Wealden Times | WT186 | August 2017 | Wedding supplement inside

“I had a vision for it – I wanted it as light and white as possible and open – the
whole Greek light thing. It was a massive amount of work and I’d never done it
before. But if I want to do something, I’m driven to do it anyway,” says Helen
a wonderfully mixed and gloriously displayed array of
goods, in a casual perfection of chic bohemian style.
Nothing pretentious, or overstyled – just right. It’s one
of those shops which makes you want to buy everything
in it, or possibly just move in… Which makes it no
surprise that Helen’s own house has the same effect.
She’s one of those people who puts a bowl of lemons on
the kitchen table and it somehow looks like an art work – so
you are immediately sure that your life would be perfect
if you could buy exactly that bowl and those lemons…
So how did this lovely house – and shop
– happen to be in this location?
“In 2007 I came down to St Leonards to have a look,”
she says. “I then found out that my grandmother had
worked in St Leonards at Eversfield Hospital, as a TB
nurse in 1910, that was the connection. I looked in the
window of John Bray and thought ‘how much?!’ and
bought a house in Croft Road in Hastings Old Town.”
The move to St Leonards came in 2000 when Holly –
following in her mother’s fashion footsteps – wanted to
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