ADVERTORIAL

Written by Mel Elliott
Photography by Steven Painter and Charlotte Steeples
Illustrations by Mel Elliott

I’m forever harping on about how lucky we are here with our abundance of great, interesting and well-curated independent shops. In this feature we celebrate seven of them that we hope, cover some of your Christmas bases for gift buying this year: traditional, fun, conscientious, creative, drinkable, playable, wearable and much more. Besides visiting the shops in this guide, do look out for our ‘Shop Local’ postcards in shop windows, step away from your keyboard and the convenience of those smiley boxes and give all these lovely local traders your support and a little bit of your money.

Butler’s Emporium

Let’s start in the Old Town and with a store that is beautiful both on the inside and out. Butler’s Emporium, a firm fixture since 2008 is owned by Rose Radcliffe who says “we make and gather beautiful things. Some people call them ‘lifestyle stores’ but there you go”.

Rose has a love of Morocco and they have many items produced there to sell in the shop. “So, all of these were made for us in Morocco,” she says as she points out some bangles and some stylish Christmas decorations that hang behind the counter. In Butler’s Emporium, price points can be anything from £2.50 right up to £800 for a hand-woven tweed coat… and anything in between (the average spend being £10-£15). “I buy things I like! Like chocolate!” she says. And let me tell you, their Up-Up chocolate is so delicious that I’ve had to hide my salted caramel bar where not even I can find it! Up-Up chocolate is not only delicious and has very cool packaging, but they also pride themselves on only using 100% child-labour free cocoa. Their motto being ‘Up-Up, there’s no downside’.

For your Christmas shopping, Rose recommends the sheepskin hot water bottle covers. “They’re Swedish and lovely and we sell loads and loads” she says. Rose also explains that it’s a sock year, “we’ve got alpaca socks, linen socks, wool socks.. it’s a socky Christmas!”. Well you’ve got to sock it ‘em, Rose and the Butler’s team really know what they’re doing. With their soaps, hand creams, gloves, slippers, candles, cups, teapots, and much much more, they’ve got you (and your feet) covered.

Noah’s Goat

Meander a few doors along George Street and there’s a brand new fixture by the name of Noah’s Goat. It is the new venture of Nick and Nicky formerly of the Stag Inn and it’s your brand new go-to for all things wine. When I visited for a chat, shelves were being frantically stacked with reds, whites and fizzes, Henrietta Hoover was doing her thing along the floor, Charlie the sign-writer was propping up his ladder outside and Nicky sat me down to tell me where the name came from. “It’s an old myth about the Ark. When it landed, everybody disembarked, Noah built a house and the animals all toddled off. Over a period of time, Noah noticed that one of his goats kept coming home at night, frolicking and skipping and being all frisky.” I won’t spoil the ending but Nicky is having the story of Noah’s Goat printed out to display behind the counter and if that’s not enough to get you in there then I don’t know what is… oh yes, the wine!

Nick has always been passionate about wine and had always wanted a wine shop. Nicky tells me, “what we wanted to do is have a range that if someone was passing and wanted to stop and grab a bottle for dinner, we have wine starting at £10 but if someone wants something very special or unusual, we’ve got stuff going up to £65.”

Noah’s Goat has a couple of small tables and chairs and people will be encouraged to drink their chosen wine on the premises accompanied by charcuterie. “We’ll be doing wine tastings for beginners but also specialist stuff, regional stuff and pairings” Nicky says.

Nick talked me through some of his favourite picks for Christmas wine buying either as gifts or for yourself at home, selecting a red and a white at varying price points. Nick and Nicky’s enthusiasm for their new shop is lovely to see and they cannot wait to advise you (if you require it) on what to buy to go with your turkey, your cheese, to gift or to take to a NYE party.

Wow and Flutter

Wow and Flutter is an independent record shop in the heart of Hastings’ offbeat America Ground, full of treasure for all budgets. Along with an extensive selection of used records and CDs, owners, Tim and Susan sell vintage comics, books, contemporary graphic art and cult Japanese toys… in a nutshell, it’s ideal for Christmas presents!

“Though records are our main focus all year round, including our curated wall of rare albums on rotation, come Christmastime we fill the space with unique gift ideas, from pin badges to vintage pop culture annuals to festive favourites on vinyl”, says Tim.

At the time of this interview, Tim and Susan were on one of their trips to Japan where they sometimes head in search of inspiration and some unique pop-culture goodness, I mean, what better place to get inspired than Tokyo.

Wow and Flutter turns ten years old this December so go along and wish them a happy birthday and a merry Christmas while you soak up everything from Superman to The Smiths, from Kraftwerk to Kowabunga!

Bus Stop Studios

Attention all stationery lovers – do you have friends and family who are always stuck as to what to give you? Send them this way and there are no excuses: if it’s too far for them to walk, there’s a bus stop right outside. Bus Stop Studios is a multi-functioning business run by the lovely Amy who is a master of embroidery under the name Lady B Embroidery. When she’s not sewing dog portrait commissions, she is running workshops in the back of her colourful and beautifully curated stationery shop.

Stationery nerds will gaze longingly at Kaweco fountain pens, Black-Wing pencils, Koh-I-Noor erasers and Papier Tigre pencil sharpeners. There are sewing kits, balls of wool and haberdashery supplies. There are notebooks and sketchbooks, colouring books and ’how to’ books – many written by the creative experts who run workshops here.

For crowd-pleasing presents, Amy suggests “We have some lovely diaries and journals and one-off fountain pens by Kaweco with coloured inks that are really popular. Then we have some new pens by Tom’s Studio that are sustainable. They’re the pen of the moment! They’re refillable, you can change all the nibs. You buy one pen and then that’s it!”

Bus Stop Studio’s classes and workshops also make fantastic gifts if you prefer to give an experience rather than ‘things’. Amy is always delighted to provide vouchers for these. Just some of the classes coming up in the new year include: Embroidery, calligraphy, stencilling, knitting, watercolour painting and French!

Afic

Afic is a gorgeous little licensed boutique in Bexhill owned by Colin, a stylish gentleman, originally from Vancouver, who has impeccable taste. His shop is small but contains a perfect array of women’s and menswear, some of it designed by Colin himself and at least two things that I’ve added to my Christmas list. Colin prides himself on sourcing interesting pieces from all over the place. “These are French wellies,” he says as he walks me around the shop. “These are Danish slippers, these cashmere scarves are from St Lucia, these are Swedish, these are French, these are English raincoats and these Swedish ones are the best raincoats in the world”. Colin has a genuine enthusiasm for his very carefully selected products and their geographical origin. Accessories include bags, rainhats, earrings, phone/tablet holders, socks and scarves, keyrings and “these just came in” he says, holding up a pair of sunglasses, “they’re Gucci copies and they’re MASSIVE!”

Everything in Afic is very reasonably priced considering the quality of the items and the effort put into sourcing them. For example, the cashmere scarves are £29. Within the boutique are a couple of small tables and an array of wines from around the world to drink or take home along with (rather randomly) Coca-Cola flavoured Oreos.

Colin is a bit of a trailblazer and Afic is definitely a unique store crammed with interesting pieces that I doubt you will find elsewhere.

Stella Dore

Stella Dore is one of the many brilliant galleries along Norman Road in St Leonards. It is run by Steph Warren (ex Banksy assistant who, along with Ash the rat, graced our Autumn 2023 cover) and it showcases work by graffiti and street artists. As well as putting on exhibitions, Steph curates a fun range of gifts to suit most pockets. Besides stocking materials that any street artist may need, such as Ironlak spray cans and Grog Sqeezer pens, she also sells David Shrigley mugs and pencil cases, sketchbooks, ingenious infinity jigsaw puzzles by Darren Cullen AKA Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives, ceramics, signed books, lions mane coffee packs and anything that is on the edgier side of art.

For proud locals, there’s a St Leonards long-sleeved top by Yokel Graham and there’s ‘A Very Hastings Christmas’ print by The Snacks Collective for just £30. Other names to look out for here are Haus of Lucy who decorates traditional china with the unexpected, Tristan Lathey who has created the window ‘Notivity Scene’, Ace, Eggs, A Parliament of Owls, Mew and DLR. For the Christmas period there’s also a ‘drop your kid off’ policy – for £20 you can leave over 5s for 2 hours where they can decorate baubles while you shop the stores of St Leonards.

There’s something very tongue in cheek about Stella Dore’s products and its audiences/customers are all a bit on the rebellious side (even the resident dog, Eddie, has a bit of an attitude as well as a leash that has DO NOT PET written on it). So if you know any great people with a GSOH and who are likely to be on Santa’s naughty list, you know where to come.

Popsicle

Just around the corner in Kings Road is Popsicle: an explosion of colour of a shop, bursting at the seams with whimsical, fun and branded products. There’s not much not to like here. Owner, Nicky (yes another one!) says “It’s colourful, exuberant and pop! We like Moomins, Peanuts and lots of kawaii brands. Our best-sellers are Peanuts products. Everybody loves the philosophy of Peanuts and everyone can relate to it. Charles Schultz was just amazing.” Nicky’s love of Peanuts shows: there are bags, mugs, keyrings, badges and more.

They have some gorgeous books on various subjects from folklore to food, jewellery by Tatty Devine and Tiny Scenic who make small mid-century buildings into necklaces. There are funny socks by USD brand Blue Q and some amazing ceramics by Que Rico (which means ‘that’s lovely’ in Spanish).

Nicky never meant to go into retail but following a masters degree in art history, she put some money into a shop in Brighton with friends and laughs “Thirty years later and I’m still putting things into paper bags!”

Nicky is brilliant at what she’s doing though! For 5 years her shop, Pussy Home Boutique had a concession in Top Shop, Oxford Circus, which was then rolled out into 23 of their stores.

Popsicle is such a great place to shop. It’s a small shop with a big love of fun.

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We hope that this guide shows you something for every taste and budget. We’d love you to take the time to get out and about this Christmas, explore the streets and markets of Hastings, St Leonards and Bexhill. Keep your money local. Christmas is about lots of things but we think that community is a big part of that.

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Popsicle – 36 Kings Road, St Leonards – @popsicleshopsicle

Butler’s Emporium – 70-71 George Street, Hastings – @butlersemporium3

Noah’s Goat – 68 George Street, Hastings – @noahs_goat_hastings

Afic – 22A Wilton Road, Bexhill – @aficbexhill

Stella Dore – 64 Norman Road, St Leonards – @stelladore_gallery

Wow and Flutter – 8 Trinity Street, Hastings – @wowandflutterhastings

Bus Stop Studios – 53 London Road, St Leonards – @bus_stop_studios