Blog Archives

Dial ‘B’ for Britain

Timeshift IntroTimeshift – Dial ‘B’ for Britain is a really cool and fascinating insight into the history of the telephone.

First shown on BBC4 on 20th April 2017 this programme tells the history of the British telephone line over 100 years and the telephone on the High Street and in British households over this period. If you think the problems we have today getting a phone line installed are something new – think again, the infrastructure has always been expanding and demand always seems to exceed the supply. From being a plaything of the wealthy the telephone became a necessity of the 20th century and though mainly used for connectivity today it is still very much part of our lives.

Timeshift Series 200The program takes us into the exchanges, talks to engineers, switchboard operators and experts and contains a fantastic array of vintage clips of the telephone in all its glory. Included in the program are a number of phones which we lent the BBC in making the program. Timeshift Trimphone2

If you want to watch; it is still available on the BBC iplayer for a few days – Timeshift – Dial B for Britain

 


More Fun at the Fringe

We are happy to be returning Edinburgh Fringe this year with Judy’s Vintage Fair.

Being held over the first weekend of the festival – 6th & 7th August – in the the uber cool ‘Out of the Blue & Drill Hall‘, the fair is a great way to start the festival with a bang. The Drill Hall in Dalmeny Street was built as a military drill hall in 1901 and between 2003 and 2010 was redeveloped to become the vibrant arts centre it is today. It also has a great cafe serving home-made fare using fair trade & organic produce.

Along with us there will be over 30 amazing stalls featuring vintage clothes, jewellery, homewares, furniture, lighting, record players and vinyl from 1920s to the 1980s! Should be a weekend packed with retro & vintage treasure.

The fair will be open 11am – 4pm, Saturday & Sunday. See our events page for all details on the fair.

Check out the Fringe site to book shows after you have finished all your essential retro shopping!


Non-Stoptober!

October has started with a bang and it is non-stop for events and fairs.

We survived a busy, but wet and windy Festival of Antiques at the Showground, Peterborough last week.

This weekend we are looking forward to a fab time at the Midcentury Show East, brought to you by Modern Shows. The show is being held in the Erno Goldfinger designed secondary school, Haggerston, East London. It is a rare opportunity to see the inside of this recently refurbished Grade II listed building, built in the 1960s.

At the end of the month there is an exciting addition to our calendar – TWO new furniture fleas, from Judy’s Vintage. Both in London the new furniture fleas are taking place in Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton Hill on 19th October and Seymour Leisure Centre, Marylebone on 26th October. As usual there will be great range of Vintage, Retro and Mid Mod furniture and homewares. Just like Bethnal Green we will be bringing a selection of Record players, Radiograms, speakers, clocks, lighting, phones and other vintage technology.

Check out our events page for all the October shows and those we are attending for the rest of the year

1950s Hermle German 8 Day Mantel Clock


Enter our Competition

Sign Up & Win a Cream GPO Dial Telephone

All you have to do is sign up to receive our email newsletter and you’ll be automatically entered to win a Vintage 1970s Cream GPO Dial Telephone – fully restored, converted and ready to plug in!

This draw is open to all people who subscribe to the newsletter via the website or at any show we are attending from 11th June 2012 to 22nd July 2012. The winner will be selected at random on Monday 23rd July. See Terms & Conditions.

Remember to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news, events and stock on the site!

We include an unsubscribe link in every email we send you, so you can easily leave our list at any time.

 

 Competition Terms & Conditions

  • The competition is free to enter.
  • No purchase is necessary to enter.
  • The competition is open to the Retro Bazaar website visitors and visitors to events that Retro Bazaar are attending, who sign up to the Retro Bazaar Newsletter
  • Your information is not shared with any other company for marketing purposes. For more information see our privacy policy.
  • The name of the winner will be placed on the Retro Bazaar Website.
  • Entry to the competition is restricted to one entry per person.
  • Winner will be chosen at random from all valid entries.
  • Winner will be notified via the email address provided within 7 days of the competition closing date. If the prize is not claimed within a period of 7 days after notification, we reserve the right to select an alternative winner and shall have no liability in respect of the entry initially selected.
  • The Judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered in to.
  • No cash alternative is available for any prize. In the unlikely event of a prize becoming unavailable, we reserve the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value.
  • It is a condition of entry to the competition that these rules are accepted as final and that the entrant agrees to abide by these rules. By accessing and/or using the site, you will be deemed to have accepted our terms of use. If you do not agree to these terms of use, you should exit the site immediately.

March Newsletter

Website News

The Retro Bazaar website has just celebrated its 18 month birthday and we have added a lot more stock – including some fab vintage furniture and lighting. We try to add new stock each month so go to the ‘Just In’ section to see what’s new.

We ship worldwide and accept payments via our secure card payment system, PayPal, cheque or cash. We use couriers and the post office to send out our stock and you are also welcome to come to the unit to collect any purchases.

Also if you want to buy a large item off the website you can pick it up at one of the shows we are attending.

Have a browse to see what’s new – www.retro-bazaar.co.uk

 

Fairs & Festivals

Over the coming months we have a busy schedule at shows, fairs and festivals:

At the end of May we will be back in York Hall for the Bethnal Green Vintage Fair  on the 27th. In June we are attending the Vintage Nation Festival on the 9th and the Grantham Antiques, Vintage & Design Fair on the 19th& 20th. July is the big one, with Vintage 2012 Festival  on the 13th – 15th July at Boughton House, Nr Kettering, Northamptonshire. Find us  in ‘The Vintage Marketplace’.

We will be bringing a selection of our fab phones, lights, furniture, clocks and homewares to these shows. Full details can be found on the events page of the website.

 

Friends, Followers & Pics

If you are interested in the day-to-day musings of the Retro peeps you can follow us on Twitter, friend us on Facebook or Pin us on Pinterest. We tend to chat about new stock, shows we are attending and general things we find interesting and fascinating. We also upload lots of gorgeous pictures to whet your appetite!

So come on – click the links!

http://twitter.com/retrobazaar

http://www.facebook.com/RetroBazaar

http://pinterest.com/retrobazaar/

 

Techno Meets Retro

With the recent re-emergence of vinyl, record players and radiograms are back in vogue. These necessities of late 20th century living, which up to recently were unloved, are now required purchases for the vintage fashionista. And never one to miss a trend, here at Retro Bazaar we restore and refurbish record players and radiograms – with an added kick – we make them MP3 compatible. So now it is possible to listen to your much beloved vinyl records and your new downloads on one stylish piece of retro loveliness.

So why are there none on your website, I hear you cry? Well basically as soon as they are ready we take them to a show… and they never come back. We always sell them.

If you want to catch one of these lovelies we will be bringing radiograms and a Dansette record player to Bethnal Green Vintage Fair on 27th May. See you there!

 

Restored Vintage Telephones

So what retro or vintage lover wouldn’t want a fabulous dial telephone in their groovy pad. From 40s & 50s bakelite beauties to the much loved GPO phones of the 60s and 70s and push button phones of the 80s – we sell them all AND they work!

We lovingly restore all our phones, replacing broken cables, dials and handsets as needed. The phones are then rewired to work on the current systems then cleaned to a brilliant shine. We can’t remove all the dings and dents from 40+ years of use, but we have a damn good try

Now I appreciate that you won’t be able to use these phones for telephone banking, but you will get a stylish addition to your hall or sitting room, very loud bells, plus you can’t lose it as its plugged in!

Who wouldn’t want one. Have a look at the website for the full selection – plus we can make the dial label for your number too!