Exploring Plymouth Barbican - Antique Afternoon
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| Hidden behind the main buildings! |
Although I live in
Plymouth, exploring it and learning more about it is one of my favourite things
to do. Today was no exception and was a very historical mother and daughter
day. Both my mum and I love history and exploring old buildings and decided to
go to the Elizabethan house, that supposedly I’ve been to but cannot remember.
We decided to start the day by getting lunch at a small café called Chocaccino
before starting our journey around Plymouth Barbican, my favourite place and
the only reason I would stay living in Plymouth. Chocaccino specialises in
handmade chocolates and beautiful cakes that can be ordered for weddings, birthdays
or any special occasion. If you have a sweet tooth and you are on the barbican
this is the place to go. We shared a sandwich and a piece of rocky road and I
had this delicious mint chocolate chip milkshake with chocolate flakes on top.
Yet again do try if you are passing buy it is amazing.
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| TASTES SO GOOD! |
On the way to the
house, like always, I got side tracked by my favourite building on the
Barbican, The House That Jack Built, its a quirky building filled with lots of
small shops and decorated like a cave.
(Blog post on this building currently being made.)
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| No filter needed! |
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| A picture does say 100 words...I can think of many more with this one! |
The Elizabethan house
is on a side street behind the main street but easy to find if you walk up from
the tourist information centre. It is described as a rare surviving example of
Plymouths history showing what houses were like for middle merchants and sea
captains whose livelihoods were based around the waterfront in the late 1500’s.
It’s a three-story house that you can walk around independently if you prefer,
which is what mum and I did, with each room providing information. We got a
tour guide for 50p so we could get extra information and although it was only
50p it really was informative and told us things we wouldn’t have picked up on,
we even had people ask us questions! The whole house, including the garden
could take between half an hour to an hour depending on how much you look
around and stop to read and is suitable for all ages. When we were there a
family of three children and three elderly people who all enjoyed the house
joined us. We personally really enjoyed it and although it isn’t packed full of
furniture, most of it on loan from London museums, it was still easy to see how
people used to live in those days and how much it has changed. When no one was
looking mum and I tried to put on some of the clothing but seeing as they were
aged for those about 5 it didn’t take long for us to become stuck.
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| View from the garden! |
Once we finished the
house we decided to go up a road we never noticed before, although it really
isn’t hard to miss, called 27 New Street or known as the Antique area of the
barbican. The first building we went into was ironically called 27 New Street. This
building was just amazing and if you are a lover for antiques then this really
would be your heaven. Personally mum and I don’t collect Antiques but are quite
happy to look at them and pick out what our family or some of our friends, who
all collect antiques, would like. What mum and I didn’t know about this
building was just how big it really is. It has three floors all showing
different things. Sadly I didn’t take any pictures in here but will defiantly
be going back and taking some and will include in a blog post. The first floor
contains a cute little coffee shop that will soon be tested by my family that
is attached to a bookshop, called Cornerstone Books. I say bookshop but it’s
more like piles of old looking books EVERYWHERE with multiple stacks of shelves
pilling with books included. It’s a book lovers dream. We didn’t buy any books
but I did manage to ruin the novel of One Day to a man by telling mum what
happens in it. I do hope he was joking when he said he wanted to watch that
movie…he didn’t look like the person that would watch it…
The second floor,
which involved walking past this weird figure of a man that made both mum and I
jump, contained two main rooms, one being a small shop, that I cant find the
name of, containing old comics and collectable toys such as old Doctor Who and
star wars figurines, beanie babies and Disney related toys. It’s a place you
would image the British version of The Big Bang Theory would go to. Such a
throwback to both my mother’s childhood and mine.
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| Cute little courtyard in between the shops! |
The other room on this
floor was split up and contained a Thai massage room, a military store called RBJ
Militaria specializing in medals and insignia and a small shop called All That
Glitters that sells vintage costume jewelry, dolls and toys. The only other
small shop included in this mix was an adorable store called Majink The Fairy
Shop selling a collection of original fairy designs and models that I quickly
became obsessed with. The rest of the room, basically the middle of the room,
is a shop called Mayflower Stamps/Coins selling obviously stamps and coins
along with antiques and collectables. We didn’t stay on this floor long due to
it defiantly being a weird floor, not unpleasant but just weird.
The third and final floor had an amazing vintage
clothing store called Luna Chic Vintage which is a mother daughter run business
selling, clothes, accessories and antiques from all eras and sizes. I picked up
a flyer offering me 15% off but this can also be achieved through an NUS card.
The rest of this floor was run by a lovely man named Antony who was very
passionate on his mixture of different antiques from furniture to pictures to
figurines. Both mum and I found a few things that we both quite liked and
although we didn’t buy them Antony told us when we were ready he was happy to
negotiate a price with us. Randomly in the middle of the store contained
another small clothing store that I think is called The Rag Trader but honestly
I cant remember.
The whole building is defiantly a building we are
going to revisit so photos will be coming.
The second and sadly last building we went into
was called Parade Antiques who are known for buying and selling:
Antiques
Collectables
Bric-A-Brac
Glass & Chine
Silver & Jewelry
Pictures
Toys and Beanies
Medals &
Militaria.
This had much older
and more expensive antiques including some original Marlin Monroe clothing and
letters. Although mother and I could never justify spending some of the money
they were asking for just looking around was enough for us. There were many
statues and figurines on top of the cases and hanging on the walls. Such as the
back and tail of a whale hanging on top of the door. I obviously had to take a
picture with one of the figurines. Please excuse the no makeup look I have.
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| My reaction...really was terrifying! |
The last store linked
with the rest of the Antique stores was called Something Differently and sadly
we didn’t have time to look in this store but it wont be long till we are
exploring these stores again.
Overall it’s been a really
good and enjoyable day and I’m now counting down the days until the next mother
daughter day!
Talk to you later x
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