Forum menu
We have one in Ilkeston - also does picture framing, and its called Framed and Locked Up.
Rickards in Ludlow. Straight out of an Edwardian time warp. Everything in little wooden pigeon holes behind the counter.
Bunners in Montgomery. I have spent hours in there, it's like the TARDIS, goes on forever, a Warren of rooms packed with stuff.
I've got two. Mackay's in Cambridge, everything you need from a M3 washer to power tools.
And Pecks in Ely. More farming and land management, so things like 5 bar gate hinges, chain saws and combine harvesters.
Came here to say Mackay's in Cambridge. Their metals warehouse is good too.
Bonnetts in Stoke Ferry. Looks nothing from the roadside but once you get in the door you will find just about anything you need!
Used to be one in Chesterfield on Chatsworth road. Unfortunately the owner passed away a few years ago and it's now some clothes boutique 🙁
https://maps.app.goo.gl/DmzPks8uyinhRJdi8
Still one in Eckington 🙂
https://maps.app.goo.gl/CGXp1StoNjW9ppFC8
I work in Brown’s Tobermory, established in 1830. Folks come in just to look and take a photo of our whisky selection. https://brownstobermory.co.uk/
We had an American come in a few weeks ago proclaiming “we have a store like this back in Vermont, four times the size and probably four times as old”
I just said, “Well, we’ve been here since 1830, so nearly 200 years old” 😎
The business is back in family ownership as the previous tenant retired last year.
We have an "ish" one in Peebles.
Scott's Brothers
I do use it quite alot for bits and pieces but it lacks some of the more traditional ironmongery bits.
Ie you can get your O's Hose and Ho's but you are unlikely to get metal stuff like angle iron and threaded rod.
You can get a proper old school tin opener though, and they seem to be phasing out plastic tat brushes for traditional wooden handles straw head type stuff.
Tools are an odd mix of quality.
Smells great though.
My grandfather used to work in Strother’s in Sunderland (long since gone). His kitchen drawers were full of beautiful little cardboard boxes with screws, nuts, bolts… I remember going into the shop with him and watching in awe as the change balls trundled along the rails above back to the accounts clerk. You can now see this in action in one of the shops in Beamish.
Thorpes in Gosforth is still going strong. Proper knowledgeable staff and I’ve not come out of there without the thing I needed, ever. Has a cool ceiling mounted 0-gauge railway that keeps my lad amused as a bonus.
We’ve also a small chain of DIY/hardware shops in the north east called Maxwells. It’s not as good as Thorpes, but still feels 💯 better than B&Q.
Odell’s in Stony Stratford
They have a sense of humour too
I have the weird hybrid shop "anything and everything" Half old school ironmongers half full of bongs, grinders and rolling papers.
We had a small family run one
<p style="text-align: center;">near us in Fleet, Hampshire. Baker & Sons. It was always my go-to place for all my DIY needs. Unfortunately it closed down last year after about 110 years.</p>
I don't think it was due to lack of trade as it was alway busy, just noone to pick up the baton.
The one in Stockbridge with the manky windows and last window display change 1978 seems to be shut down completely now. He was a grumpy old bast who sent you back out the door empty handed with your cash still in your pocket but definitely had something that would have done the job for you
Anstruther in the East Neuk has or had one with everything you need , everything counted out so you didn't get one extra nail or nut
Homeworks in Helmsley is going strong, for now.
These types of shops are fabulous for browsing. I always come out with a fair bit of stuff I didn't know I needed.
Double bubble, Fletchers hardware and Taylor's paints next door in Waterfoot, Rossendale, both proper time warp, especially Taylor's paint, if they can't mix it or find you the wall paper you want it's not worth bothering.
Modern by some standards (1938) and not exactly High Street because it's in the little village where i grew up and my folks still live, but Heath and Watkins in Sonning Common nr Reading. It underwent massive expansion in the early 2000's (ok, took over the little shop next door and went from about 10 sq mtrs to 20 sq mtrs) but the ethos hasn't changed, you can browse and find but almost everything you want is in cardboard boxes and biscuit tins on shelves and so you might as well ask.
I'm pretty sure Mr Heath or Mr Watkins aren't alive any more, it went via a son but then got sold on. The name has stuck though, as well as the ethos.
There's one in Portchester near where I work - tiny place, but does everything, screws, lightbulbs, buckets, pots & pans, paint. Great shop to go in at Christmas. Hope it's still there, haven't been in for a while.
Oh yeah - Wickham has a great one too - 2 storeys. I bought 2 doormats, a big baking tray and an umbrella last time I went in that one 🙂
A yes to Bunners in Montgomery. En route to CyB. Stop for breakfast at the cafe that gave up its Michelin star because it was too much fuss then nip down to Bunners to gaze in awe at the only PZ4 screwdriver I've seen and buy some wax circles for putting on top of home made jam and pickle before sealing the jars.
Came here to say Mackay’s in Cambridge.
Yep, the same family have run it in the same location since 1912...
https://www.mackay.co.uk/about-us.html
Kelly's DIY in Monkseaton used to be like this when @nobbingsford and I used to work there, far too many years ago now. (Still is to a degree.) Those were fun days! Always quite liked the hardware store in Keswick too.
Edit: forgot about Donaldsons in Grantown too!
We have two brilliant ones in Prestwich Hardware (“home” hardware – Light bulbs, batteries, brackets, hinges etc) and Relionus (aimed at the building end of the scale).
Both are great shops and have “that smell” of paper bags, metal, oil and a faint whiff of solvent/weed killer.
Anstruther in the East Neuk has or had one with everything you need , everything counted out so you didn’t get one extra nail or nut
I guess you're referring to this 'un
I'm probably going past later today, might just pop my head in for a look. And buy sonething I didn't know i needed.
Wollaston, Stourbridge.
[img] 
[/img]
However they don’t stock any reverse thread nuts 😤
Already mentioned - trouble is I am old enough to remember this being a "normal" shop.
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1177608
Highland Industrial Supplies in Inverness.
They have about a million staff, you go in with some obscure request thinking 'they'll never have that', but every single time a guy in a long blue coat says 'yes sir, right this way sir, follow me.'
Its like something from Diagon Alley but for hardware geeks.
Loving the mention of tbe smell in these places.
Best smelling shop in Ludlow was just up the road (King Street) from Rickards - Wainwrights - a saddler. So great leather smells, but they also did fishing tackle, which along with the Subbuteo was why I was always in there. So added to the leather was a touch of maggot. You could bottle it.
While not an ironmongers, if Rickards did not have it, they would.
Timber Mouldings in Sutton at Hone.
It's morphed into a bit of a builders merchant too over the years but it's being run by the 3rd & 4th generation of the same family. They still insist on calling you 'sir' when dealing with you (first names are ok when not doing business) and in the 25+ years I've been using them I don't think they've ever not had what I needed or not been able to come up with a solution. There's about a dozen lock up garages out the back which must have 100 years of accumulated bits & bobs!
Still close on a Wednesday so they can open on Saturday...
When I was growing up, this was the go to place.
I have two locally that are pretty good, but one just has everything. If you can't see it, it's round the 'back'.
@hot_fiat - there's a couple on Hylton Road - Tradelink DIY just down from the hospital, the other is down the bottom near the roundabout, sells calor gas plus loads of other stuff.
Growing up in Scarborough I always remember going into Clock Handyman on Victoria Road. I don't know if it's still the same but it's a warren and they seemed to always sell anything you might need.
https://www.google.com/maps/ @54.2804253,-0.4077547,3a,75y,120.3h,93.87t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sA7FMhb1atXCixzGX1v8etA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?authuser=0&entry=ttu
As mentioned above, I also lived in Fleet for 30+ years and frequented Baker’s regularly, but the family weren’t prepared to take it on so sold the building. Ironically, it’s being turned into an actual bakery.
On the subject of Brown’s Tobermory, we are also home to Tobermory Cat and often visitors are surprised to find he actually exists - there were originally 2 Tobermory cats - Tobermory and Ledaig, named after the whiskies, but only Ledaig survives, he’s now 15. He often lies in the road to avoid the attention of visitors and we put traffic cones around him to stop him getting squished.
The shop was also used in one of the scenes for “For Whom the Bell Tolls” as well as regular visits for TV shows - we had Alan Cumming and crew in the other week for a Discovery TV show.
I was stuck with a gate hanging off needing some washers of a specific size but had to be in the London office. I was amazed to find a proper hardware shop just behind Westminster Cathedral, proper job had everything! Victoria Hardware.
I like to shop locally, and theoretically, I love shops like this. I'm even happy to pay a premium over the chain retailers. Unfortunately I find it hard to give these guys my money. They always seem to try their very best to not actually sell me anything.
The last time I went in my local one I wanted sanding discs for my orbital sander. I had one with me to make sure I had the right size. He took one look, said "I sold all my stock of that size to a bloke yesterday". I wasn't in a rush, so I said I'd go back when he next had some in stock. He said "Just go to Screwfix mate" and went back to reading his paper.
That was the third and last time I'd tried, and failed, to buy from him.
There used to be a few in central London one in Soho was a favorite of mine when I was a working on nightclubs.
We have a chain of 4 by me all the same stuff jam packed in. My dad wanted to open one a good few years ago general stuff and proper power tools for the trades looking back it would have made a killing.
Cobley & Cockshott (I kid you not) still going strong in Keighley.
blokeuptheroad
Full Member
Rickards in Ludlow. Straight out of an Edwardian time warp. Everything in little wooden pigeon holes behind the counter
Bugger. I'm in Ludlow this morning. Looks like we are about to lose another of these great old places 😢.
.
It makes me smile that places like this still exist. It's a part of my childhood, memories of wandering round "Key Joe's" with my granddad trying to persuade him to buy me a padlock or something. It was never called Key Joe's in my lifetime, it was something like Lancashire Ironmongery, but that's what everyone knew it as.
There's a couple near me today, within a couple of blocks of each other. The last time I was in one of them I was after some screws for a small project. I produced an offending broken one and asked "have you got any like this?" She replied, "ooh, hang on love, let me have a look," disappeared under the counter, then popped back with your typical box of screws. Then asked me, "how many do you need?" Slightly thrown, I said "uh... maybe half a dozen?" whereupon she cracked open the box and counted them out for me, 1... 2... 3... before charging me something mortgage-threatening like about 4p.
Anyone for a game of corson?
🤣 Brilliant! There must be a special school for the grumpy proprietors of these places.
Nooooo! Not Rickards.