Lacewater Vintage

I think this shop has been open since last September, but I haven't been along with my camera before. On the corner of George Street and Caroline Street, in Saltaire, Lacewater Vintage sells not only vintage clothing but homeware such as china and glassware, linens and lace. As well as the shop, Karen Birch and Ginny Winton have stalls at vintage fairs all over Yorkshire and sell online. They must be doing a good trade as it seems they have roped their daughters into the business too. The window display, with vintage wedding dresses and some really pretty china and glass, was very attractive.

I like the idea (and the look) of vintage but somehow it has never come together as a passion for me. I wish I had started collecting things at a much younger age. I do like the idea of having pretty mismatched china and I have kept one or two china teacups that my mum had. But I don't even use the extensive and perfectly matching Royal Doulton dinner service that I own. Since the 80s, when it was 'the done thing' to have OTT dinner parties in dining rooms with fancy curtains, swags and tails, things seem to have got a lot simpler!

Isn't it lovely to see one of the old 'corner shops' in Saltaire being used as a shop again? This one was once a grocery store, run in 1879 by James Parfitt and his son William Henry. It became a branch of Windhill Industrial Co-operative Society and was a shop until the mid-1960s. After that it had a spell as a launderette, and then a design consultancy. (Info from Roger Clarke's fascinating book: 'A Penny for Going'.)