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Agapanthus Interiors A
ntique lighting specialists Agapanthus Interiors originally appeared in Stockport eight years ago, incongruously occupying the middle of the three shop fronts that formed Van Gogh Studios on Wellington Street. Come 2020 and the owners Tom Feeney and Zoe Rigby have used the first Lockdown to complete the expansion of their operation into both adjoining units, creating, in the process, one of the most striking shop fronts in Stockport. The pair met while working at Levenshulme Antiques Village and when they decided to open a business together, that was one of the first areas they considered. “We originally thought we should stay in Levenshulme” explains Tom, “I’d been there eight years, the house was there and because I had a strong local customer base, I thought I should stay there. But we were looking for a nice building and we stumbled across this just driving past it. Zoe said ‘that’s a gorgeous building’. Back then, before any regeneration had happened in this area, it was quite a brave step.” Zoe adds, “We needed high ceilings and a good shop front and we loved the architecture of Stockport too. The affordability was also important.”
When asked at what point they realised they would need to expand the premises, Tom replies immediately, “Day one. I had gone to school with the landlord’s son, so we had an agreement - a six year lease and we’d buy it off him afterwards. There was nothing in writing, we just shook hands. We opened in 2012 and he kept his word, so we ended up buying numbers 75 and 77 and number 79 we lease off Robinsons.” Once the pair owned the buildings, Robinsons happily agreed that they could knock through, which they did two years ago. The recent knock-through, from 77 into 75, completes the development. Tom explains the new layout... “Number 77 was the original unit. This is the main selling space. In the cellar below we have a huge store of glass shades and that cellar leads to the cellar of 75 which is the room where we store all our bobeche pans - they’re the glass drip pans for chandeliers and we have a huge collection of them. The cellar of 79 is the metalwork shop - all the grinding, welding, braising - all the dirty stuff goes on there. The front room upstairs in 77 is another sales space and in 79 it’s the boys’ workshop - Pete and Bob - where everything gets wired.”
