In Praise of the Funny Everything Shop

I really like where I live. I’m in London, but everyone knows that London is just a network of villages, and you can change your village to suit your current lifestyle. In five minutes from my front door I can be on my local high street, where I can pop to the deli, a proper butcher’s,a greengrocer, the fishmonger, the bakery (with cafe attached), two proper wine shops, and several pubs that will serve me lunch and are happy to welcome little people. There’s a White Stuff and a Co-Op supermarket, and a GBK and a caffe Nero, two toyshops and two banks, and lots of estate agents. There’s the best independent bookstore, which looks crumbly on the outside, but has the most interesting selection of books. There’s a locksmith, a health shop,  a post office, a cookware shop, little gift shops, diy shops, homewares shops and a bathroom shop.

But the shop I love the most is the funny little everything shop. It doesn’t have a sign outside but we all know its name. Out on the pavement when it’s dry there’ll be buckets of dishcloths and cleaning products, and stepladders and sweeping brushes to buy. Inside you make a circuit of the shop, regardless or your purpose in going there. Up one aisle you can get clothing dye, cleaning things, muffin cases, silicon teddy bear molds, enamel pie tins, cookie cutters, baking trays, sieves of many sizes. Down the other aisle you can get kilner jars, foil trays, party hats, party bags, bath plugs, doorstops, toiletries, colouring pencils, toy cars. They have much more than that, but there’s no way one person could remember it all.

Last week one of our fuses went. We have an old fuseboard that we should have had replaced, but never quite got round to, so instead of flipping a trip switch we have to take out the fuse, thread a new length of fuse wire through it and pop it back in. Only this time we’d run out of fuse wire. Which shop would have such a thing?

It’s amazing considering the power of the shop and its things that I only came away with this small haul, but while I was there it was indeed an imperative that I add a gingerbread man to my collection of cookie cutters, and get foil trays for freezing single portions of food. And of course they had the fuse wire, so we can toast without fear.

I try to shop there as often as I can, because I truly think we would be lost without it. Do support your local shops whenever you can. They are unique, and you would miss them if they went.