Ely Antiques Shop is Like An Aladdin's Cave

IT would be difficult not to find something useful if you popped into Cloisters Antiques in Ely and virtually impossible to walk out without discovering something interesting. Barry Lonsdale, who owns the business, at 1-1b Lynn Road, describes it as an A

IT would be difficult not to find something useful if you popped into Cloisters Antiques in Ely and virtually impossible to walk out without discovering something interesting. Barry Lonsdale, who owns the business, at 1-1b Lynn Road, describes it as "an Aladdin's Cave" and that's exactly what it is. The shop is made up of several rooms containing books, antiques and collectables, retro clothing, postcards and the most wonderful collection of vinyl records. There is an impressive art gallery and picture framing service upstairs and local artists are offered a 'rent a bay at �1 per day' service to exhibit their art work.

Barry took the premises on 10 years ago and his personal collecting passion is postcards. Perhaps surprisingly for anyone not in the know, some postcards can fetch as much as �100.

"Postcards have become a real collector's item and as more and more people search their family history they tend to look for postcards which show local buildings and businesses.

"I started off with antique books and then added the postcards and later the picture framing service. The vinyl collection in the downstairs room is run by someone else and used to be housed in the shop next door and the art gallery and picture framing adds some real interest."

Barry says he felt it was important to support the Ely Standard's Keep It Local campaign.

" I think it's important to have independent shops as there are not many of us left and it would be a shame to lose all that local knowledge."

INFO: opening times: Monday - Saturday: 9.30am till 4.30pm; Sunday: 11am till 4pm. Closed on Tuesday.

Pic cap: Barry Lonsdale supports our Keep It Local campaign.

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Photo: HELEN DRAKE