Latest News Articles by Joan Porter

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Fifty years on, monthly event in Dorking is still going strong

06 March 2026

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the monthly Dorking Halls Antiques & Decorative Arts Fair, founded by the late Margaret Brown.

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Hail a pop-up in new west London venue

06 March 2026

The Midcentury Modern team, aka Lucy Ryder Richardson, Petra Curtis and Tanya Pateman, are launching a pop-up on Saturday, June 13, with 40 dealers at a very cool venue in west London.

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Brocantes create a buzz in Lincolnshire

06 March 2026

Ruth Domanski and Shauna Donaldson launched an antiques brocante in the walled garden at the Grade I-listed Grantham House, a National Trust townhouse on the outskirts of the Lincolnshire town of the same name, in 2023.

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Fuel for thought in Wapping

27 February 2026

The now Grade II-listed Wapping Hydraulic Power Station in east London will reopen its doors this weekend for the first time in 13 years – which is good news also for Go East Vintage, aka Louisa Ware and Onur Kurtdere.

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Winnie the Pooh hits 100 mark

27 February 2026

Forget Paddington Bear. Think Winnie-the-Pooh “I am a bear of very little brain…”, whose 100th anniversary this year celebrates the first outing of the gentle bear and his beloved friends including the “small and anxious” Piglet.

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Lovely venue but not big enough

27 February 2026

Organiser of Kent event makes plea for larger space as dealers struggle to fit into Victorian village hall

An upcycled glass-fronted bureau

Bazaar owner calls it a day in Somerset

20 February 2026

Crewkerne centre closes down amid tributes paid to a ‘professional, friendly bunch of traders’

Vintage by the Sea

One door closes, another opens as shop shifts along

20 February 2026

This Easter Clare Smith will be relaunching her shop Vintage by the Sea in Saltburn, her home town on the north-east coast of Yorkshire.

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Madge pops down to Margate

13 February 2026

Visit from ‘Queen of Pop’ underlines just how much there is to see in Kent town including art and antiques

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Chiswick's Old Cinema in step with fashion

06 February 2026

News of west London dealer collective holding a pop-up – plus lots more to visit in bustling Chiswick

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Tree of Ages takes root on Sundays

06 February 2026

Back in August 2023 dealer Dave Steel of Tree of Ages Antiques Fairs saddled up and took over the midweek Epsom Antiques Fair run at Epsom Racecourse by the Bayliss family of Continuity Fairs for 30 years.

Kempton Vintage & Classic Arms Fair

Fired up ready for four arms fairs

30 January 2026

First Kempton event this year will involve 100 dealers at the racecourse venue

Antique Valentine's cards

Be my vintage Valentine

30 January 2026

According to the Greeting Card Association, the UK spend on Valentine’s Day in 2024 was more than £51m with around 25 million cards sent.

A Victorian stereo graphosocope

Stereoscopes: my view on a specialist field

30 January 2026

A recent item on BBC Antiques Roadshow focused on a collection of stereoscopes, some dating to the 1850s.

Items on display at a vintage furniture fleamarket

Judy feeds the soul with her ‘delightful’ vintage fairs

23 January 2026

Judy Berger founded Judy’s Vintage Fairs in Leeds in 2005, after she described a vintage event back then as “less Velvet Underground, more Vera Lynn”.

A poster promoting Knutsford

Monthly vintage market boosts antiques offering in Knutsford

23 January 2026

Indoor event at hall in Cheshire town could expand to outdoors as well as the weather improves

A customer at a vintage fair

Taste of ginger at Leeds hall

23 January 2026

Pudsey Civic Hall in Leeds is the venue on Sunday, February 8, for another of the vintage home fairs run by dealer Lisa Doel of Ginger Biscuit Events,

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‘Most desirable’ places to be for antiques lovers

16 January 2026

Focus on businesses based in two towns rated among ‘most desirable’ in the UK by newspaper

A chromolitho trade card

No need to invade, just make a purchase

16 January 2026

In the light of world focus on Greenland, would-be collectors of polar ephemera might head to PBFA member Stuart Leggatt and his website Meridian Rare Books that has masses of it.

Robert Burns poem

Make it a Burns night to savour

09 January 2026

His image appears in seemingly every possible format, from postage stamps to chocolates and biscuit tins.