Brighton - A great place to shop

Last weekend I visited Brighton, although I’ve visited Brighton on numerous occasions, I decided to have a leisurely stroll through the famous Brighton Lanes and explore the shops.

If you're looking to put a creative edge into your shopping, The Brighton Lanes offer a shopper’s paradise of independent shops and boutiques.

Brighton Lanes' historic quarter is a fabulous maze of twisting alleyways, offering an extraordinary mix of antiques and jewellery shops nestling alongside specialist contemporary and designer boutique fashion.

Crammed with quaint and wondrous shops and funky restaurants and cafes, the Brighton Lanes are best wandered lazily and explored as you find them. You'll often find buskers livening up the streets, making the Lanes a great place for the battle worn shopper to grab a coffee and soak up the history to the sounds of some live jazz.

Brighton is by far my favourite place to go shopping – as well as being well-equipped with the likes of Debenhams, BHS and M&S, there are a wealth of small, independent gift stores scattered around The Lanes and North Laine where you can find some unique, unusual and incredibly quirky gift ideas.

Here are my top five.

Pure South  Meeting House Lane, The Lanes

I absolutely adore this shop. Not only is everything in here beautifully hand-made, but this is where you’ll find the most imaginative use of recycled materials ever – from (surprisingly nice) handbags made of old car tyres and number plates, to “Africa Time” clocks made of tin cans.

Any gift you buy here will be one of a kind. I love all their little animal-themed ornaments including elephants, zebras, and giraffes made from hand-carved wood or recycled glass. They’ve also got the most adorable jewellery made from intricately bent wires threaded with little beads, with pieces starting from as little as £4.

Evolution  Bond Street, North Laine

Although, technically Evolution is a chain (with 17 stores nationwide) you’d never guess it from the feel of the place. This place epitomises Brighton with items ranging from Buddha statues to rubber ducks.

Evolution is the perfect place to find gifts as their prices are fantastic. They’ve got hand-made jewellery from as little as £2 or £3 or statues, wall plaques and cushions from about £6. They’ve also got a discount shop on Western Road, Hove, where you’ll find a mass of bargains for under a fiver such as candles, wind chimes, sun catchers and photo frames.

Purple Heart Gardner Street, North Laine and North Street

There are now two Brighton branches of this cute little independent shop chain – one on Gardner Street and one on North Street, Puple Heart's slogan is “unique gifts for unique people” which is exactly why they’re in this list. Everything in here is just a little bit quirky and utterly delightful.

I love this place because it reminds me of a kid’s playroom – a colourful, higgledy-piggledy mix of things like fancy dress bits ‘n’ bobs, cake decorating materials and delicious-smelling candles. They’ve also got a wall full of pigeon holes containing lots of tiny gifts that would be absolutely perfect for those girly gifts.

Pussy Kensington Gardens, North Laine

If your feeling a bit down, then a browse in this shop is sure to put a smile on your face. You probably won’t find anything in here that’s remotely useful (apart from their funky see-through dome umbrellas) but you’ll sure as hell find some hilarious little gifts.

Although a lot of what they sell seems to be dominated by their Moomin range of bits and bobs (great if you love the Moomins, of course) you’ll also find an array of must-have coffee table books, brilliant Modern Toss merchandise and great novelty gifts like hamburger phones, YMCA ducks and the ‘Periodic Tablecloth of Swearing’.

The Brighton Bead Shop  Sydney Street, North Laine

If you’re feeling a little more creative and fancy trying your hand at making a few of your own gifts, then visit The Brighton Bead Shop. You’ll find an enormous choice of beads made of wood, plastic, glass plus threads of leather, cotton and delicate wire – there’s enough variety to make something to suit anybody’s taste and to fit any budget.

Worried you aren’t creative enough to give it ago? No problem, the shop assistants are more than happy to help and the shop even runs beading classes every now and then which they advertise in the window. You never know, you might just discover a hidden talent as well as giving someone special a unique, personalised present.

Hope you enjoyed reading this weeks blog, and your inspired to visit Brighton in the near future to experience a unique shopping experience.

Until the next one then….

Jack