69A

Vintage and antiques shop 69A looks like it fell out of the pages of a storybook. A black cat is asleep in the window, its head resting on a pile of secondhand books. A sign on the door warns you to ‘please take care’ and says nothing about who or what of. Once inside, the narrow room stretches further and further back until you lose sight of where you came in. You’re surrounded by tribal masks and bowler hats and carved dragons and fur coats and potted plants and mirrors. Present day Renshaw Street feels like a million miles away. 

Owner Trevor has had a shop on this street since 1976, changing its name from 81 to 69A as it moved location. The stock reflects cultures from all over the world and all times in history, from a 2,000-year-old Chinese statue of a horse and rider, to Victorian crockery to brightly-coloured plastic beads. There are rails of vintage clothes, shelves of secondhand vinyl and books, and cabinets full of jewellery, curios, art and oddities. 

It’s fascinating and beguiling and the kind of place you can happily lose yourself in. Trevor says he tries to make browsing here feel chilled and comfortable (Coco the cat definitely helps with that) and notes that it tends to attract people who live on the outside. Go in and have a look around – who knows what you might find?