Midweek Marvels - Postcards from Stroud
- Ellie
- May 17, 2017
- 4 min read
Vladimir Tretchikoff anyone?
Gallery wall in the Curio Lounge Stroud
Stroud is an interior lovers dream, creative and full of homeware, antique and second shops. And we felt right at home when we visited this weekend.
Fast forward to today a gloomy Wednesday here in the 'burbs ( I always think of the Tom Hanks film when I write that which makes it seem less gloomy!!) - but rather than sit here pondering where the sun has gone here in London town - I've decided to tell you about the marvellous things we encountered during the weekend!
Friends of ours have relocated to a lovely period property in the Gloucestershire town of Stroud. Their home is a delight and spread over four floors and with such airy and spacious feel. The couple a Jewellery designer and maker and a musician and writer and their little boy showed us round their new home town. Such a creative and community led place - perfect for such artistic people. We fell in love with the place too, so many artistic and community facilities, galleries, meeting halls, fantastic library, clubs and societies.
The architecture is a joy in this hilly, cotswold town. One of my favourite buildings was the Centre for Science and art, which holds events and exhibitions, life drawing groups and you can hire the space out for next to nothing too.
Centre of Science and Art
Stroud town centre
The town has a friendly vibe, with a general market, and inside market (the shambles) and a farmers market on a Saturday. As an animal lover we where over the moon to see how dog friendly the town was, with shops encouraging dog owners to visit ( as well as many of them having a dog too!)
The streets are full of independent shops ( our friends have even just opened one! ) and restaurants and feels like a proper town centre in an old fashioned sense. If you like quirky, unusual design, art, clothes and homeware, second hand/antique shops and charity shops. This is very much a place for you!
Look down a street here you can even see grazing cows in the distance.
We left feeling exited and inspired by all the great people had met, things we had seen and small businesses we had discovered.
Heres a little round up of some of our favourite discoveries:
Homeware highlights:
There where so many second hand, charity and antique stores which we can recommend spending your time exploring and picking up some fabulous bargains.
There where also some wonderful independent home ware stores and our two favourites are below...
Wild Boar, 27 High Street, GL51AJ
Wild Boar, was a delight, from the moment we spotted the quirky purple shop front and window display crammed full of vintage delights. Walking in we where greeted by the most adorable lolloping dog and friendly owner.
The shop, full of unique talking points ( including a wild boar head sporting a flower head dress, a neon thunderbolt, beautiful gothic rings but mainly quirky unique 'objects' and decor for your home. Carnival signs, phrenology heads, taxidermy, vases and lights of all sorts. The appeal of the shop is very much it's sense of humour, quirkiness and mixture of the gothic and vintage. Very much worth a visit.
Cornflower and Calico, directly opposite the Wild Boar is a lovely design led shop, concentrating on fixtures and fittings as well as homewares. Their price point was fabulously reasonable and stock was well designed and vintage inspired, beautiful floor lamps, door knobs, kitchenware, signage and display pieces. We bought a fabulous vintage inspired toilet roll holder ( see above) and bathroom door sign amongst other things. Not all their products are on their website but they slowly adding them.
Markets
There is a general market that sells a wide variety of things an indoor part in 'The Shambles" the rest just outside. Lots of fantastic vintage, jewellery, homemade items and books.
The beautiful flower stall based in a vintage van 'Fleurs De Rue'
The must visit farmers market is very busy and popular, really enjoyable, food stalls selling hot dogs, falafel, racelette. Amazing suppliers, vegetables, cheese, bread, pies, milk and even locally produced gin. The highlight for us was definitely the amazing doughnut stall (Pippin Doughnuts) - we had to queue to make a purchase but was very much worth it - rhubarb and custard and lemon curd flavours where divine!
Farmers market made up of stalls (some undercover) and with views of the countryside beyond.
All the doughnuts!!!
Restaurants, cafes and pubs
We got taken to breakfast in the amazing Black Book Cafe on Nelson street, which was a book lovers dream walking in you where created by this wall of books ( see photo below!) and many more - floor to ceiling bookshelves! Fantastic coffee and homemade cakes and other food made to order alongside vintage mixed matched furniture and plenty of locals. Huge front window looking out on to the road beyond, great place to people watch and read a few books!
Wall to ceiling books!
More books and a vintage standard lamp in the micro brewery pup 'The Little George'.
The Little George, a local micro brewery pub, that feels like you are drinking in someones back room. Is a lovely place, regular societies and clubs use it to meet up, books and board games available for customers and a the decor has a distinct upcycled feel. We drank gin ( which was lovely) but I have been told the ales here are delicious!!
Even the bar snacks at the Little George where quirky and I learnt a lot from my reading material!!
The picture wall at the Curio Lounge
The Curio Lounge, actually part of a uk chain - we hadn't heard of it though, still managed to have a distinct individual and quirky fee and is worth a visit, good menu, including breakfast/brunches and cake during the day and the usual burgers etc in the evening. Nice atmosphere and most importantly beautifully presented. Whoever is in charge of the interior design for this chain needs a round of applause! I could have happily moved in their and then, vintage lampshades as cluster light chandeliers, industrial ceiling lights, school style benches , upcyled tables and the most wonderful art gallery wall. Consisting of old oil paintings including the famous Vladimir Tretchikoff's. All in all a most pleasurable place to share a meal and a drink.
Avocado and bacon burger.
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