Advice on garage sales / places to visit for traveler

[akshimassar]

Hey,

I'm visiting London end of this month and looking for interesting places to visit. It's a business trip but I want to stay a couple of day after finishing work.

I've just started to discover amazing world of woodworking handtools and I am very excited. I like the way it feels, how plane is taking shaving. But I only have very basic set of tools and since I like to restore tools, I would like to buy some tools being in London.

So I wonder if you can advice on that. Is there garage sales, second hand markets where you can buy used tools? Or I should stick with ebay?

 

[finneyb]

I don't live in London, therefore can't give any details of garage sales etc.

I have lived in the centre of London and the problem you will have is the distance that you will have to travel to get to the garage sales in the residential areas - it will burn up all your time.

If you are in central London I would spend the time sight seeing, there is plenty to see. eg https://changing-guard.com/dates-buckingham-palace.html http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do ... AEPUDid.97 the bus tour is a useful framework.

HTH

Brian

 

[Bm101]

There's very few used tool places in London to my knowledge. You could try Vauxhall Market but I've never been so can't recommend it personally. Problem with London is selling space is so expensive and demand is so low for old tools generally that it's not viable. People do find cheap good quality tools at boot sales (maybe the equivalent to Garage sales), what they don't mention is that for every bargain they find they might have been to 5 more without seeing anything. Plus you need to be up early, beat the dealers, know which ones are good and spend 3 hours looking at a lot of nothing.
While the internet can be good for tool buying it also means everyone who finds Grandads old tools in the shed goes on ebay to check prices, not always a good thing. It also means a lot of the little old tool and hardware shops no longer exist.
You can buy off dealers, better quality control but pay more. Google 'buying old tools uk' and you'll see plenty.

Personally if it was me and you are over on spare time on your own and want to browse and have some money to spend, have a chat and pick the tools up I'd get the train to Bristol. 2 Hours. Make a day of it, grab some lunch and have a pint. https://en-gb.facebook.com/Bristol-Desi ... 693168374/ Pop in and have a browse.
Long day but far more rewarding than trying to buy in London.
Good luck
Chris

 

[akshimassar]

Thanks, Chris! Such a lovely place, I certainly want to visit it. And I might be to Bristol anyway.
Exact place I want to visit! Nice chatting and a lot of hand tools!

Thanks, Brian. Not sure if it what I exactly looking for. I certainly like beautiful sights, but I also believe that essence of place is not in it's famous places. What I am looking for is more like small workshops and interesting persons. For instance I like Paul Sellers videos, not necessary for the knowledge he share but for his love for woodworking. It's really his passion and he is so beautiful when he is working with wood.

 

[Bm101]

If you do go to, word to the wise, he doesn't take cards as far as I know so take some cash. Good luck.

 

[sunnybob]

I doubt there are any specialist old tool shops left now for the reasons above. You might try the famous markets like brick lane, petticoat lane, and shepherds bush, but thats 99% tourist rubbish now.

Apart from tool shops, the one place anyone who visits London should go to see is TOWER bridge.
NOT London bridge which was made famous by the song of it falling down and an amercian bought the old one because he thought he was buying tower bridge.

TOWER bridge, at NIGHT TIME, is the most beautiful place in the whole of London. Further upstream is Albert bridge and Chelsea bridge, both lit up at night, but neither as good as Tower. I was born by the side of the Thames and lived there for 30 years, and that was the place I took all my visitors to see.

 

[Rorschach]

Being a regular visitor to London I can tell you that you are unlikely to find tools worth buying. You will see quite a few in Notting Hill, but they are all crazy expensive because they have the vintage charm. Old/semi worn out chisels can be priced anything from £20 and up, the exact same kind of stuff I would buy for 50p-£1 at my local boot sale, same goes for planes, prices 5-10 higher than the real value.
There is a boot sale style market on a sunday just off brick lane, there is usually a good selection of tools there but the stalls are run by weed smoking gypsies and the tools are almost certainly stolen from what it looked like and are tradesman type tools anyway.

Basically my advice is enjoy London for what it has to offer, for what makes it unique. Enjoy the tourist sites, eat some good food etc.

 

[finneyb]

I'll try again
We have 'Worshipful Companies ' basically craftsman guilds these maybe of interest and able to help you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipfu ... Carpenters


ref Wiki The Worshipful Company of Carpenters is a livery company of the City of London. The Carpenters were traditionally different from a fellow wood-crafting company, the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers, in that carpenters utilised nails while joiners used adhesives to attach wood.
The organisation existed in 1271; it received a Royal Charter of incorporation in 1477. As is the case with most of the other livery companies, the Company no longer has a role as a trade association of tradesmen and craftsmen. Instead, it acts as a charitable institution and supports education in wood-related fields.

Brian

 

[MusicMan]

I'll try again
We have 'Worshipful Companies ' basically craftsman guilds these maybe of interest and able to help you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipfu ... Carpenters


ref Wiki The Worshipful Company of Carpenters is a livery company of the City of London. The Carpenters were traditionally different from a fellow wood-crafting company, the Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers, in that carpenters utilised nails while joiners used adhesives to attach wood.
The organisation existed in 1271; it received a Royal Charter of incorporation in 1477. As is the case with most of the other livery companies, the Company no longer has a role as a trade association of tradesmen and craftsmen. Instead, it acts as a charitable institution and supports education in wood-related fields.

Brian

The Worshipful Companies are indeed interesting historically, but I don't think they are any use to a visitor wanting to buy tools. As a metallurgist I have some association with the Armourer's and Brasiers' company, but as the Wiki article says, they are essentially a charitable organisation now, operating in the field of metals, yes, but none of the members actually get their hands dirty, let alone make suits of armour.

Thanks for the reference though, I always wondered what the difference was between a woodworker and a joiner!

 

[davin]

I was going to suggest Buck and Ryan, in Southampton Row in central London. (not used tools, but a great selection of planes, chisels etc...)
Used to love going there when I was studying in London.
Appears to have shut down, what a shame....

Dosvidanya"

 

[custard]

Not tools, but the furniture display in the Victoria & Albert museum is pretty special.

 

[Robbo3]

If you want a tool shop then D & M Tools in Twickenham might fit the bill, but it's a little way out from the centre. Address, map & picure,
- http://www.dm-tools.co.uk/contact.php

 

[akshimassar]

Thanks a lot, everyone!

I've visited Bristol and Bristol Design Woodworking Tools. Bristol is very nice, it was a pleasure to just walk there. Shop was not so impressive as I expected but I still got some useful tools. Ebay is my way-to-go for further buys.
I wanted to visit other shops in London to get some common tools but almost every shop was closed at Sunday (the only free day I had in London).

 

[MusicMan]

Thanks for letting us know, glad you enjoyed it!