerant musicians wanting to jam. That and a sausage sandwich from the Suffolk farm stall were as good a respite as you could want. There was always another song.
I went back to Camden Lock several years ago. It had been in operation for over 40 years by then and it was not remotely recognizable to what I knew. Furthermore, there were no antique stalls to speak of. This isn't a complaint, merely an observation in regards to the world of antiques. Westbourne Grove, where I sold my restored pembroke table, is now mostly clothes and high end grocery outlets selling farm fresh products. Bond Street and the Fulham Road are similarly denuded although two of England's better furniture dealers still trade there. Pimlico and Kensington Church Street are probably the most reminiscent of how prominent the antiques trade was on the high street, both boasting a number of good galleries. The saddest change in my mind, however, is Portobello Road. There are a few hold out dealers there, but at one point, it was an important center for antique dealing. I had a stall there on Wednesday's for a few weeks, way down at the bottom of the road, not to far from the elevated highway. I well remember the Japanese couple that showed up in a white Bentley, both dressed in white, she with a fluffy white boa, both of them looking ready for a ball. I seem to remember that they bought boxes and boxes of steel screws that we were trying to get rid of. How cosmopolitan of them.
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