By Lesley Walsh
AN antique fair with a difference will take place in Bangor this weekend at what is earmarked to be Ireland’s first ever garden and antiques centre.
The two-day event will bring 40 antique dealers from across Northern Ireland, and further afield, to the site of the former Dickson’s Garden Centre which is in line to be transformed by the end of next year.
An added bonus for visitors to the weekend event will be a host of props from the new blockbuster movie, How to Train Your Dragon, which was filmed in Belfast’s Belfast Harbour Studios and Titanic Studios.
Items from the fictional fantasy Viking world depicted in the movie, starring Gerard Butler, will be on display alongside traditional antiques, jewellery, vintage musical instruments as well as more unusual scientific oddities, taxidermy and even voodoo sculptures.
The antiques fair will be open on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm.
Justin Lowry, proprietor of On The Square Emporium, in Belfast, is behind the 55,000 square feet development at Cootehall Road, Crawfordsburn, which is currently in the planning stages.
It is hoped the new development will open by the end of next year, complete with the dragon film’s Viking ships as a permanent fixture for the children’s outdoor play area.
Once complete, the garden and antiques showroom is intended as a ‘destination’ visit, complete with mock Tudor Liberty London-style facade which it is hoped will add to and benefit from footfall to Bangor’s Queen’s Parade development – expected to commence this month.
Hopes will be that its location, at a crossroads between the city and the Ards Peninsula, Holywood and Belfast will drive tourism and economic growth in the area, in a new venture that Justin says has received the nod of approval from local politicians following a recent open day at the site.
The 51 year-old father of two from Helen’s Bay explained this weekend’s event will also welcome a handful of dealers from the Republic of Ireland alongside local firms, the Natural Room Emporium in Comber, Apple and Salt in Portrush and Archives Antique Centre of Donegall Pass.
Dealers will display their wares in 16 large pitches and at 28 banquet tables, with some of the other unusual things to be marvelled at by visitors being real human skeletons used in bygone days of early medical research.
A seeming font of knowledge on the more ghoulish side of the vestiges of yesteryear, Justin says: “Before the days of resin, every medical student got half a human skeleton; they got the skull and half a rib cage, one arm, one leg.”
Justin, who runs the business with his wife Gill, whose ‘ReFound’ shop spawned the Emporium on the Square business after they first met, has taken that wealth of knowledge in his field onto a number of television shows including Salvage Hunters, Antiques Road Trip, Bid Me Up, Make Me A Dealer and Money for Nothing.
Aside from these amazing treasures from the past, which are the staples of the antiques world, are the favourites of the moment, like the current trend for all things Irish whiskey and old-fashioned drinks vessels.
Justin says anything from ginger bottles to whiskey water jugs, can fetch top dollar at the moment.
“They can go for up to £1800 at the moment, like the Bushmills hand-blown green glass ones,” he says.
Inside the sprawling former garden centre are massive tables created especially for the Universal Pictures live action remake of the original animated 2010 film.
“Those are the tables from the library, in the film, where the Vikings sat to discuss the various classes of dragons,’ Justin explained, referring to massive, roughly hewn refectory style tables which sit among others ornately carved with dragon heads – a treat for movie buffs and collectors.
Inside another large section of the premises lies every single prop item straight out of the film – catering for Justin’s prop hire side of this business.
“That’s 40 lorry loads,” reveals Justin, pointing out giant, iron clad weights used in dragon training as well as axes, spears, catapults and oars. The Viking ships, which will be part of the children’s outdoor play area, are currently on a roadshow in Scotland.
“We rent all these because Northern Ireland is very well known for sword and sandals movies,” he said, referring to films depicting ancient times, fantasy, medieval genres.
On top of family-friendly activities including bouncy castles, traditional fairground games and face-painting, provided free as part of the £2 admission, there will be food trucks from Taps Too Restaurant in Belfast, and an indoor cafe area.
It is a pet-friendly event with general entry costing £2.
