Step inside our Christmas imaginarium: Through The Looking Glass. Our store is brimming with wondrous gifts and is open today, and every day right up to Christmas. We also offer click-and-collect, so check out our online Christmas Shop and you can pop by to pick up. Read more...
The house opens its magical door this coming weekend. Due to the conditions in place for social distancing we have been unable to open this year, and the little house has missed you all. It’s been slumbering quietly, dreaming up wondrous things; so please do visit - a tonic of festive magic and cheer awaits. We will apply common sense social distancing and will limit numbers at the door. And please don’t forget your mask. Read more...
Tune In To Your Wireless
Alastair Hendy will be on Radio 4’s Four Thought on Wednesday 25th November at 9.30am, talking about how we in the UK have lost our food culture.
Yes, you read that correctly: we have lost our food culture. But once Alastair’s done, and he has near 20 minutes to explain his case, you just might agree with him. Parking the pandemic on one side: yes, we now have a thriving and wonderful restaurant culture; we eat the world, when out or in; we love cookery programmes; Instagram breakfast, lunch and supper; and are pretty much obsessed with food – claiming we know a lot about every cuisine out there. All good things. But that’s not what makes a food culture, so best tune in on the 25th and find out why. At the very least, you can vent off a bit of steam by shouting at the radio.
The programme will be repeated on the same day at 8.45pm.
Four Thought is a “series of thought-provoking talks in which the speakers air their thinking on the trends, ideas, interests and passions that affect culture and society”.
Do tune in.
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Sometimes you just have to take a big blast of your own trumpet, so please allow us – as Alastair and his shop are the subject of this month’s guest editor interview on the Good Web Guide: “Alastair Hendy, The Walking Magazine”. Read more...
We’ve cleaned, bleached, scrubbed, swept, just about every nook and cranny we can lay our hands on by now - but, look down. Horror! Your shoes! Forgotten. Do not go into meltdown. We urge you. To the rescue - and plastic free, all-natural and handmade - comes our complete shoe cleaning set, and we can rush one to you. Keeping up appearances is the best we can do for morale in these strange days. Anyway, best be immaculate and intensively groomed for your next Zoom, in case camera drops to expose nether regions. Click here for more info and ease of purchase. Read more...
Now that you’ve rebuilt the duck house; woven a tapestry cushion; reupholstered the sofa; become a master-baker; are fluent in three languages; knitted 1000 loo-roll covers, and completed 101 marvellous ways with mince; you just may be twiddling your thumbs thinking what-the-heck can I do now? We suggest a turn-out and a simple spring clean. There’s little skill involved; you just need to lay your hands on the right tools for the job - and we have them, will pack them up, and send them to you. Read more...
`Well, I'll eat it,' said Alice, `and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I'll get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!’ Read more...
Our Treasures from the Orient have arrived. A cargo of antique Chinoiserie laquer ware, ebony, mother of pearl, papier-mâché and hand painted calligraphy makes up our windows; along with silver, exotic taxidermy and boxes of glittering delights, evoking pillow book tales and stories from the Far East. Inside Madame Butterfly’s worldly treasures are all for sale along with a haul of pen and ink papers and notebooks - ideal for the wrapping of presents. Read more...
We are offering our A G Hendy & Co extra large vintage archive box at the discounted price of £19.50 during the Christmas period. Constructed from vulcanized cardboard with an internal aluminium frame and rivets for extra rigidity, they were originally made for a well-known central London British museum in the 1950s to be used as archive boxes. Never used, they were recently discovered in a forgotten store room belonging to the museum. Read more...
After a long and anticipated wait our weekend kitchen will be opening again from Saturday 29th June. Our fresh-off-the-boat seafood, our generous shellfish pot and our plates of seasonal vegetables are all on the menu. Read more...
Looking for a way to say thank you for that perfect Christmas day or fabulous New Year’s dinner? Then we might just have the answer. Our bespoke A G Hendy & Co gift boxes can be packed with beautiful products of your choice, such as this one - with home-stitched vintage linens, our handmade household scissors and some useful bundles of haberdasher’s tape. A gift your kind hosts will not forget. Read more...
Just a little reminder. The Christmas House opens its wee door for the last time this coming Christmas Eve weekend, so if you were planning a visit, now is the last chance for 2018. We are open this Saturday and Sunday, no booking required. And we also have a special Christmas Eve opening, where you can soak up the magical atmosphere accompanied with a tipple of Tudor spiced wine. Bookings are required for this day – so if you’re planning on making your Christmas Eve that extra bit special, we recommend you contact us to secure your ticket. Read more...
Unlock the door to another world of Christmas gifts: of Victorian pharmacy jars; Edwardian poison bottles; mushroom corals; foxed silver bells; 1930s smoke-glass powder pots; and miniature weighing scales. Our magical Christmas room is brimming with beautiful things. Extraordinary gifts that cannot be hoped for elsewhere. Read more...
Our Christmas shop this year is like a story book - it takes you on a journey. Once through the door, you enter paragraphs of rooms that weave a narrative. Upstairs you will explore a dark glittering surreal Svankmejar world of inky-blacks, tarnished silvers, foxed mirror, bone, shell and poison, and all set in a twiggy forest. Read more...
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Our Christmas windows are in. The entire contents of an old pharmacy lit by flickering candles and with the ghosts of Christmas past peering out through shattered baubles and frosted chemist bottles, translucent with tincture traces and remedial unguents. All is for sale. Step inside and the alchemy continues with room after room brimming with the beautiful and the practical, creating an imaginarium of wondrous gift ideas. Read more...
The dark days of December are nearly upon us and once again comes the opportunity to experience first-hand Alastair Hendy’s fairytale home at Christmas. Lit by candlelight, with log fires crackling, and filled with the smells of spiced wine and wood-smoke, this is an enchanting experience like no other. It’s like entering the pages of a Grimm’s brothers tale, both unimagined and unprecedented, and sets a poetry for the Christmas festivities to come. Unleashing memories of childhood as a source of aesthetic experience, Alastair creates The Christmas House to share with you all. Come and see – you will be filled with Christmas wonder and good cheer. Read more...
Our Ladybird alphabet inspired spring shop windows are kitted out with a pair of 1940s school outfitter's shop display mannequins. Price for the
girl and boy and more details available upon request.
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A last minute reminder: our Tudor House will open its wee door once again for Hastings' Jack In The Green festival this coming weekend, 6th & 7th May. Lit by candlelight and with log fires burning it’s like stepping into the pages of a Grimm’s fairytale - a visit will add yet more magic to your bank holiday weekend. Come and see - you'll be enthralled. Read more...
Our Tudor House will open its wee door once again for Hastings' Jack In The Green weekend 6th & 7th May. Alastair Hendy will be giving restoration tours of his magical house and its secret garden. Lit by candlelight and with log fires burning it’s like stepping into the pages of a Grimm’s fairytale. We only have a limited number of places, and tickets are already selling, so if you’re planning a visit we advise you book your tickets as soon as possible. Read more...
Snow has fallen, the turkey is roasted, a jelly and ham are served - come in from the cold for wondrous gifts displayed over two floors at A G Hendy & Co Homestore Hastings. We are open every day this week, including Christmas Eve or visit our on-line store. Read more...
We have just two weekends left of our summer kitchen, as we close the restaurant this year on 1st October. So if you are planning a visit, we’d recommend booking right now. Read more...
Our fresh-off-the-boat seafood, our generous shellfish pot (as pictured) and our plates of seasonal vegetables are all still on the menu. Our kitchen will close in October, so if you are planning a visit, we’d recommend booking now as our tables for these last weekends are filling fast. Read more...
Add another highlight to Hastings' Jack In The Green weekend by visiting 135 All Saints Street, where Alastair Hendy will be giving restoration tours of his magical house and its secret garden. Lit by candlelight and with log fires burning it’s like stepping into the pages of a Grimm’s fairytale. Read more...
We are about to appear on Channel 4’s new TV series Hidden Restaurants presented by Michel Roux Jr. Last summer, Michel joined Alastair Hendy
in his packed-out kitchen at A G Hendy & Co to lend a hand in the cooking of our stunning Shellfish Pot. The two of them also visited the local
fishing fleet, the winch sheds and Rock-a-Nore Fisheries – singing the praises of brushes, flatfish and crab.
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Drumming, marching, sinister costumes and burning torches once again take over the smoke-filled streets of Hastings - and then come the Black Bogies, pulling pitch-fired carts. This is Hastings Bonfire Night Parade. It’s as if the ghost ships of the The Spanish Armada have landed, delivering a sea faring, tattered and war-torn army of the undead into the dimly lit passageways of the Old Town. Start this dramatic evening with a silent visit to 135 All Saints Street, which will be set-dressed with log fires burning, candles lit, and the wraiths of its mortuary past haunting its darkest reaches. Once the East Hill beacon is lit, the old house will close its door and the drums will begin. Then, with the smell of tar on the wind, 21st century Hastings is hurled into the centuries of its history, succumbing to a dark and magical night. Read more...
It is Hastings' famous Jack In The Green this coming bank holiday weekend - see our previous Notice 'Jack In The Green'. Add another highlight to your weekend by visiting 135 All Saints Street, where Alastair Hendy will be giving restoration tours of his magical house and its secret garden on the Sunday, the day before the procession. Read more...
Our spring-clean windows are an avifaunal paradise of brushes and dusters exhibited in Norwich canary display boxes. Come view the exhibits, which include: Turdus Migratorius (toilet brush), Scrubbus Vulgaris (scrubbing brush) and Fluffimus Maximus (spot duster). Beavourus Trollopus is currently out on loan. Read more...
Welcome to our Steptoe & Son collection of vintage finds arranged flea market style on our shopfront pavement. My mum roared with laughter through the 60s at tv's sitcom Steptoe & Son, while I was more transfixed by the glorious piles of furniture, papers, taxidermy and dark curiosities that propped up their home in Oil Drum Lane, Shepherds Bush. Rag & Bone has new credentials: the everyday is now special and the utilitarian desirable. Read more...
Our cut-price sale has started - plenty of vintage bargains to be had in-store. What you call a snip! Read more...
Christmas has arrived at Homestore. Our windows are packed with the essential supplies of vintage baubles, hotel silverware, candles, haberdasher's tape, and Victorian pen & ink poems. Read more...
‘Jack is asleep,
awaiting the next time he walks the land.
The Morris men,
and women,
and dragons dance on.
The Sweeps keep on sweeping,
the Bogies are still drinking;
and the Drummers play on.’
hastingsjack.co.uk
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