Vintage Heaven at Sunbury Antiques Market, Kempton Park Racecourse.
January 12, 2015
Some of you may have seen this post on SYGM last week, Phoebe asked me to write it for any brides to be wanting to find vintage treasure to decorate their wedding days. But I've been meaning to write about on here too - some thoughts on Sunbury Antiques Market at Kempton Park Racecourse, one of my favourite places ever. It's amazing, we've filled most of our house {and garden} with old chairs, furniture, galvanised tubs, blanket boxes, wooden crates, ladders, jars etc from here and I sourced some unique pieces for our wedding on mornings spent vintage hunting here too.
Every other Tuesday {the second and last Tuesday of every month}, at 6.30am, sellers from all over Europe come to Kempton Park, near Hampton Court in Middlesex to display their treasure. It's now recognised as one of Europe's premier antiques markets and attracts over 700 stall holders. It's worth getting there as close to 6.30am as you can, yep even in the freezing cold dark winter there will be a huge crowd waiting at the gates. It goes on until lunch time but in reality the real treasure gets snapped up by 7am. We're normally there for a couple of hours and leave around 9am. It's free parking and free admission which is handy, if you don't own a car a lot of people rent vans for the day. It's amazing what you'll see and want to bring home with you! So plan big.
We've been going for about three years now a few times a year and while prices have crept up as it's become more popular in the press and vintage is an 'in' thing, the prices are still the best we've found for antiques. If you live in the South East probably most of the antique/junk shops near you will be stocked with products bought by dealers at Kempton so you can cut out the middle man.
Not only are the prices good, and you must ask for 'the best price' {but don't try and haggle you won't get very far}, but the variety and odd things you'll see is fascinating. There's always plenty of wooden crates {good for displaying bits at a wedding}, stacks of suitcases {for a table plan perhaps, cards box or to be stacked for decoration at a wedding}, galvanised tubs {for planting up in your garden}, ladders, typewriters, enamel jugs, old french kilner jars {I filled some with love heart sweets at our wedding and still use them in our house now}, french fabric, furniture, hessian, lights, taxidermy, antlers, crockery, wire baskets, barn stars, a cuddly toy, kitchen sink, the list goes on. If you think of something old, French or quirky you're bound to find it at Kempton.
The last time I visited I quite fancied finding a sleigh. I must have seen about hundred sleighs that morning, it was just before Christmas. I found a beautiful one and it sat under my Christmas tree this year.
I'd go every other Tuesday if I could! The problem is our house is pretty much full up now but it's still a lovely morning out. Take cash with you, there is a cash machine on site but you'll get charged for it and sellers won't take credit/debit cards.
It's always such a good atmosphere with a buzz for what you might discover. You can take dogs in with you and you don't need to worry about mud as it's all on hard ground in front of the race track. There is an indoor area with smaller antiques, silver wear and jewellery, we never really spend any time in there preferring more junky stuff but worth exploring everywhere if it's your first visit.
If you buy any big items, feel free to ask the sellers to keep it for you until you leave so you don't have to lug it around with you. It's a fair walk to the car park so best to gather everything up at the end. Just try and remember where everyone was so you don't forget anything, I {anally} make a note on my phone, I'd hate to forget something I'd paid for.
If you visit semi regularly, you'll start to recognise a few sellers. A lot of them are regulars so it's nice to see the same faces.
Some sellers are starting to label more of their products with prices but the majority are unmarked. I constantly ask 'how much is this' and then walk away to have a think and the chances are there will be another stall with something similar, you'll get to know the going price for similar items if you ask a few different sellers.
French, vintage heaven. Let me know if you make a trip there, we might even bump into each other!
You can find more info here. The next event is tomorrow! But will be every other Tuesday after that. I think I'll be going again within the next couple of months, we always say 'ok we don't need anything let's not come for a while' but sooner or later I'm hankering to go back.
R <3 xx
2 comments
So much lovely stuff! I'd love one of those stars and some of those old locker baskets. You could spend hundreds of $$ here if you weren't careful!!
ReplyDeleteI know it's hard to resist buying everything!! So many lovely things I lust over each time we visit. Compared to antique shops where we live the prices are really good at the market. You're visiting England this year aren't you? Exciting! x
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