In which I stroll around Tunbridge Wells at night looking for the magic of Christmas displayed in the shop windows of Independent Retailers.
Derroll Tozer Upholstery Shop
This has to be one of my favourite windows. It is so magical, even down to the way the closed sign is at a jaunty angle on the door .
As a child I used to take my broken dolls to the The Dolls Hospital that was in Camden Road. Back they would come like new, with arms mended and eyes that would no longer squint.
This shop is a Chair Hospital being a repair shop for furniture. Isn't it fantastic that in this throw away age there is still somewhere we can take our old furniture and have it restored using traditional methods? I just love that chair, it is so so regal and yet so modern at the same time. A chair that a child could snuggle up in and read a book, or sit listening to stories. In our house, we have a tradition that on Christmas Eve for that night only, we read aloud The Good Little Christmas Tree, then the book is put back on the shelf until next year. Both my mother and mother-in law have been the story-tellers, now neither are here but they are still part of the memory.
We would have loved a chair like that, next to our Christmas tree, it is perfect for storytelling and with its high back is excellent for preventing the ever present drafts in Victorian houses.
I do have a chair that needs repair, it is a sad chair, connected with endings. But it is a good chair and I am going to take it to Derroll and let him work his magic, it will become a beautiful chair with dignity. Just because it is old, it does not need to be thrown away, it can be revitalised in the Upholstery Shop in Camden Road.
No comments:
Post a Comment