This month The Silk Road Gallery celebrates 50 years since we opened our first shop!
On the 4th November 1974 we opened a small shop in the Sheffield suburbs called Freewheelin', the name of a Bob Dylan record. The local newspaper described a front room atmosphere where everything seemed to be sale except the cats. On shelves made from rough timber and old wooden crates you'd find recycled Spanish wine glasses, chunky square glass bottles, Japanese tea sets,
local pottery, rugs & Indian bedspreads. We block mounted art nouveau posters and made waterbed frames from old timber joists from demolition yards. The waterbed took up half the room. In the back room we sold Bob Dylan bootlegs.
Hard to believe but that's 50 years ago - half a century! Many people followed us loyally as we grew, changed direction, grew again and now we're at the Silk Road Gallery - our 'retirement project'.
So what happened in those 50 years?
Peter went to Morocco. "I fell in love with the earthy colours and traditional patterns and bought wonderful handwoven Berber blankets". Friends brought back tribal hangings from Afghanistan, knitwear from Peru and in 1976 we opened a clothing shop across the road called Another Side - the title of another Bob Dylan album. Two years later we opened Bringing It All Back Home (yes, another Dylan record).
Walking into Bringing It All Back Home was like entering an ancient bazaar somewhere on the Silk Road - a dozen rooms spread over three floors with clothes, shoes, furniture, antique clothes and tent hangings from Afghanistan, embroideries from Rajasthan, ceramics, jewellery and a wholefood cafe.
But of course everything changes. One day we woke up and everyone was wearing black. Colour and patterns from faraway lands had been replaced by minimalism and something closer to home. We had a painful time selling off our lease and stock and saying goodbye to staff and everything we'd created. But we had a lifeline. A few years earlier we'd started making futons so we opened The Futon Shop and started again.
We got to the point where we were making more beds than futon so we changed our name to the Natural Bed Company. Peter designed beds which we made in our Sheffield workshops and sold around the world - currently to over 40 countries.
Although our bed designs were contemporary with a nod to Scandinavia and Japan we still enjoyed the challenge and thrill of working in India and we developed a successful style of furniture that we manufactured in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Along with that we continued to buy decorative items and design bedding there.
The shop premises we'd occupied since 1987 came up for redevelopment and in 2016 we relocated to a new architect designed showroom nearby on Fitzwilliam Street. Around the same time Kay retired and we started to hand the business over to Caro and Paula, two sisters who worked for us. Caro is still running the Natural Bed Company which has gone from strength to strength.
Kay and Peter had to surrender the lease on their warehouse started to look to the future. When we looked through the tea chests full of materials left over from the Bringing It Back Home days and the items we'd bought in the intervening years we decided to have a warehouse sale. Following the success of that we looked for new premises - and a new name, the Silk Road Gallery.
Also at the Silk Road Gallery we have, for the first time, a gallery space for the photographs Peter has taken in India and Tibet and more recently in Bhutan like this images of early morning mist at Tiger's Nest Monastery in Bhutan.
We'd look forward to seeing you in the shop as well as online! The Silk Road Gallery is open Fridays and Saturdays 11-4.30 and Sharrowvale Market Days.
