Bartlett Street Antiques Center
Bartlett St
This is a very upscale antiques shop with more than forty dealers. Almost everything is in a glass case. This is not the shop to go to if you are looking for a good selection of furniture. However, if you are interested in finding a 200 year old silver tea pot or a tea caddy then this could just be the place for you.
One thing that Joe found that was very interesting were 800 year old arrow tips. Though I found these interesting I was not inclined to part with my pounds to own them. There was a lot of jewelry here, plenty of art deco and Edwardian rings, earring and broaches. These were a much greater temptation but I remained strong.
There also were some very interesting pieces of Chinese import porcelain. One of the dealers had some things from Nepal which I found unusual. Some of the other dealers had the usual Royal Dalton and Wedgewood items that you would expect. There was one dealer who did have some old linen and lace pieces and another had a vast selection of buttons. Overall this was an interesting shop to spend a half hour perusing and who knows you may find a real treasure but expect to pay full pop, they know what they have and they price accordingly, besides, this is Bath.
OxFam Shop
12 a George Street
We always love the Oxfam shop in whatever town we go to. They are a charity that helps to fight poverty in the world. Their shops have lots of different things, designer clothes, books, china, pottery and lots of other interesting things. You never know what you will find so when you see a shop you just need to go right in and start looking around.
This particular time we didn’t find anything that we wanted to carry home but you can be sure that the variety will be excellent and the prices will be fair. You can also walk away feeling as if you have helped in at least a small way to make the world a better place.
National Trust Shop
Located across from the side of the Abbey this shop is located on two levels. Since it was the second week of January there were some deals to be had on items related to Christmas. Expect to find the usual National Trust items, logo items, books, some lavender bath and body lotions, floral tray, calendars and the like. This wasn’t a particularly large shop considering the location and frankly we found it to be nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing I was remotely tempted to buy was some joint pain lotion and then I thought should I pay $10 for some joint lotion from the National Trust, what do they know about joint pain? We have seen better National Trust Shops.
Bath Abbey Shop
They had a few religious items. Olive wood crosses from the holy land, prayer cards and one statue that I saw. What kept our attention here was the best selection of humorous magnets that we have seen in a long time. I am sure we created quite a scene standing there laughing for five minutes over all these ridiculously funny squares of plastic. It really takes so little to amuse us and in the end we didn’t buy any but we certainly enjoyed reading them.