AG Hendy
36 High Street Hastings East Sussex TN34 3ER
This extraordinary shop – three floors of beautifully displayed household essentials housed behind a 1920s-style shopfront on Hastings’ High Street – is the work of food writer, photographer and stylist Alistair Hendy, who spent over three years restoring the late-Georgian building. The end result – all bare floorboards, stripped plaster walls and vintage fittings – is like stepping back in time, with no hint of the modern day interrupting the nostagia; even the till is hidden away behind the counter. Only things that have a practical, everyday use make it into the shop: brushes, candles, bolts of vintage linen, enamel washbowls, buckets, table lamps, antique chairs, saucepans, vintage Dendy and Woods ware, hand-forged scissors and just about every variety of broom and brush you could imagine. And as you’d expect from style guru Hendy, everything is styled to perfection, from the artistic display cases of scissors to the staff themselves, who are kitted out in starched, calf-length aprons. It’s quite unlike any other shop you’ll have visited before, and a definite must-visit if you’re in Hastings, whether you’re in the market for a new broom or not.
