Shops / Shop of the Week
Shop of the Week: Bristol Reclamation
A warehouse-come-huge garage filled with treasure and tucked away in a quiet residential street in Southville is an Aladdin’s cave.
“We cut up furniture and make things out of them,” says Eleanor Blaney – who has turned her hobby of re-loving old furniture into a career at Bristol Reclamation.
She opens a cupboard that looks nothing special from the outside, but reveals beautiful drawers inside. It was once used for linen, and Eleanor says: “This is my favourite thing in the shop at the moment. We take interesting pieces and turn them into something new.
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“I love old things, I stand and look and think ‘what can we make out of this’. It’s sometimes sad when you have to sell them.” she says.
An old record player that she has turned into a drinks cabinet sits at the back of the warehouse. “We try not to throw things away and I was determined to make something from it,” she Eleanor.
Eleanor has turned an old record player into a drinks cabinet.
Bristol Reclamation sells reclaimed vintage and painted furniture – and also comes with its own resident florist and five other vintage and antique stall as well.
Old shrine boxes in bright blues and greens that were once by the side of road receiving offerings to the gods are in one area, along with other reclaimed furniture from India selling under ‘tombola vintage’.
Shrine boxes from India are just some of the items on sale.
French antiques with a stuffed boars head, old boulangerie shop counters and what was a huge french letter box that once sat in a post office reside in another stall.
Ercol, G Plan and other mid-century pieces from the 1950s and 1960s are in another area and next door there are books including maps from antique world atlas’ and south west pottery and crockery.
Chattels Furniture, also on Gloucester Road, occupy another corner. Their handcrafted teak furniture is made from wood that has been sourced and salvaged from decommissioned fishing boats on the west coast of India.
As well as re-vamping the old and turning it into something new, Bristol Reclamation also makes furniture.
“We always have reclaimed wood here scaffold boards and interesting old pieces of wood from places like schools or churches.” said Eleanor.
“We also make kitchen tables to order out from pine floorboards or scaffold boards or any other wood we have that people like.”
“We once took a whole floor out of a church in Bishopston that was being converted into flats. We made tables out of the church floor and one of them actually went back, as it was bought by one of the flat owners.” she said.
There are several large pieces of old maple wood flooring that are stacked against a wall, which Eleanor is going to strip the glue off, sand and re varnish. They are a commission for several new cafe tables for The Bristol Loaf in Redfield.
“Most of our customers are Bristol-based, but we find that those who have moved a bit further away do come back. We also have a pop-up vintage store at Court House Farm on Portishead High Street.” said Eleanor.
Shoppers to this Aladdin’s cave can expect to find new treasures each time they visit.
Bristol Reclamation, 3 Park Road, Southville, Bristol, BS3 1PU
www.facebook.com/Bristol.Reclamation
Read more: ‘I’m challenging the idea that recycled materials means lower quality’
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