Viva Lewes Issue #124 January 2017

Amanda Saurin
At her new shop, AS Apothecary
About a year ago, I decided I wanted to have a
base in Lewes, so that people could know what
I do and could come and see me. I’ve been selling
through stockists in France, Italy, Belgium,
Sweden, Hong Kong… all over the world, and it
seemed crazy to me that people in Hong Kong
can know exactly what I do, and yet hardly anybody
in Lewes does. And Lewes is my home.
I’d gone past this shop on the bus a hundred
times and it had been empty for about a year. I
loved the windows, I thought they were fantastic,
so I came and had a look around. It had this grey
acrylic carpet on the floor and white shelving
covering the walls, but I thought, ‘I can make
this OK’. We took the shelving off, and then we
pulled up the carpet and there was this incredible
solid mahogany floor underneath.
I wanted to use copper in the shop, because
the distillers we use on the farm are copper.
The edging of the shelves and the surface of our
cabinet are made from copper treated with acid,
to give it the aged finish. I love oak, so I had this
shelving cut by two local chaps who were just
amazing. The pieces were so heavy that we had to
have three people hold them in place while our
builder made the joints - he was unbelievable.
Having started the renovations in September, we
finished work at the end of November. It’s been
an amazing journey, but very expensive…
We still do all of the big plant work out at the
farm; we grow a couple of hundred roses and
lavenders and lots of other plants there, and then
we tincture or macerate or distil them. At the end
of that process, we have essential oils or aromatic
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