London: Day Three

More conference responsibilities for Lisa today. After that, day three was supposed to be a relaxing shopping day. We had planned to spend an hour or so at an antique mall called “Alfie’s,” then head over to Oxford Circus to visit the department store Liberty of London. Afterwards, we wanted to cap the day off with a trip to the Victoria & Albert Museum for their late-night hours.


As it turned out, the moment we stepped into Alfie’s we knew that an hour wasn’t going to be nearly enough time to explore everything. What was originally going to be a short stop turned into several hours of hardcore antique shopping. We really couldn’t resist. The place was incredible. Alfie’s was huge—Three full floors of booths and dealers. Also, Alfie’s focus was on twentieth-century collectables, with a special emphasis on mid-century modern. (Mid-century stuff, the 50s especially, is my absolute favorite.) I was in collector heaven.

I bought a pair of 1950s handpainted flower vases:

The ever-generous Lisa bought me a plate from a 1950’s “Homemaker” dinner set. I’ve coveted those plates for soooo long, ever since I spied one displayed in the Kirkland Museum in Denver. I can’t believe I actually own one now. (Thanks, Lisa! You're the best!)

We really hit it off with the dealer that sold us the Homemaker plate. He told us all about his collections at home, and how he runs a business supplying mid-century props for television and film. He was a real hoot. (If I lived closer, he and I would definitely be friends.) As we were leaving, he actually gave me a second Homemaker plate as a gift. Happy birthday to me!

As we browsed the other booths, Lisa bought some truly beautiful pieces of jewelry (mostly in the arts-and-crafts style). Before we knew it, we had spent almost the entire afternoon at Alfie’s. I’m so in love with that place. I hope I get to go back someday.

Here are a couple of snaps of the inside of Alfie’s:

After Alfie’s we were tired, but decided to press on. We hopped back on the tube and travelled over to Oxford Circus so we could visit Liberty of London. Liberty is a lovely department store that has been open since 1875, and is known for being tied to the development of the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements. (It's much more focused on art, architecture, and design than Harrod's.) It was always a dream of Lisa’s to visit Liberty, since she has a great love of Arts and Craft and Nouveau styles. We saw some incredibly beautiful things there.

After browsing Liberty, we decided to head home. By this time, it was 6pm on Friday night and Oxford Circus was MOBBED with people. It was so crowded that the tube station actually had to shut down due to overcrowding, and we were left to wander the streets until we could find another nearby (and less insanely crowded) station.

By the time we had fought the crowds and made our way home, we were way too pooped to head back out to the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was ok, though. Instead, we went to an Indian restaurant in the neighborhood near the hotel, where we had a lovely, relaxing meal.

After that, we crashed. We needed go to bed early, to get rested up for the next morning’s early jaunt to the Portabello Market.