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The stage is set, the curtain’s up, and our Magritte inspired Christmas windows are revealed.

Clouds, pipes, curtains, and bowler hats are some of the most immediately recognizable icons of René Magritte, the Belgian surrealist – and we’ve reimagined them here in our Christmas windows. Magritte’s work turned commonplace things into extraordinary objects of beauty, slotting them into unfamiliar or uncanny scenes, or deliberately mislabelling them in order to “make the most everyday objects shriek aloud.” With his pictorial and linguistic puzzles, Magritte made the familiar disturbing, posing questions about the nature of representation and the boundaries of reality.

Come view our windows, and visit our store, and reimagine your Christmas by making gifts of our “everyday objects shriek aloud”!

 

“The wash house was almost part of folklore. Some of our older volunteers had remote memories of it so we decided to explore more. We weren’t disappointed” said the Director of Middleport Pottery, John Lowther.

This workers’ washroom – possibly the only one of its kind – was unearthed six years ago at Middleport Pottery, having been buried and forgotten by development for a good 60 years or so. It is believed Middleport Pottery was the first pottery factory to provide such a facility for its workers, which was also made available for use by their families on Sundays.

 
 

The hidden underground complex of historic washrooms, with its bank of eight Victorian sinks, beautiful brick tiles, and vast ceramic bath, is believed to be part of the original 1888 factory design, and has been recognised as a rare find, an important piece of commercial and social history, and thankfully worthy of preservation.

Now restored, it is open to the public, and is a must-see when visiting the potteries. Middleport Pottery, Port St, Burslem, Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent ST6 3PE

Click here for Middleport Pottery’s website

Middleport Pottery, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, is a must-see. Tucked away behind rows of back-to back factory workers’ Victorian terraces it quietly sits, a ghost of its former self, the days of bustle and toil long gone. Yet its fire still burns – if only part time, as it’s still a working pottery; one of very few.

This Grade II* listed Pottery has been the home of Burleigh since 1889, and is the UK’s last working Victorian pot bank in continuous production. It holds one of the last surviving beautifully sculptural bottle kilns – which recently provided the backdrop for an atmospheric scene in the tv drama Peaky Blinders.

 

For us the beauty here lies in the utilitarian and the Victorian factory aesthetic: from the municipal colours of the paint used on doors and window frames; the design of the brick built workshops; the arresting shelved corridors of pottery moulds; and the stunning bank of sinks and wall-to-wall white tiling of the worker’s washroom.

Nearby – back in the late 1920s – at Newport Potteries (now gone), Clarice Cliff was “mixing shades of memory with splashes of anticipation” in her daringly bright coloured jazz-age abstract designs, which were then applied by her “Bizarre girls” with bold brushstrokes to vases, plates and tea sets. Newport’s great success with Clarice’s Bizarre ranges, at a time when all the potteries were hit severely by the early 1930s depression, no doubt shone a light on the way forward, which Middleport then emulated in their Burleigh Ware boldly decorated jugs, and Charlotte Rhead’s floral tube-lined designs.

Middleport has been through the mill in recent years, falling into disrepair, and was rescued in 2010 by the Prince’s Regeneration Trust with 9m in funds from The National Lottery and English Heritage. It is now also the home of Denby Holdings Ltd, and of Poole pottery, and is owned and run by Re-Form Heritage.

 

For the visitor today it is a story of beautiful Victorian utilitarian brickwork and humble machinery, born from clay, smoke and hard graft.

The King’s Breakfast is served! We have raided Balmoral’s below-stairs for the finest ironstone wares – everything is for sale, bequeathed by her late majesty.

The King sobbed, “Oh, deary me!”
And went back to bed.
“Nobody,”
He whimpered,
“Could call me
A fussy man;
I only want
A little plate returned for
My bread!”

 
   
 

The King asked
The Queen, and
The Queen asked
The Dairymaid:
“Could we have a plate returned for
The Royal slice of bread?”
The Queen asked the Dairymaid,
The Dairymaid
Said, “Certainly,
I’ll go and tell A G Hendy & Co
Before they go to bed.”

Like something out of Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis, Battersea Power Station, London’s iconic landmark, has risen from its ashes in full futuristic splendour. This magnificent cathedral to the machine age has at last shaken off its post-apocalyptic past of abandonment and neglect, and has been completely rebuilt and meticulously restored, and is once again a towering monument to a brave new world. Yet its reincarnation and purpose has been completely reimagined – to the world we now live in: of shopping, dining and high rise living. So when next in town, go visit!

Designed in the 1930s in brick cathedral style – what we now call Art Deco – the power station’s turbine halls now house shops, restaurants, cafes and luxury apartments.  A great behemoth, a beast of a project, that was failed by so many, has finally come to fruition. With 1.5 billion pounds spent, which included an underground train line extension, the Grade II* listed Power Station now stands at the heart of a 42-acre development. The transformation and refurbishment started in 2013 and was steered by the architectural practice, Wilkinson Eyre, with the designs consistent with Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s original vision. And it is truly magnificent.

It’s been a long road, so it’s important to grasp some basic history and the sheer scale of what has been involved. The original building comprises of two power stations, built in two stages, and housed in a single building.  Turbine hall A was built 1929 – 1935, and hall B, to its east, was built 1937 – 1941. Work on B was halted during WWII, and the building was completed in 1955. “Battersea B” was built to a design nearly identical to that of “Battersea A”, creating the iconic four-chimney structure. Coal arrived by boat and was unloaded by cranes at 480 tonnes per hour, and delivered to the station by conveyor belt.

The Pig

Many of us might well have first fallen in love with Battersea Power Station when it appeared on the front cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album, Animals – complete with one giant pink floating pig. The inflatable pig was tethered to one of the southern chimneys but lost its moorings and rose into the flight path of Heathrow Airport. Police helicopters tracked its course until it finally landed off the coast of Kent.

Alton Towers

Following the station’s closure in 1983, the Central Electricity Generating Board had planned to demolish the power station and sell the land for housing, but because of the building’s new listed status, they had to pay the high cost of preserving it. In 1983 they held a competition for ideas on the redevelopment of the site, which was won by a consortium which included John Broome, owner of  Alton Towers Ltd.  An indoor theme park with shops and restaurants was proposed, yet at an estimated cost of £35 million, the scheme was risky and would require over 2 million visitors a year to make any profit. The scheme received planning approval and the site was purchased by Alton Towers for £1.5 million in 1987. Work began the same year.

The project was halted in March 1989, for lack of funding, after costs had quickly escalated to £230 million. By this point huge sections of the building’s roof had been removed, so that machinery could be taken out. Without a roof, the building’s steel framework had been left exposed and its foundations were prone to flooding and the rot set in, literally.

The Turbine Halls

Turbine Hall A has been restored to its Art Deco splendour with the roof and end windows reglazed, having been covered up during World War II, they now allow daylight to stream into the space. The old gantry cranes and travelling rail have been left as raw reminders of the past, as are the knocks visible on the faience at the southern end of the Turbine Hall.

In contrast, the beautifully austere Turbine Hall B reflects 1950s modernism, the faience, although the same colour, is smooth with no adornment. Its control room that overlooks the cavernous hall has been opened as a cocktail bar, set in amongst the original dials and controls.

The Chimneys

Testing of the chimneys showed the concrete to have high chloride content and to be carbonated, which had resulted in severe corrosion of the steel reinforcement. The extensive conversations that followed, between industry experts, the developers, the local planning authority and Historic England, confirmed the course of action required: all chimneys to be dismantled and rebuilt to the precise specifications of the originals.

The original 1930s architects’ plans and specifications were used to ensure the reconstructed chimneys were identical to their predecessors. This included over 25,000 wheelbarrows of concrete to be poured by hand into shuttered layers in each chimney. By doing this, the chimneys now have the same lifespan as that of the rest of the restored Power Station. One chimney now houses a glass lift, and it pops out the top for panoramic views of the power station, The Thames and London.

The Bricks

Its years as an active power station and weathering had left some of its six million bricks badly damaged. Unbelievably, the original brickmakers were tracked down and then tasked with hand throwing 1.75 million more to match the originals.

The family-owned business (now known as Northcot Brick) is still based at the same Gloucestershire quarry as it was all those years ago with access to the same Lower Jurassic and Middle Lias clay that was used for the original bricks. Northcot Brick provided 1.3 million bricks, all of which have been blended and hand moulded, to be used to restore parts of the Power Station built in the 1930s and 1940s; and Blockleys, in Shropshire, provided 440,000 wire-cut bricks to be used on the parts of the 1950s Power Station B.

Our spring windows are in. A collection of wonderful mid-century Cannes pattern plates designed in 1954 by the celebrated architect and designer Sir Hugh Casson for Midwinter potteries. Each piece is signed on the underside, and we’re selling them singularly.

Sir Hugh Casson’s sketches and watercolours of France – Parisian style cafes, fishing boats and harbours – were applied to Midwinter’s “Stylecraft” and “Fashion” plates, coffee and tea sets, cruets and tureens. The illustrations are joyous and Casson’s lyrical line is both charming and uplifting.

The poet John Betjeman said that Casson sketched just as most people hummed when going about their daily lives. And that’s just it: this charming plate scene is happiness personified, reminding us of Mediterranean holidays, sun, sand and sea – and may be a gorgeous seafood lunch we once had by a harbour bobbing with boats. A most happy hum indeed.

 
   
 

This charming plate scene of a cafe with its blue shutters is yet more happiness personified, reminding us of holidays and escape, and may be that perfect salad nicoise lunch we once had under the shade of a striped awning with the buzz of mopeds on the street. A most happy hum indeed.

Our Christmas windows are in! Peep through a Sleeping Beauty thicket of twigs, mossy trunks and ivy, to spy on gnomes in a glen, each window a snowy nook. Then walk through our door and the magic continues with wondrous gifts galore.

Robins have flown in and the gnomes have built a wood pile in our Christmas windows. There’s been much Christmas busyness in the Sleeping Beauty thicket.

Pop down to Hastings to spy on our gnomes in their snowy glen; we’re open today and every day now until Christmas. Our jolly green, red and twiggy storey continues through our store and we’re stuffed with wondrous Christmas gifts and ideas galore.

‘I was walking down the high street
When I heard footsteps behind me
And there was a little old man (hello)
In scarlet and grey, chuckling away…
Ha ha ha, hee hee hee
“I’m a laughing gnome and you don’t catch me”…..’

Update from the gnome office: we’re open every day now up to and including Christmas Eve, so if you haven’t a gnome to go to, come on down to Hastings. Our gnomes have delved, chuckled and toiled, and our store is now stuffed full of wondrous gifts.

A Jolly Christmas to you all!

Autumn is here, and full on, with its gumboots, leaves, quinces and rain – and, of course, our autumnal windows.

We’re drumming in the season’s ochres and siennas with our one-man band arrangements of Edwardian hat boxes, ceiling brushes, feather dusters and straw brooms.

All of the brushes shown here are handmade and are in our online shop. Do email us for hatbox prices.

 

The quinces are for sale too, just £2.50 a bag.

Call us on +44 (0)1424 447171 or email info@aghendy.com for more information

The final curtain of our Elizabethan age is about to be drawn. Our windows, in honour and thanks to Her Majesty The Queen, are set in readiness for this final farewell: The State Funeral. Your devotion to service, your devotion to your people, and your devotion to the world, will live on. We can’t thank you enough.

We have all lost what feels like our favourite neighbour in common. Our steadfast and reassuring moral compass. We salute you Ma’am, Madge, Mummy, Lilibet, Liz, Her Majesty, The Queen, HM, Elizabeth, Brenda. God Save The Queen.

All the containers came today
And it looks as though they’re here to stay
Oh You Pretty Things…

All for sale. We’re open. The sea is waiting.
So wake up you sleepy head
Put on some clothes, shake up your bed
…and get yourself down to Hastings!

Garden spades, forks, rakes, hoes, shears, edgers and peat shovels; watering cans, plants and planters; we’ve got everything for your garden, terrace or balcony. It’s a right ol’ sizzler today, just the day for a sea plunge, so come on down to Hasting for a cool-off. We’re open as usual ….see y’all later.  Or, catch you on the flipper, as they say down Massachusetts way.