Goodbye Brighton Station Car Boot Fair

Nestled atop of the car park overlooking the station, and trading (most) Sundays 6am -2pm, the Brighton car boot fair is a local institution and widely regarded as the best boot sale for miles. It’s a browser’s paradise, full to bursting with sellers and stalls, where one off private attic clearouts vie with market traders, antique dealers, book stalls, video, CD and DVD sellers.

From beautiful antiques and vintage clothes to glass parakeets and empty plastic bottles, you never know what you might find here and it’s this eclectic, mercurial mixture of the exotic and mundane that makes this bargain bazaar the perfect antidote to the bland, predictable homogeneity of high street shopping.

Apart from the fact nearly all our bookcases, and more than a few of our books, have been bought here, what I love most about the boot fair is the variety of stalls. Some are beautifully laid out and are works of art in themselves, while others look like they’ve just been thrown together, but are no less inviting for that.

However, this Sunday, our usual fun and frolics at the car boot has been tinged with sadness as, from Sunday 19^th April, it will be moving to the multi storey car park in Brighton Marina. Apart from the fact the Marina has to be the ugliest, most soulless place imaginable, and nowhere near where we would want to spend our Sundays, the new opening times, which will be till 12pm and not 2pm, will make it difficult for us lazy bones to get all the way down there in time.

Nevertheless we wish it well – the traders have been messed around by engineering works for months now so maybe their new home will work out better for them, we hope so, but we will miss you!