Like many business ventures, Old Bank Antiques came into being more by accident than design.
We had been running our own small and quite middle of the road antiques shop on London Road, in Bath, since moving from Leicester in 1995. Then in 2000, the much larger premises next door became vacant. With its grand bankers` baroque façade, large floor areas and easy loading access at the rear, we were concerned that we would soon have a wine bar or night club right next door to us…. hardly a pleasant prospect as we live over the shop.
With some trepidation, we approached the freeholder of the empty premises and asked if he would consider selling. To our profound shock, he said yes! So a few months and quite a bit of borrowing later, 
we became the proud but slightly nervous owners of much more floor space than we could actually fill.
Fortunately, our neighbours, Mary Taylor and her partner, Steve, were thinking of setting up as dealers, whilst another neighbour and dealer, Gene Foster, was also looking for showroom space for his last few months of active trading before retiring. We readily agreed to rent them floor space; and Old Bank Antiques Centre was born.
Over the ensuing years I have pondered upon the advantages and disadvantages of antiques centres. In some ways they are like department stores. They bring together interrelated areas of retail. They (should) reduce both cost and liability for individual traders; whilst giving the shopper, whether dealer, designer or public, a broader selection under one roof. Indeed, in this era when time is money, the achievement of a critical mass of dealers in one place creates an incentive for the would-be customer.
It is not a historical accident that antiques centres and provincial fairs emerged in force in the late 1960s and early 70s. It was an era when a growing interest in antiques for furnishing spawned countless small antiques shops, usually in urban areas where retail was in decline. The success of these new ventures often proved to be their own undoing. The public became more discerning, auction prices rose, little old ladies got very savvy about their very late grandmama`s china……….and rents always went up, not down.
Without a doubt, both the antiques centres and the antiques fairs have proved to be the two successful innovations of antiques retailing. In the antiques trade, unlike other areas of retailing, there is no such thing as competition. If there was competition: no antiques centre or fair would work. For every antiques business; its own unique selling point is the whole of its stock. Rarely, if ever, do two dealers have two identical items in stock; and if they do: they and their customers should be worried.
Without the problem of direct competition, it has always been not only possible but actually advantageous for dealers to collect in one place. Thus was born the concept of the antiques fair and its more permanent counterpart: The antiques centre.
Under-capitalisation has always been a problem for the antiques dealer. Once again: the solution has been to collectivise. Costs are reduced, as are responsibilities for staffing and administration.
On the debit side: the dealer is locked into someone else’s opening hours and promotion polices. Out-of-hours access can also be problematic. Less easy to define can be the apparent loss of individual identity.
However, many of these problems can be addressed by enlightened and, dare I suggest, tolerant management.
Different antiques centres have different policies and approaches. These can vary from the warehouse approach to highly polished well-lit displays. Every dealer needs to decide whether a particular centre 
is right for him or her. And every centre manager should have the honesty to discourage a would-be dealer whose stock or trading policies would not fit in. Yes, we have done it, and yes, it is hard. But in the long run you are doing both the dealer and your centre a favour.
No doubt as the financial upheaval evolves over the next year or so, and as trade patterns change, some centres will reduce in size, some may close. Others may fatally compromise themselves by allowing the sale of CDs and fire sale clothing. Indeed, as rental value of commercial property falls, we may even see some revival of the independent antiques shop and that almost vanished species: the second-hand shop. However, for the smaller dealers looking to minimise their outlay on fixed costs, the well run Antiques Centre will still be an attractive prospect.
Alex Sclesinger and David Brown host over twenty independent dealers in their premises now spanning 3 Georgian buildings on one of the main thoroughfares into Bath. Open seven days a week from 10 am to 6 pm, Old Bank Antiques welcomes visitors from home and abroad with easy parking at the rear of the building, accessed via Bedford Street.
Old Bank Antiques Centre is open seven days a week or by appointment. Free customer parking at the rear, access via Bedford Street. Nationwide deliveries can be arranged and shipping advice is available. A furniture restorer is resident on site.
Old Bank Antiques Centre
14 – 17 & 20 Walcot Buildings
London Road
Bath
BA1 6AD
Telephone 01225 469282
www.oldbankantiquescentre.com 
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