Towers Antiques & Collectables

Down the far end of King Street in Newtown is a whole strip of antique stores dotted between the cafes, hair salons and bars. Walk as far as Towers Antiques & Collectables and meander your way back up to Newtown station, stopping at the bric-​à-​brac pack.
I don’t think it is called Towers because of the towering piles of amazing stuff in the store, but it should be. Step inside the beautiful old shop front and you’ll find shelves lining every wall, with every surface is covered in objets d’art. Among the collections of curios you’ll find vases of coloured glass, porcelain figurines, ashtrays, small wooden boxes and all kinds of other ornaments and trinkets. If you’re looking for bigger items, Towers stocks antique furniture and a huge collection of lights and light fittings.

You know what’s totally cliché? Having a sneezing attack the minute you walk into an antique shop. Guess what happened when I walked through the doors of Towers Antiques & Collectables? Yes, I sent myself into a allergenic fit.
Despite this, I weathered the snot storm and stuck around for some browsing. This long, narrow shop is full to the point of bursting with anything and everything old. Whoever did the collecting here didn’t seem to have an eye for categorizing. There are old rotary phones atop pealing bookcases, aside bowls of tobacco tins, beside fancy lace gloves, near a bucket of butter knifes. Yes, butter knifes.
They also have an old plastic pay phone.
And some fantastic vintage postcards.
And some 1960s political campaign buttons that are damn near hilarious.
If you’re impatient, don’t shop here. Plain and simple. But it does have a charm associated with the unknown. I made it to the way back of Towers and found a box of vintage fabric scraps. I also discovered some extra cool tin containers from the 50s and 60s. For my hobby of making new stuff out of old stuff, these were both good finds.

I thought that all antique shops were pretty similar in nature, but I found this one very different to its competitors along the street.
Housed in quite a long and narrow shop all the furniture juts out at frightening angles and you’ll find yourself striking very odd poses in order to avoid the other customers attempting to shuffle around the shop.
Apart from the inherent awkwardness in all of this there are also some slightly spooky corners to the shop. Rather than carefully chosen furniture and collectibles the mastermind behind this shop seems to have gone with the tactic of «oh you’ve got a lot of crap you don’t know what to do with? Bring it on over and we’ll stick it a glass cabinet!»
You therefore will find a tray of mismatched shot glasses from anywhere from Bolshevik Russia to the Irish pub down the road. Worse still, there are a couple of boxes of photos, not nice antique and aged Victorian photos, oh no, rather just odd ones of Dave at a BBQ last week, or Sally’s new dog… con​fused​.com.
Having said that I’m sure there are some prized pieces among the junk, but it’ll be a bit of a needle in a haystack I’m afraid.