Portobello Road Antique Market

Is It Dying? Does It Matter?

The world famous Portobello Road Antiques Market, London is now online and antique dealers connected to the real thing are joining every week. The virtual Portobello Market is a brilliant idea and has not come a moment too soon.

It is impossible to stop the process of change and development in a major city like London and although Portobello Road Antique Market has resisted for a very long time, change is coming – it has already begun. The antique market is an important element, but a very small part of a vibrant and constantly evolving commercial street market and most of the antique dealers only trade one day a week, Saturday.

Development of the area as a whole and particularly that of Westbourne Grove has brought a new clientele to Portobello Road and not only on Saturday. This new, young, wealthy clientele are buying clothes and accessories in the expensive boutiques, eating and drinking in the many bars, restaurants and pubs and they are doing it seven days a week.

Anyone who has lived in the Portobello Road area will know that, between Westbourne Grove and Elgin Crescent on any weekday most of the commercial premises are closed. It is unsightly for residents and visitors and, with rents rocketing; it is a waste, particularly if you are a landlord.

There is a general misconception that all antique dealers are buying wonderful objects for a few pounds and selling them for hundreds, or even thousands, all of the time. Actually, most serious antique dealers based in Portobello Road drive hundreds of miles each week visiting antique auctions, antique fairs and antique shops all over the country in the hope of buying just enough to cover their expenses. If they are lucky and buy a bargain – and these are becoming much harder to find – they must then decide, whether to sell it quickly, or send it to auction. As it can often be six months before the next specialist auction and – if the lot sells and if it is paid for on time – there is another month to wait for payment, not to mention the large commission payable to the auction house.

Far from getting rich, most of us are probably earning well bellow minimum wage and rely on one or two bargains each year to keep us interested.  Personally, I live for that moment, when I find a treasure overlooked or miscataloged and it is the only reason I carry on.

Now, the owners of the largest group of Portobello Road arcades has informed their tenants that rents are to be increased by fifty percent. They are justifying this increase by opening arcades for trading three days a week. As the majority of dealers, including myself, could not possibly be in London three days each week – even if we wanted to – many of us will probably stop trading in Portobello Road altogether. Some of us will join together, to spread the cost, but we will still only trade on Saturday.

I am sure that Portobello Road, as a whole, will be unrecognisable within three years and in particular the antique market. The Portobello Road antique market will wither to a few arcades populated, in the main, with people selling decorative objects – some antique – mostly vintage, retro, reproductions and jewellery.

I first saw Portobello Road antique market in the late sixties. It seemed to be full of happy young people with long hair wearing and selling British Army jackets, made popular by The Beatles, and sullen old people offloading piles of junk. I moved to the area immediately, eventually learning how to make a living in the market and I have watched it changing constantly ever since.

I don’t want to be one of those sullen old dealers, moaning about the loss of a wonderful institution – because Portobello Road antique market isn’t one. The antique dealers who have, like me, been renting stands in Portobello Road for the past forty years have had many opportunities to join forces and buy our arcades, but we didn’t – unfortunately.

However, with the Internet, online trading, Ebay and Amazon we have new and more fantastic opportunities. Instead of waiting for our cliental to come to us, in Portobello Road or Grays Antique Market, we can go direct to our customers and we can do it twenty-four seven. I can buy a Chinese vase in the morning and sometimes have it sold to a client in the US the same afternoon, with payment, made via Paypal, that day.

For dealers like me the loss of Portobello Road antique market will be negligible. I can count on one hand the number of non-dealers I have sold objects to in the past forty years, so I won’t be missing the hoards of tourists, who rarely venture into the arcades anyway. I will miss the many friends I have made during the past forty years and hope that they will also miss me.

Sam Scribbler – Cathay Trader >>>>>>>

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