Royal connections

Tim Reynolds, manager of South Kensington’s Medici Gallery card shop, has enjoyed some right royal celebrations and he and his team have got creative with their famous windows over the summer, but as we head towards autumn, a dark cloud hangs over the shop…

Greetings from South Kensingtonthe centre of the UK for design, dinosaurs, and of course the greeting card universe. This is not just because the Medici Gallery is situated there, but also the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) does have probably the largest collection of greetings cards in the world, thanks to some very generous bequests in the past, and not least for its connection to Henry Cole, sender, it is thought, of the very first Christmas card.

Since I last wrote about our shop - perhaps at least three Prime Ministers and two monarchs ago - we have continued to enjoy good sales. This is not least to do with our Royal connections (placed as we are in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea). But as well as the late Queen’s Jubilee, we of course enjoyed an actual coronation. And yes, the fly-past did travel right over us, truncated as it was due to the weather on the actual day.

For the above two royal events, Mark Jameson of Special Delivery Cards, kindly allowed us to blow up (not in an explosive way!) each of his representations of HRH The Queen, plus her corgis and also his new depiction of King Charles in all his regalia (but minus Queen Camilla) to near life-size. These cutouts were made possible by our wonderful printer Steve, at our head office. They made for quite an attraction in our window.

The other stars for both events that must be mentioned are the products - an apron, tea towel, ceramics and cards that Victoria Eggs designs. All the stock I ordered at Top Drawer sold out, with re-orders placed. Along with the brilliant designs by Alison Gardiner and the ever-inventive Talking Tables, we had our best ever spring season.

We have also benefited from the continued influx of tourists from all around the world into London and of course many of those were heading to the big museums on our doorstep. When numbers are particularly high arriving via the South Ken Tube station, which sits just below us, the underpass at the museum is closed, for fear of a stampede in the event of an emergency evacuation. When everybody is directed above ground, even more visitors have the chance of seeing our window and being tempted inside.

As I write this, the turf (not real of course) is laying in all its glory for our ‘legendary’ Wimbledon window. Currently Peter Rabbit is playing Jemima Puddleduck (the plush toys from Enesco are holding rackets) and they are surrounded by some great action black and white cards from Holy Mackerel’s Alternative Image range. Even Morecambe and Wise are there in tennis gear! And Little Fingy finger puppets look on from the grandstand. My colleague Charles’ brilliant idea!

Our next window will be a tribute to Vincent Van Gogh, as not only is it the 50th anniversary of the opening of the museum dedicated to him in Amsterdam, but it was also the theme of this year’s Reta Awards, for which we were nominated once again for the Best Independent Card Shop within the M25 category. We have some fabulous props to include and Pomegranate publishes many great cards of his painting. Flame Tree also makes a superb array of Van Gogh magnetic notebooks; without doubt our bestselling range.

So a very exciting summer and autumn for our Medici team of three full-timers and three part-timers. We open seven days a week and look forward to being in our characterful Victorian building for another 85 years.

However, following the inquiry conducted by Zoe Hill earlier in the year, Transport for London (or landlord) and Native Land (its developers) appealed to the Secretary of State after our local councillors last year unanimously voted out their proposal for development of South Kensington Tube station. If she decides in TfL’s favour then…sting in the tale coming… our building will be demolished.