aug, 22nd - kempton park racecourse.....

day 1287 / 388:

we haven't made it back to Sunbury Antiques Market lately {see day 1223 / 322}(although, we really should be capitalising on the fact that we're up at five am anyway so, could could easily catch the early morning treasures) ....but i never did get a chance to share the pics from our last visit.....so, here they are.

this market really is a gem. it's held every second and fourth Tuesday of the month and I could easily visit each and every time. it's a friendly, unpretentious place full of genuine treasures. 

there is a broad range of things to linger over from stalls inside selling trinkets, glass, clothes and silver, to a large space outside with rows of vans that have poured their contents onto the tarmac. i'm told that many of the stall owners travel across from Europe for the day which doesn't surprise me given how interesting and diverse the stock is.

it's worth taking the time to chat to the stall owners as they generally know their stuff and can usually be persuaded to give you a better price. although, i Strongly advise you to take your own flask of coffee and snacks....the only food option attracts a long queue and the coffee certainly doesn't have enough kick to take the edge off the early start.

jun, 11th - kempton park antiques.....

day 1209 / 308:

at the crack of dawn, spurred on by the idea that everyone else was already snapping up the good stuff, we woke the girls (it doesn't happen this way around very often), quickly got dressed and headed out the door to the Sunbury Antiques Market at Kempton Park Racecourse. it happens every second and fourth Tuesday of the month and shuts up shop at around noon so you have to get there before breakfast or wait for the bargains at closing time.

i have wanted to visit this market for years. it was reinforced by Louise back on day 561 and yet still, we haven't managed to get ourselves down there. but with two chairs to collect from a dealer, we had a great excuse to get our act together and of course........we were Completely Blown Away. all the vintage stores that we visit in London now pale into insignificance against this market.....especially when I also get a chance to do a little bit of light haggling too.

there was so much to see and so much that we could have bought......as Louise advised, the one food option isn't the best so I would highly recommend taking along your own and also leaving the kids at home, so that you can linger at stalls, digging around for treasure.

on top of the two chairs we went down to collect, we were looking for storage for The House.....of course instead of storage, we came home with an old marmalade jar (£3), a beautiful, leather, trunk suitcase (to use as Limi and Claya's dress-up box), a striped blazer for A and an old Imperial Typewriter (£30).....but we now have a great excuse to visit again in two weeks time.