Doug up on Bourke

A week ago I abandoned my desk and the work I had to do to accompany my interior designer friend, Rachel, on a reccy of the design and furniture strip around Sydney's Dank St, Waterloo. On our way home, we popped into what is possibly the best shop of all time - Doug up on Bourke at 901 Bourke St - that specialises in ALL kinds of stuff from the 1850s to the 1950s. It's a place where you go back in time and get lost in a world of industrial, commercial and homely rustic antiques. Where you're met at the door by the creepiest mannequin ever who stands spookily by the stairs in front of an Aussie classic - a Four 'n Twenty Pie sign. There are baskets of used shoe lasts, dozens of old oars, street signs, taxidermied animals' heads (unfortunately hubby likes the smiling hog - ugh!) ...

mounds of old suitcases,

hundreds of tatty, tired and not-so-tired tables and desks,

railway station chairs, signs and accessories,

sporting equipment and watering cans,

quirky tin animals,

lamp shades and tins and odds and sods of goodness knows what else,

and then you have to walk past creepy mannequin-man again ...

Oh how I love that place. I'll be back, Doug up on Bourke.