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p22
This issue mostly goes inside for home stuff. Loosen up, people:
summer's over and it's time for interiors. That's indoors to you and me - where we keep
lovely and warm in the winter months ahead, and do Lewellyn-Bowen stuff without the
flouncing.
First, a wee enclave of goodies: 1 Bouverie Road, just behind the Daniel Defoe pub.
First up, The Cobbled Yard, brainchild of graphic designer Carole Lucas.
An eclectic mix of furniture, bric a brac and 'collectables', the shop, housed in a former
stables, grew out of Carole's own life-long passion for collecting ('always a rummager'),
and a shrewd sense on her part that, whereas Stokie might not need another restaurant, its
residents would find a local source of quality antique and pine furniture useful - at
affordable prices that put Camden Passage to shame. Since opening a few months ago, her
hunch has proved a shrewd one: while weekends are her busiest time, she has a constant
stream of people wanting to buy and sell, and has had to restock regularly in a round of
house clearances, auctions and well-guarded contacts. Most of the furniture is pine -
Carole organises her own stripping, restoration and re-upholstering - and ranges from
kitchen tables, chests of drawers and wardrobes to washstands, occasional tables and
smaller items. And if you can't move for the bulky wooden stuff already crammed into your
period restoration, check out the art deco figurines, the bakelite clock, the fifties
china tea set or the prints and pictures on the walls of the showroom. You'll find
something covetable - trust me.
The Cobbled Yard,1 Bouverie Road, N16 0AH, tel 020 8809 5286
Open Wednesday to Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm
Good local parking and local delivery service.
Just across the cobbled courtyard from, er, The Cobbled Yard, is a
so-new-it's-only-just-opened ceramics workshop and showroom, The Ranch, run by local
ceramic artist Mandee Gage. Mandee - who studied ceramics at Loughborough and has
exhibited all over the world since her first solo show at the Flowers Gallery in 1991 - is
producing a diverse range of intriguing ceramic work, from small objects for the home to
garden sculptures, including a range of ceramic Pods and Buds that offer a wholly new
twist to the garden lighting repertoire. She's currently working on a specially
commissioned piece for the Mesclun restaurant, and a number of private commissions. And if
you're in need of a body cast - scuttle along to Mandee's studio and ask for details!
That's what I call a truly singular service ...
The Gage Galleria, The Ranch, 1 Bouverie Road, N16 0AH, tel 07815 030375
Open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday, noon-5pm
 And just in case all this domesticity is getting to you, we're also featuring
another nearly newcomer, for your more outdoorsey, rugged moments: Two Wheels Good,
the second bicycle shop opened by owner Jonathan Boyce in the last four years. He opened
his first branch in Crouch End (well, he lived there - someone had to) in 1998, and
snapped up the former kiteshop site in Church Street earlier this year. After a witty
refurb - think tyres,inner tubes and bicycle sheds, without the fags - he threw his doors
open in June with a stock of bikes from three major manufacturers (Trek, Specialized and
Ridgeback), folding bikes from Brompton and kids' bikes from the alluringly named Puky.
(Is that to do with travel sickness, one wonders?) Plus of course all those cute
accessories that cyclists have to have. Up to and including the lycra shorts, of course,
but we won't go there.
Most of the technology passed me by (would defeated be a better word, perhaps?), although
I was rather taken by the cute designer bicycle bells (are they equipped with ring-tones?)
and Slime puncture-stop kits - but where were the John Bull puncture repair tins of
yesteryear, I found myself crying? No longer with us, it seems - but nearly everything
else in cycle heaven is in stock, together with a full servicing and repair workshop, some
sound and very obviously unbiased advice, buckets (should that be panniers?) of good
advice and help. I swear, if anyone could get me out of the Daimler and wobbling onto the
open road, J. Boyce (prop.) would be the one.
Two Wheels Good, 165 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16 0UL, tel 020 7249 2200
Open 8.30-6.00, Monday-Saturday; 11.00-5.00 Sunday
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