If you love antique shopping, England is a great place to visit. And these are some of the best towns and villages to visit for a good rummage.
Shopping for antiques is addictive. Once you have the mistake, there will be no vacation or complete getaway without spending some time haggling over antiques and collectibles or rummaging through the brac-a-brac. And a small antique shop, no matter how full of treasures, is never as good as an entire street, lined up one after another, or a market with more vendors than you can visit in less than a whole day.
These towns and villages in England are dedicated to antiques and collectibles, with concentrations of antique dealers and shops dense enough to please the most avid antique hunter. This is by no means a complete list, it represents my personal favorites and I’ll be adding them as I discover more.
Battlesbridge Antique Center
The Antique Center is a collection of buildings, including an old barn and a variety of barns, sheds, and cabins, open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. At any given time, at least 80 antique dealers sell a wide range of items including stamps, jewelry, ephemera, furniture, vintage clothing, lamps, music boxes and musical instruments and, yes, junk junk. Paradise.
This is not the type of place where chic interior decorators find elegant 18th century Italian furniture. It is a true antique bag. But there are real treasures to be found, like the art deco convertible side table that I took home for £ 30.
Where: Essex, about 40 miles from London, halfway between Chelmsford and Southend off the A130. The village takes its name from a family named Bataille who once looked after the bridge over the River Crouch next to the barn.
By Train: Take the Southend Line from Liverpool Street Station in London and change at Wickford for Southminster. Battlesbridge is the first stop on that line. Downtown is about a third of a mile from the station. Check National Rail Inquiries for schedules and prices.
Food and Drink: Confirmed hounds need sustenance. There are one or two small, basic cafes dotted around the merchants, but most people head to the traditional pub on site, The Barge Inn, for pub food, beers, and wines.
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Hungerford, Berkshire
If you really like to immerse yourself in antiques, you could spend days enjoying wonderful things in this traditional English market town halfway between London and Bristol. There are at least 18 antique stores, several large antique centers with multiple dealers, and flea markets and antique fairs.
It starts at the Hungerford Antiques Arcade. This mega-mall was voted Britain’s Best Antique Center in 2012 by readers of the BBC’s home and antique magazine. Home to at least 100 antiques and collectibles dealers, at 26-27 High Street and on Wednesdays, there is a photogenic outdoor market right outside. At The Emporium, a blue-and-white Victorian building at 112 High Street, 60 dealers displayed their wares and at Great Grooms on Charnam Street outside the city center, dealers were spread over three floors in a beautiful townhouse. Queen Anne town.
If you like flea markets more, they have one at the town hall on the first Wednesday of every month, one Sunday a month. And the town hall also hosts a full-blown antiques fair on the last Saturday of each month.
Where: Hungerford is just off the M4, about 67 miles west of London or 57 miles east of Bristol. It is useful for antiques if you are planning to visit Bath or go out to see the prehistoric sites at Avebury and Silbury Hill.
Find accommodation in Hungerford
By Train: London Paddington trains run hourly throughout the day to Hungerford. The trip takes just over an hour.
Food and Drink: As you would expect in a busy commercial city, there are many small cafes and snack shops to visit. Try the cafeteria at Three Swans for some really nice pastries in a historic inn, Eliane at 24 High Street, aims to cater to vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and allergen-free diets, as well as providing confirmed and unrepentant carnivores. And somehow they manage to do this without being irritable about it. Plan to go for an early lunch here because a line forms outside.
Petworth, West Sussex
Petworth House and Park, in the South Down National Park, near the South Downs Way, is one of the finest manor houses in England. It has the largest collection of paintings in the National Trust, including 19 Turners. Many of the Turners were painted when the artist resided in this West Sussex home under the patronage of the Earl of Egremont.
Visitors to this important home may not be aware that the adjacent town of Petworth is often named one of England’s top cities for antique hunters. It has at least 35 antique stores and 100 dealers, offering country furniture alongside very high quality British, English and Continental antiques. Most of the stores are members of Petworth Antique and Decorative Arts, which publishes a helpful street map of dealers on their website. Look in particular for the Tudor Rose antiques, housed in a 500-year-old red brick building.
Where: West Sussex, about 50 miles southwest of London on the A272, 5.5 miles west of Pulborough.
By Train: Trains from London Waterloo Station arrive at Haslemere and trains from London Victoria stop at Pulborough, either about 20 minutes from Petworth. Local bus services from Worthing to Midhurst stop at Pulborough Station.
Food and Drink: Fast, casual food in affluent residential West Sussex is always a challenge. There are a couple of Indian restaurants and a Chinese take out in the center of town, as well as a small local cafe or two. The National Trust Restaurant and Cafe at Petworth House are open to the public until 5pm without purchasing a house and garden ticket.
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Tetbury, Gloucestershire
Tetbury is in the heart of royal territory in the Cotswolds. Highgrove, the home of Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales is located in the countryside just outside the city. Tours of Highgrove Gardens can be booked in advance. Princess Anne, the royal princess, lives nearby too.
The city first made its fortune in the Cotwolds wool trade and can boast a 1,300-year history. Several interesting landmarks and buildings dot Tetbury’s historic center, in particular its impressive 350-year-old marketplace. Other local attractions include Chavenage, an Elizabethan house open to the public, and the Westonbirt Arboretum, which holds more than 18,000 named specimens.
This thriving market town is also the capital of the Cotswolds when it comes to antiques, with around 20 antique shops and antique centers to browse and shop in.
Where: Tetbury is about 105 kilometers from London in the heart of the Gloucestershire Cotswolds. It’s at least a two-and-a-half hour drive from London on the M4 and local roads, so if you’re planning to shop till you drop and visit a few sights, staying in the area makes sense.
Find accommodation in Tetbury
By train: the nearest train station is Stroud, 18 kilometers away. Trains from London Paddington take an hour and a half. Plan to take a taxi from the train station because local bus services require multiple changes and take forever. Parts of the Cotswolds are like the Angels of England – you just need a car.
Food and Drink Tetbury is a busy market town in the middle of excellent agricultural country, so there is plenty of fresh local food in a variety of cafes, pubs and restaurants. Look for produce, prepared goods and meats from ‘The Duchy’, which is the Prince of Wales’ own organic food business. Duchy Home Farm is just down the road at the Highgrove Estate.
Fans of The Fabulous Baker Brothers (cookbook and TV show) should stop by Hobbs House Bakery for local bread and produce. Tom and Henry Herbert are part of five generations of Herbert who have run this family business. If you visit on the weekend, they run a bistro from 7pm on Friday and Saturday nights.
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Continue to 5 of 6 below.
Honiton in Devon
Honiton was once known as the city of lace. Although the cottage industry has largely disappeared, individual lace makers continue to take on private commissions. Honiton’s crisp white bobbin lace has adorned Royal Baby’s christening gowns since the days of Queen Victoria.
Today, however, this Devon town is famous for its antiques. When I mentioned to my hotel host in a nearby town that I was heading to Honiton next, he said, “Oh yeah, the town with the main street lined with antique shops, from one end to the other.”
That was not an exaggeration. Honiton has about 85 antique dealers, operating from about 17 locations on and just off the High Street. There are also two quality auction houses where you can visit to see what is coming up in future sales or take part in an auction in the country. However, the only place you’ll see the famous lace is at the city’s All Hallows Museum of Local Lace and Antiques.
Where: Honiton is about x miles from central London and just east of Dartmoor. It is located at the junction of several major routes, A30, A35, A373 and A375, close to the M5 towards London and other motor routes in all directions. It is about 150 miles from London on the A303 and A30, or 25 miles from Exeter Cathedral City via the A30 and M5.
Find a place to stay in Honiton
By train: There is a direct hourly service from London Waterloo throughout the day with round trips, purchased in advance as separate one-way tickets, at around £ 26 in 2016.
Food and Drink: This is a very busy commercial city, so the cafes and coffee shops are full of dirt in the city center. Locals recommend Zest Cafe at 9 Black Lion Court, Toast Cafe and Patisserie on High Street, and Lacemaker Cafe, where they serve a vegetarian breakfast.
More old towns worth visiting
I’m working across the country, stopping at antique stores, markets, and towns whenever I can. In the meantime, although I haven’t visited all of this, the rumor is that it’s worth checking out:
- Lostwithiel, named Cornwall’s ‘Old Town’ in 2004
- Leeks in Staffordshire
- Margate, Kent’s seaside resort, inspired by Coney Island, is a hunting and trading antiques shop.
- And last but not least, The Lanes in Brighton – a really great place to gay-drop antique jewelry, Art Deco bronzes and more.
