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The Corner Cupboard (York)
by katyboo123
I read so many craft blogs, foodie blogs and subscribe to a bunch of magazines and newsletters that sometimes it feels my head might spin off with all of the recommended places to go to indulge your food, craft and shopping love; particularly when all of these places seem to be over 300 miles from my house, in old London Town or the ... surrounding areas. One word sums up my feelings on pop up shops, shop / eat / do places and other cool, kitsch venues - Jealousy! I just imagine these places to be like a little Alice in Wonderland / Willy Wonker emporium where you can break a bit of your craft project off and snack on it and it will taste like Tomato Soup, then a Roast Dinner followed by Blueberry pudding in your mouth - and you will of course look super cool, sitting there in your thrifted Vintage get up. Ok, it's safe to say my imagination is running wild... but you get the picture.
This was all until I took a recent trip to York and on the way home; we decided to make a breakfast pit stop at the next place we found which was a) open and b) served coffee. We followed the signs from the A19 to the Corner Cupboard. We had absolutely no idea what it would be like (assuming motorway café = greasy spoon) but we couldn't have been more wrong. We were greeted with a small car park and a back entrance to the place which was cluttered with pots of flowers, sculptures, benches and garden ornaments. Through the tiny door we landed in the most charming shopping emporium I've ever seen, packed to the rafters with an eclectic mix of hand finished goodies, designer interiors and vintage treasures. The cash desk had the biggest wrapping station ever. It was safe to say, this was no greasy spoon.
We were greeted by a very nicely turned out waiter who showed us through the shop to the restaurant area and let us choose our seats. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven it was so beautiful. The windows were decorated with gorgeous ribbons and huge candy coloured baubles, the walls with fine ornate mirrors and the tables with pretty cloths and oversized salt & pepper shakers. Even the menu was eccentric with a little cute West Highland terrier winking up at us from the front cover and quirky little quotes throughout. The menu was my personal favourite though, with culinary delights like clotted cream and home made jam scones, smoked salmon sandwiches served with a filo basket filled with a herb and lime crème fraiche and a hot 'hob' with bacon, grapes and French brie with French fries and coleslaw. Delightful! We settled on a couple of rounds of bacon sandwiches and a pot of coffee, after all, it was only 10.30am.
The Corner Cupboard is owned by Peter and Gerd Handley who aren't new to the catering business. They have owned a few different country pubs, gastro pubs and a hotel before opening the Corner Cupboard in 2004. As well as the shop, the amazing lunch and light bite menu they serve desserts too, like Toblerone cakes and crème brulees, cheesecakes and sticky toffee pudding. Oh, and as a very lovely touch, you can buy all of the pickles, jams and preserves that they use on their menu for only £2.75 a jar.
The service was languid, the atmosphere relaxed and the coffee endless! We spent a good hour or so just taking in the décor, wandering around the shop, gossiping and watching the world go by out of the window. It was absolutely fantastic. Needless to say it was immaculate, the toilets were even special with lovely hand wash and individual face cloth sized hand towels rather than disposable napkins / paper towels. When we came to pay our bill we were actually so sad to leave - I could have spent all afternoon there, there was just so much to see!
It almost satisfied my desire to find my own personal, little hidden gem where I could indulge my food, shopping and crafting passions - just there was no 'doing' or 'crafting', though I think the owners could easily convert some space and incorporate that in to the already fabulous establishment they own (who knows, they may do it in future!). Then it would really be an idyllic place for me to go and not too far from home. Highly recommend you visit, it's situated just off the A19 in Birdforth, check out their site for directions: http://www.thecornercupboard.co.uk/. It's open 9.30am until 5pm Tuesday to Saturday and in December 7 days a week (for the Christmas Shopping trade) plus they do some late nights. Their telephone number is 01845 501495; booking is advisable to avoid disappointment, during peak lunch times 12pm to 2pm.
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Blackwells Bookshop (Oxford)
by koshkha
~Bibliophilia - it runs in the family~
My uncle and aunt from Australia came to visit family in the UK for a month and my husband and I got 'custody' for several days before being asked to take them back to my parents. My uncle is a strange chap who has been proclaiming the end of the world (in economic terms rather than ... religious Armageddon) for the past few decades. In his home in Sydney he has a spectacular library room in which he keeps all his economics books and he arrived in the UK with what he described as 'a few feet still to fill'. He proceeded to use up the bulk of his luggage allowance picking up books on his trip.
Oxford marked the half-way point on our journey delivering them from relatives in Bedford back to my parents in Salisbury. I knew Uncle Tony would rail against the academic privilege of the city - that's partly why I took him because I knew it would wind him up. But I also knew that I had a special treat tucked up my sleeve which would absolutely blow his mind. That treat was the main Broad Street building of Blackwell's bookshop and it's underground 'bunker' of books.
I was a student at a college just over the road from Blackwell's for four years and I love this place. Admittedly most of my books were either from their second hand section or were begged, stolen or borrowed from older students. Nonetheless, Blackwell's has had my heart from the day I first found it. From it's origins in Oxford, Blackwell's has expanded out around the city with satellite branches such as the Art and Poster shop on the corner or Broad Street and Turl Street, the Blackwell Music shop and Blackwell Rare Books shop, both also on Broad Street. Expansion continued beyond Oxford and there are now a total of 50 Blackwell stores but none can compare to the original shop where it all started.
~Tardis Time~
From the outside it's hard to imagine what's hidden beyond the shop's historic façade. It looks like it might have a sweet shop or a gentlemen's outfitters full of old chaps with tape measures hanging round their necks but it doesn't look like a world-class bookshop and the home of the Blackwell's empire. What looks from outside like two old big houses is instead a book lover's paradise laid out over several floors and most impressively in the basement. I took my uncle straight to the Norrington Room, the super-bunker basement of knowledge which is several times larger than the rest of the shop. It must surely extend way beyond the boundaries of the main shop, stretching under the gardens and buildings of Trinity College. If someone dropped a bomb on the UK and the Norrington Room survived, we could probably build a new society from the knowledge in the double-storey basement room. (Admittedly with the underground stacks of the Bodleian Library next door we could also have a great historic record too). The Norrington Room also has the distinction of being in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest room selling books, with a special mention of its 3 miles of shelving.
The ground floor is home to most fiction and popular writing as well as the children's section. You'll also find cookbooks near the entrance and fiction organised by genre. I love the cookbook section although I never buy - I just like to be able to check out the pictures, the paper quality, and the range of recipes in a way I can't do on-line. Up the stairs you'll come to a section which houses a large and busy coffee shop. I can't tell you too much about the subjects covered on the upper floors except that the second hand books are on the top floor along with the customer toilets. As I dragged myself up three flights of stairs I wondered if their location was designed to stop tourists dropping by for a pee and then leaving again.
~How I use Blackwells~
These days it's easy to think we don't need book shops any more. Amazon will happily tell us what they think we should read, providing us with recommendations, statistically generated on the basis of what other people who like the books we've bought also chose. Trouble is you can't just wander around Amazon and be inspired - for that I find I need an outstandingly well-stocked book shop.
I'm strictly a ground floor and Norrington Room girl - broadly fiction on the ground floor and non-fiction and academic in the basement. I most often use the basement for travel books since it's impossible to choose a good travel guide without having a flick through the pages, having a chance to check how heavy it is, or to see whether the pictures are inspiring. I also linger in the world writing, checking out all the books about the countries which fascinate me and feed my passion for travel and world history. Mostly these are books I wouldn't find if they weren't sitting on a shelf in front of me.
I am not just a book lover, I'm a very tight-fisted book lover so a trip to Blackwell's means I take a notebook and a pen and I stroll around writing down the names of all the books that take my fancy so I can go away and hunt them down cheaper on-line or swap them on book swapping sites. People like me are awful and are probably contributing to the destruction of fine bookstores like Blackwell's but the place is just SO tempting that I can't buy everything I want and I need to pace it out over the next few months. Part of the joy of reading is hunting down the books - buying books in Blackwell's would be like going to a zoo to shoot the animals. At the end of the day you've got a pile of books (or dead animals) but where's the fun if they're just standing there waiting for you?
~Uncle Tony Goes Over-budget~
After the allotted hour for browsing was over, I was due to meet my uncle at the entrance where my husband and aunt would join us. They'd been off for a lightning tour of the Ashmolean museum whilst uncle went book hunting. Aunt had given him £100 of pocket money and he returned with no books. I thought this odd until we learned he hadn't bought them because he needed more money. They both disappeared back to the basement to get the books after a mini-domestic in the children's fiction section.
In all honesty I think I could have left my uncle in Blackwell's for a month and he wouldn't have got bored. I very rarely go in bookshops these days because most just have the same old stock and I'm rarely surprised. Blackwell's is different. You can't go in and not come out with a pile of books in a bag or a long list to take away and add to your wish list. It's like a cathedral to learning - a place of hushed silence and awe-struck worshippers shuffling through the books looking for knowledge, inspiration or answers. It's about as far from a High Street book shop as you will ever find.
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Westfield Shopping Centre (London)
by mizzy
Westfield shopping centre has got to be one of the most tiring shopping centres ever. I went on my own the other day for the second time, and had a great day. The best thing about it was that, on a friday afternoon, I was able to wonder around without getting pushed around by crowds, I got excellent help from the shop assistants, and it ... wasnt at all noisy.
There are all my favourite shops apart from Primark, shops like H and M, New Look, Zara, Republic, Dorothy Perkins and River Island. There are also shops that sell electronics, designer stores for the wealthy and fussy, and a whole host of restaurants and bars.
As the biggest indoor shopping centre in Europe with 260 shops, I thought I would be able to find some jeans. However Topshop was out of stock in my size, New Look had a pitiful collection, and H and M had no jeans to be found that didnt have ridiculously large flares. I ended up buying mine from Dorothy Perkins.
When I visited Westfield before it was to meet a friend for dinner and drinks. We queued up at Pizza Express, used her staff discount and had a normal pizza express meal, the service was quick and we were in and out before we knew it. We then went to the pub style bar in the outside restaurant section where we had a great night getting drunk on reasonably priced drinks. The bar staff were very friendly and chatty, and the atmosphere was good for a fake sort of pub.
I would recommend westfield if you need a shopping fix, but definately go in the week as I can imagine at weekends it is totally unbearable. Also wear comfortable shoes as its a huge area to cover walking from shop to shop.
Easily accessible by tube at Shepards Bush and you can get buses easily to Camden, and NW London. I would recommend the overground train if you are coming from SW London.
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