Botminatión

People came to us twice: once before a trip, and often once after it, holding something that had been dropped from a great height by someone else. We liked both visits. Over forty-eight years that added up to a great many conversations about weather, weight limits, honeymoons, funerals, first jobs and last chances, conducted across a counter, ostensibly about a bag.

The shop has now closed. It closed while it was still the shop we wanted it to be, which is the only good way to do it. There is no clearance, no closing-down sale and no online continuation — a shop like ours was the room, the people in it and the things they had decided to stand behind, and we could not have kept two of those three.

We never made anything. What we did was say no a great deal: to goods that could not be repaired, to hardware that failed in the hand, to anything that would look worse in ten years rather than better. If you bought something here, it was chosen against that standard by someone who expected to see you again.

So the only thing left to say is the thing this page exists for. Thank you for your business, for your patience with our small stock and stubborn opinions, and for coming back. We hope the pieces you bought from us stay in service long after this website has gone quiet.