Something to Catch Your Eye
With three levels full of antiques of all kinds along with a rooftop café featuring some scrumptious desserts, there's definitely something to catch your eye at Alfie's. Your personal budget likely determines which level you spend the most time on; for a broke college student, level two and the café will be lovely places to check out for treasures to purchase. Level one has an eclectic range of items, with vintage purses, antique furniture, glass and China ready to be displayed in large cabinets, old jewelry, and so forth. Level two has many vintage and antique trinkets, like lighters, small tin boxes, posters, and there's a half level of sorts between two and three that has a bunch of glass-accented furniture. Level three contained more vintage clothing and lead to the café which had rooftop access that's probably quite lovely to enjoy a scone or a slice of cake out on during the warmer months. Perhaps the true treasures of Alfie's Antique Market though are the shopkeepers themselves. Fellow writers struck up conversations on the first level that delved into the history of vintage purses and the fashion eras that influenced the styles leading to the ability to rather accurately date each piece. Others encountered a humorous gentleman on the second level selling prints, old pictures, paintings, and so forth who was quite vocal, jolly, and highly interested in how a bunch of Americans had stumbled upon his stall. He had a few choice words for Trump as well and was almost as inquisitive as the student writers themselves. Though there were many treasures to discover at Alfie's, the best ones seemed to lie amongst the people; striking up a conversation with some of the shopkeepers there turned out to be the most valuable and memorable aspect of the visit to Alfie's.
- Caity Coutant
Charmed to Entertain Visitors
I am holding a picture frame. It is a glass frame with grooves and a gold plated clasp at the top, stretching about two inches in width. In the frame, there is a black and white photograph of a beautiful woman. Part of me feels like I’m holding the portrait of an old step ford wife or standing in the living room of a decrepit white woman and she’s telling me about the good old days, before the war, when she wanted glamour and to become Vivien Leigh. But all at once I’d feel a kind of pain for the person who had lost (or most likely had to sell) all of this beauty: the picture frame of former dreams, the accompanying lamp set, the uncut amethyst and gold decorative swans. All trinkets that told a story of a life once lived. The vendor now in charge of all this life takes the responsibility, the boredom, and the sometimes unfortunate burden of reintroducing it back into the world.
This reintroduction happens at Alfie’s Antiques market. The outwardly unassuming four-story building, issued to a corner of Church and Plympton Street is full of unexpected gifts, almost all old, ridiculously priced, or falling apart. Opened in 1976, Alfie’s sells objects from what seems to be the last century, maybe even before that, somewhere deep in a forgotten stall. With countless stalls on each floor, you could walk past chipping china; jewelry handcrafted some 30 years ago; paintings and posters and art of a bygone era. Nostalgia is too poor a word. But though Alfie’s mostly deals in antiques, the 21st century is not completely lost. Many modern furniture and art vendors sell their hand-stitched red velvet love seats and hand-painted dining room sets for thousands of pounds. It is the kind of ornate furniture that you don’t breathe near, let alone sit or eat on.
These dealers seemed more charmed to entertain visitors. The older vendors, sitting among piles and piles of their antiques and breakables, seemed less friendly. I think it is a symptom of sitting there for so long, petrified and out of business.
The exception to this was Lord Robert, as he introduced himself. A lively Jamaican man, with his thick accent and large frame, ran Stand F201 of 19-20th Century portraits and landscapes. Robert McKoy has been working his stall at Alfie’s for over 20 years and greeted us— my troup of young Americans — with open arms, even inviting that we “give his flyer to Trump.” He meant no malice by this, with his big, hearty laugh and cheerful wishes for our futures. We told him we were writers, and he left us with parting words of wisdom. “You’ve got to create something no one has ever seen before... and become big billionaires like JK Rowling,” he said, if only to make it like no other Brit has made it before.
Final Verdict: Worth it
- Mereysa Taylor
A Very Easy Place to Become Lost and Confused
Alfie’s Antique Market is a five-story indoor market where over 70 dealers get to display their prized possessions five days a week by selling antiques from their collections. No matter what you’re interested in or excited by, there is something at Alfie’s for everyone, with anything from art and furniture to books, costume clothing, and jewelry available for purchase. With four of the five floors filled with vendors in no clear sensible arrangement, Alfie’s is a very easy place to become lost and confused, though where exactly you are ceases to matter so much as beautiful objects you are met with at the turn of every corner. You could wander through this market for hours and leave still not having seen everything any given vendor has to offer.
Even with the inevitable captivation that comes with 19th-century interiors and vintage tableware that makes you question filling your cabinets with paper plates, the most intriguing part about Alfie’s is the sellers themselves. While some of the vendors seemed a bit pompous and dismissive, only needing one look to tell that I wouldn’t be making any major purchases, there were others who were knowledgeable, talkative, and excited to share their collections with anyone passing through.
The first vendor I got to talk to was Beth, who has been selling her ceramics, porcelain, and English China at Alfie’s for more than half of the market’s existence and has some of her pieces as props for a couple of television shows. As someone who has her own, much less impressive teacup collection, Beth could see my amazement as I ogled at her assembly, and was happy to tell me a little bit about each of the pieces I specifically pointed out. My favorite one was a round, white teacup standing on a pair of stubby green legs.
Dodo, a stall located in a small corner room on the second floor, sells vintage posters, paintings, tins, and advertising. I entered the room drawn to an old biscuit tin covered in butterflies and a few posters hanging from the shop's wall. Understanding that Alfie’s is a place to look with appreciation and shop with a higher budget, the cute girl working in Dodo approached me and offered the “Under 20 Pounds” book, with more affordable print and advertisement options.
The friendliest vendor I met by far, though, was the dog lounging in the furniture room on the third floor, who greeted me with a wagging tail and many kisses. Though I couldn’t, and didn’t expect to, afford much, Alfie’s is a wonderful market to meet people who are passionate about what they do and are willing to share the history of their pieces even when you are not willing to buy it.
- Jamie Myre
Interesting and Unique Items
Lovers of all things vintage and unique will find Alfie’s Antiques Market to be the perfect place to purchase something a little unusual on their visit to London. Located at the intersection of Lisson Grove and Church Street, Alfie’s is home to nearly seventy vendors selling furniture, art, clothing, jewelry, toys, posters, silverware, lighting fixtures, and many more miscellaneous items. Walking into Alfie’s can be overwhelming. With such a vast array of pieces that catch the eye, determining where to begin, which way to go, and what to look at can prove to be a challenge. For the inexperienced shopper, getting lost in the maze of vendor tables and shelves is a real possibility. However, navigating through Alfie’s five floors of oddly positioned booths, and awkwardly placed stairwells can be a confusing, yet rewarding experience.
Most of the vendors at Alfie’s charge a considerable amount for their items. On the upper floors of the market, the art pieces, as well as the modern lighting fixtures and furniture, are typically priced from £700-£2000. Although this appears to be an expensive rate, these vendors buy these authentic items from private sellers, resulting in a slightly higher selling price. Several traders revealed that each piece they purchase is unique and difficult to find anywhere else. These two factors combined make the seemingly steep prices of larger items more reasonable.
A shopper on the hunt for bargains would do well to seek out the smaller, less noticeable vendor tables. The sellers at these booths often have antique costume jewelry or charming knick-knacks for under £20. Some of the most interesting and unique items can be found here. In particular, one vendor located on the ground floor was selling a vintage lighter from the 1950’s that was in the shape of an old camera. To use, the lens of the camera is lifted, revealing the lighter underneath. This piece was priced at only £10.
Overall, Alfie’s has a pleasant atmosphere with vendors who are almost as unique as what they are selling. Each floor offers a different experience and a wide range of items. The market appeals to not only the antique lover but also to the common shopper. Whether the shopper is looking for a gift or just another item to add to their personal collection, Alfie’s has an innumerable amount of opportunities to find exactly what is needed. The excellent reputation that the market has earned is spot on and well-deserved.
- Emilie Booth
Sure to Learn Something Interesting
Alfie’s Antique Market is a cozy indoor space that features multiple floors of antique vendors. What’s truly fascinating about Alfie’s, however, is not the floors of antique items available for purchase, the centuries-old glass figures or rows of colorful dresses, but rather the people you meet within the market. You’ll see collectors, most of them middle-aged and dressed in expensive-looking suits. They look at each item like they already know its worth in a way that you, a mere passerby, do not. You will hear them discussing transactions, and you will suddenly become aware that you cannot afford anything in this market. A silver plate costs £400. You won’t want to consider the cost of the entire set. But if you’re looking for conversation, don’t spend too much time with the collectors. Speak to the vendors themselves. On my trip to Alfie’s, I spoke with a woman named Emilia Porto, who owns a shop called Thirteen Interiors near the entrance to the market. She told me a bit about the history of the market, mentioning that the space was undergoing renovations as it prepared to merge with another owner later this year. She then spent some time discussing the merchandise in her store, including a number of antique phones, a collection of light fixtures, and a few beaded purses and belts. She told me how colored glass was made, using a neighboring shop’s collection as an example, and pointed out a few inconsistent bead colors in a pattern that represented women’s liberation in the twenties. We spent a good portion of my time at Alfie’s chatting about the history of fashion and design and Ms. Porto’s own history working in a museum. Vendors like Ms. Porto offer a wealth of information beyond their wares, and I highly suggest you take the time to talk with them. You’re sure to learn something interesting.
- Anneliese Gelberg
Not a Place to be Rushed Through
Upon rising from the depths of the Edgware Underground, the meander along Church St. leads to the ultimate gem of Lisson Grove. The facade sings no prolific song to the outsider’s eye—it wears minor decorations that recall the 80s and decay—and yet, the inside of Alfies Antique Market holds timeless creations. It captures other worlds from room to room and floor to floor and as with Time itself, Alfies is not a place to be rushed through; each languorous step leads to different eras, aesthetics, and collections.
The top floor houses anachronistic bubbles, each filled with old and older objects, all enclosed in 10x10 foot glass boxes. Taped signs share the vendor's telephone number, or the daunting message: “Store is closing”. These glass time capsules are filled with a beautiful modern and archaic sadness. In one, old discarded picture frames lean next to a fallen ladder. Next door are green knives suffering from Bronze disease, and other various relics and coins being sold by Pax Romana Art: Authentic Ancient Art and Numismatics. The illogical beauties of the past hide in these locked rooms; one in particular, guarded by hundreds of toy soldiers, houses a dilapidated sign: “What do you really need?” Around the corner, four connected rooms shine from the illumination of futuristic, decorative lamps. They take many forms: golden leaves that burst from the room’s corner, an abstract and cubed human torso, a glass bludgeon chandelier dripping in red, white and gold. History’s futuristic ideas reside in their locked attics, hoping to move down to the consistent glow where the pricier lamps reside.
The floor below holds such work in an Italian decorative art shop. The vendors speak selective English, but the numbers are clearly written on each price tag. An ornate chandelier of gold and green—an inverted orchid blooming into an emerald gem—is slapped with a fingernail-sized sticker: £35,826. Around the corner are golden hippo busts, glass coy fish, and slabs of stone hanging by a noose. But as with everything in the room, the limp stones are handcrafted and gorgeous. The room is alive with color, each piece of functional art is loud with presence; the air bumps around glass, enamel, metal, and cloth, and exudes the warmth of ageless beauty.
The stairway through the center of Alfies is reminiscent of the original building, Jordan’s Department store, established in 1880. It was a place where modernization was once viewed as an essential business move: pneumatic tubes wound their way through walls, floors, and ceilings. Today, aesthetics play a part in separating the innards with any specific time or place. The white metal stairs rise above a Koi fish pond, and while the sound of each step reverberates in that vertical corridor, the echoes dissipate as they roll across the hardwood, enamel, and carpet of the separate floors.
The first floor’s red carpet rests below the blinding glare of silver. The antiques here are small and exquisitely detailed, sold by vendors who have spent a lifetime studying intricate nuances. Men and women like Aiden, 62, who began working forty years ago, when Alfies originally opened. He holds a 10” blade delicately, appreciating the unknown seals that are engraved on the handle. It holds no value, is not ornately decorated or pretty in any measurable way, but it has an unknown origin with “Bolts and Nuts” engraved in the handle. To him, it holds the most valuable beauty: a lost history.
The world during which his silver was created has died, and as he shows a customer the book on what each engraved seal means, his eyes flash with a lamentation. “The lion signifies genuine English Silver, a crown means it is from Sheffield.” He explains this with animated movements, digging through old books for particular historical details. As the prospective buyers walk away, the melancholic look in his eyes matches the top floor’s disappearing rooms. He scratches his head, “There’s not enough young people coming in, when someone old… you know. Nobody’s coming along.” Alfies Antique Market is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am-6pm.
- Sam Normington
A Time Capsule
Unlike most of the markets, Alfie's is easy to miss. It's a single building on a street corner, and four floors of tiny stall shops with some room on each floor for the furniture. The clientele and businesses both are usually older and to be frank, I have little interest in antiques beyond books and oddities. But Alfie's gives you more than just what people sell, it has a history in each stall, and it's clear in certain ones that the people eagerly want new customers. As I walked through the building, I saw student and shop owner enraptured in conversation, both sides delighted to share in favorite stories. A particular stall owner was happy to listen to a life story of a student, asking question after question that showed his interest.
Alfie's is inexpensive and tucked away, and it's obvious when you're so often the only customer on the floor wandering between stalls and rooms that get so little business they place signs asking you to contact them instead of walking inside. Floors of little industrial hallways give you nothing but the feeling of a ghost town, and when it's obvious you're not going to buy anything, the storeowners watch, waiting for you to turn the corner. The market is a time capsule, and Alfie's slowly becoming one people don't want to open, despite the good in it.
- Marius Black
Lord Robert Radiates the Most Charm
Focal Length: 24mm
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec.
ISO 1000
You’re not used to asking if you can take photos of people. Instead, you try to keep it a secret and hope the subject doesn’t notice. But you step out of your shell for the first time in your life at Alfie’s Antique Market and ask Lord Robert if you can take his photo. The large aperture blurs the background, so the focus is on him and nothing else because he stands out from everyone else at the market. A friendly face among unapproachable vendors.
It comes out underexposed, an easy fix. You bump up the exposure and the contrast. Robert and his teddy-bear persona come to life. Highlights and shadows are increased, and blacks are decreased to accentuate the wrinkles on his forehead, the chubbiness of his cheeks, and the smile on his face (which is either from you asking to take his picture or because you two hit it off by discussing a mutual disdain for Donald Trump).
Colors make this a challenge. Deep red and weird blue hues are not your forte. After realizing that sometimes you can’t change all your reds to pink or orange, you accept that a slight change is better than no change, though a decrease in saturation and luminance helps. A cardinal could blend in with the carpet, a blue jay with Lord Robert’s sweater.
Blacks fade to a dark gray to make the photo calm and inviting. Darks are forced brighter to bring out Robert’s rich chocolate skin while the lights are drowned a fraction to make the background dull. Out of all the art and antiques in Alfie’s, Lord Robert radiates the most charm.
- Cortney Lesovoy
With three levels full of antiques of all kinds along with a rooftop café featuring some scrumptious desserts, there's definitely something to catch your eye at Alfie's. Your personal budget likely determines which level you spend the most time on; for a broke college student, level two and the café will be lovely places to check out for treasures to purchase. Level one has an eclectic range of items, with vintage purses, antique furniture, glass and China ready to be displayed in large cabinets, old jewelry, and so forth. Level two has many vintage and antique trinkets, like lighters, small tin boxes, posters, and there's a half level of sorts between two and three that has a bunch of glass-accented furniture. Level three contained more vintage clothing and lead to the café which had rooftop access that's probably quite lovely to enjoy a scone or a slice of cake out on during the warmer months. Perhaps the true treasures of Alfie's Antique Market though are the shopkeepers themselves. Fellow writers struck up conversations on the first level that delved into the history of vintage purses and the fashion eras that influenced the styles leading to the ability to rather accurately date each piece. Others encountered a humorous gentleman on the second level selling prints, old pictures, paintings, and so forth who was quite vocal, jolly, and highly interested in how a bunch of Americans had stumbled upon his stall. He had a few choice words for Trump as well and was almost as inquisitive as the student writers themselves. Though there were many treasures to discover at Alfie's, the best ones seemed to lie amongst the people; striking up a conversation with some of the shopkeepers there turned out to be the most valuable and memorable aspect of the visit to Alfie's.
- Caity Coutant
Charmed to Entertain Visitors
I am holding a picture frame. It is a glass frame with grooves and a gold plated clasp at the top, stretching about two inches in width. In the frame, there is a black and white photograph of a beautiful woman. Part of me feels like I’m holding the portrait of an old step ford wife or standing in the living room of a decrepit white woman and she’s telling me about the good old days, before the war, when she wanted glamour and to become Vivien Leigh. But all at once I’d feel a kind of pain for the person who had lost (or most likely had to sell) all of this beauty: the picture frame of former dreams, the accompanying lamp set, the uncut amethyst and gold decorative swans. All trinkets that told a story of a life once lived. The vendor now in charge of all this life takes the responsibility, the boredom, and the sometimes unfortunate burden of reintroducing it back into the world.
This reintroduction happens at Alfie’s Antiques market. The outwardly unassuming four-story building, issued to a corner of Church and Plympton Street is full of unexpected gifts, almost all old, ridiculously priced, or falling apart. Opened in 1976, Alfie’s sells objects from what seems to be the last century, maybe even before that, somewhere deep in a forgotten stall. With countless stalls on each floor, you could walk past chipping china; jewelry handcrafted some 30 years ago; paintings and posters and art of a bygone era. Nostalgia is too poor a word. But though Alfie’s mostly deals in antiques, the 21st century is not completely lost. Many modern furniture and art vendors sell their hand-stitched red velvet love seats and hand-painted dining room sets for thousands of pounds. It is the kind of ornate furniture that you don’t breathe near, let alone sit or eat on.
These dealers seemed more charmed to entertain visitors. The older vendors, sitting among piles and piles of their antiques and breakables, seemed less friendly. I think it is a symptom of sitting there for so long, petrified and out of business.
The exception to this was Lord Robert, as he introduced himself. A lively Jamaican man, with his thick accent and large frame, ran Stand F201 of 19-20th Century portraits and landscapes. Robert McKoy has been working his stall at Alfie’s for over 20 years and greeted us— my troup of young Americans — with open arms, even inviting that we “give his flyer to Trump.” He meant no malice by this, with his big, hearty laugh and cheerful wishes for our futures. We told him we were writers, and he left us with parting words of wisdom. “You’ve got to create something no one has ever seen before... and become big billionaires like JK Rowling,” he said, if only to make it like no other Brit has made it before.
Final Verdict: Worth it
- Mereysa Taylor
A Very Easy Place to Become Lost and Confused
Alfie’s Antique Market is a five-story indoor market where over 70 dealers get to display their prized possessions five days a week by selling antiques from their collections. No matter what you’re interested in or excited by, there is something at Alfie’s for everyone, with anything from art and furniture to books, costume clothing, and jewelry available for purchase. With four of the five floors filled with vendors in no clear sensible arrangement, Alfie’s is a very easy place to become lost and confused, though where exactly you are ceases to matter so much as beautiful objects you are met with at the turn of every corner. You could wander through this market for hours and leave still not having seen everything any given vendor has to offer.
Even with the inevitable captivation that comes with 19th-century interiors and vintage tableware that makes you question filling your cabinets with paper plates, the most intriguing part about Alfie’s is the sellers themselves. While some of the vendors seemed a bit pompous and dismissive, only needing one look to tell that I wouldn’t be making any major purchases, there were others who were knowledgeable, talkative, and excited to share their collections with anyone passing through.
The first vendor I got to talk to was Beth, who has been selling her ceramics, porcelain, and English China at Alfie’s for more than half of the market’s existence and has some of her pieces as props for a couple of television shows. As someone who has her own, much less impressive teacup collection, Beth could see my amazement as I ogled at her assembly, and was happy to tell me a little bit about each of the pieces I specifically pointed out. My favorite one was a round, white teacup standing on a pair of stubby green legs.
Dodo, a stall located in a small corner room on the second floor, sells vintage posters, paintings, tins, and advertising. I entered the room drawn to an old biscuit tin covered in butterflies and a few posters hanging from the shop's wall. Understanding that Alfie’s is a place to look with appreciation and shop with a higher budget, the cute girl working in Dodo approached me and offered the “Under 20 Pounds” book, with more affordable print and advertisement options.
The friendliest vendor I met by far, though, was the dog lounging in the furniture room on the third floor, who greeted me with a wagging tail and many kisses. Though I couldn’t, and didn’t expect to, afford much, Alfie’s is a wonderful market to meet people who are passionate about what they do and are willing to share the history of their pieces even when you are not willing to buy it.
- Jamie Myre
Interesting and Unique Items
Lovers of all things vintage and unique will find Alfie’s Antiques Market to be the perfect place to purchase something a little unusual on their visit to London. Located at the intersection of Lisson Grove and Church Street, Alfie’s is home to nearly seventy vendors selling furniture, art, clothing, jewelry, toys, posters, silverware, lighting fixtures, and many more miscellaneous items. Walking into Alfie’s can be overwhelming. With such a vast array of pieces that catch the eye, determining where to begin, which way to go, and what to look at can prove to be a challenge. For the inexperienced shopper, getting lost in the maze of vendor tables and shelves is a real possibility. However, navigating through Alfie’s five floors of oddly positioned booths, and awkwardly placed stairwells can be a confusing, yet rewarding experience.
Most of the vendors at Alfie’s charge a considerable amount for their items. On the upper floors of the market, the art pieces, as well as the modern lighting fixtures and furniture, are typically priced from £700-£2000. Although this appears to be an expensive rate, these vendors buy these authentic items from private sellers, resulting in a slightly higher selling price. Several traders revealed that each piece they purchase is unique and difficult to find anywhere else. These two factors combined make the seemingly steep prices of larger items more reasonable.
A shopper on the hunt for bargains would do well to seek out the smaller, less noticeable vendor tables. The sellers at these booths often have antique costume jewelry or charming knick-knacks for under £20. Some of the most interesting and unique items can be found here. In particular, one vendor located on the ground floor was selling a vintage lighter from the 1950’s that was in the shape of an old camera. To use, the lens of the camera is lifted, revealing the lighter underneath. This piece was priced at only £10.
Overall, Alfie’s has a pleasant atmosphere with vendors who are almost as unique as what they are selling. Each floor offers a different experience and a wide range of items. The market appeals to not only the antique lover but also to the common shopper. Whether the shopper is looking for a gift or just another item to add to their personal collection, Alfie’s has an innumerable amount of opportunities to find exactly what is needed. The excellent reputation that the market has earned is spot on and well-deserved.
- Emilie Booth
Sure to Learn Something Interesting
Alfie’s Antique Market is a cozy indoor space that features multiple floors of antique vendors. What’s truly fascinating about Alfie’s, however, is not the floors of antique items available for purchase, the centuries-old glass figures or rows of colorful dresses, but rather the people you meet within the market. You’ll see collectors, most of them middle-aged and dressed in expensive-looking suits. They look at each item like they already know its worth in a way that you, a mere passerby, do not. You will hear them discussing transactions, and you will suddenly become aware that you cannot afford anything in this market. A silver plate costs £400. You won’t want to consider the cost of the entire set. But if you’re looking for conversation, don’t spend too much time with the collectors. Speak to the vendors themselves. On my trip to Alfie’s, I spoke with a woman named Emilia Porto, who owns a shop called Thirteen Interiors near the entrance to the market. She told me a bit about the history of the market, mentioning that the space was undergoing renovations as it prepared to merge with another owner later this year. She then spent some time discussing the merchandise in her store, including a number of antique phones, a collection of light fixtures, and a few beaded purses and belts. She told me how colored glass was made, using a neighboring shop’s collection as an example, and pointed out a few inconsistent bead colors in a pattern that represented women’s liberation in the twenties. We spent a good portion of my time at Alfie’s chatting about the history of fashion and design and Ms. Porto’s own history working in a museum. Vendors like Ms. Porto offer a wealth of information beyond their wares, and I highly suggest you take the time to talk with them. You’re sure to learn something interesting.
- Anneliese Gelberg
Not a Place to be Rushed Through
Upon rising from the depths of the Edgware Underground, the meander along Church St. leads to the ultimate gem of Lisson Grove. The facade sings no prolific song to the outsider’s eye—it wears minor decorations that recall the 80s and decay—and yet, the inside of Alfies Antique Market holds timeless creations. It captures other worlds from room to room and floor to floor and as with Time itself, Alfies is not a place to be rushed through; each languorous step leads to different eras, aesthetics, and collections.
The top floor houses anachronistic bubbles, each filled with old and older objects, all enclosed in 10x10 foot glass boxes. Taped signs share the vendor's telephone number, or the daunting message: “Store is closing”. These glass time capsules are filled with a beautiful modern and archaic sadness. In one, old discarded picture frames lean next to a fallen ladder. Next door are green knives suffering from Bronze disease, and other various relics and coins being sold by Pax Romana Art: Authentic Ancient Art and Numismatics. The illogical beauties of the past hide in these locked rooms; one in particular, guarded by hundreds of toy soldiers, houses a dilapidated sign: “What do you really need?” Around the corner, four connected rooms shine from the illumination of futuristic, decorative lamps. They take many forms: golden leaves that burst from the room’s corner, an abstract and cubed human torso, a glass bludgeon chandelier dripping in red, white and gold. History’s futuristic ideas reside in their locked attics, hoping to move down to the consistent glow where the pricier lamps reside.
The floor below holds such work in an Italian decorative art shop. The vendors speak selective English, but the numbers are clearly written on each price tag. An ornate chandelier of gold and green—an inverted orchid blooming into an emerald gem—is slapped with a fingernail-sized sticker: £35,826. Around the corner are golden hippo busts, glass coy fish, and slabs of stone hanging by a noose. But as with everything in the room, the limp stones are handcrafted and gorgeous. The room is alive with color, each piece of functional art is loud with presence; the air bumps around glass, enamel, metal, and cloth, and exudes the warmth of ageless beauty.
The stairway through the center of Alfies is reminiscent of the original building, Jordan’s Department store, established in 1880. It was a place where modernization was once viewed as an essential business move: pneumatic tubes wound their way through walls, floors, and ceilings. Today, aesthetics play a part in separating the innards with any specific time or place. The white metal stairs rise above a Koi fish pond, and while the sound of each step reverberates in that vertical corridor, the echoes dissipate as they roll across the hardwood, enamel, and carpet of the separate floors.
The first floor’s red carpet rests below the blinding glare of silver. The antiques here are small and exquisitely detailed, sold by vendors who have spent a lifetime studying intricate nuances. Men and women like Aiden, 62, who began working forty years ago, when Alfies originally opened. He holds a 10” blade delicately, appreciating the unknown seals that are engraved on the handle. It holds no value, is not ornately decorated or pretty in any measurable way, but it has an unknown origin with “Bolts and Nuts” engraved in the handle. To him, it holds the most valuable beauty: a lost history.
The world during which his silver was created has died, and as he shows a customer the book on what each engraved seal means, his eyes flash with a lamentation. “The lion signifies genuine English Silver, a crown means it is from Sheffield.” He explains this with animated movements, digging through old books for particular historical details. As the prospective buyers walk away, the melancholic look in his eyes matches the top floor’s disappearing rooms. He scratches his head, “There’s not enough young people coming in, when someone old… you know. Nobody’s coming along.” Alfies Antique Market is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am-6pm.
- Sam Normington
A Time Capsule
Unlike most of the markets, Alfie's is easy to miss. It's a single building on a street corner, and four floors of tiny stall shops with some room on each floor for the furniture. The clientele and businesses both are usually older and to be frank, I have little interest in antiques beyond books and oddities. But Alfie's gives you more than just what people sell, it has a history in each stall, and it's clear in certain ones that the people eagerly want new customers. As I walked through the building, I saw student and shop owner enraptured in conversation, both sides delighted to share in favorite stories. A particular stall owner was happy to listen to a life story of a student, asking question after question that showed his interest.
Alfie's is inexpensive and tucked away, and it's obvious when you're so often the only customer on the floor wandering between stalls and rooms that get so little business they place signs asking you to contact them instead of walking inside. Floors of little industrial hallways give you nothing but the feeling of a ghost town, and when it's obvious you're not going to buy anything, the storeowners watch, waiting for you to turn the corner. The market is a time capsule, and Alfie's slowly becoming one people don't want to open, despite the good in it.
- Marius Black
Lord Robert Radiates the Most Charm
Focal Length: 24mm
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec.
ISO 1000
You’re not used to asking if you can take photos of people. Instead, you try to keep it a secret and hope the subject doesn’t notice. But you step out of your shell for the first time in your life at Alfie’s Antique Market and ask Lord Robert if you can take his photo. The large aperture blurs the background, so the focus is on him and nothing else because he stands out from everyone else at the market. A friendly face among unapproachable vendors.
It comes out underexposed, an easy fix. You bump up the exposure and the contrast. Robert and his teddy-bear persona come to life. Highlights and shadows are increased, and blacks are decreased to accentuate the wrinkles on his forehead, the chubbiness of his cheeks, and the smile on his face (which is either from you asking to take his picture or because you two hit it off by discussing a mutual disdain for Donald Trump).
Colors make this a challenge. Deep red and weird blue hues are not your forte. After realizing that sometimes you can’t change all your reds to pink or orange, you accept that a slight change is better than no change, though a decrease in saturation and luminance helps. A cardinal could blend in with the carpet, a blue jay with Lord Robert’s sweater.
Blacks fade to a dark gray to make the photo calm and inviting. Darks are forced brighter to bring out Robert’s rich chocolate skin while the lights are drowned a fraction to make the background dull. Out of all the art and antiques in Alfie’s, Lord Robert radiates the most charm.
- Cortney Lesovoy