I worked at the Brayards Road shop as a 'Saturday Job' during the early 1970's (?2 a day!). The boss was Mr Alf Austin (he lived somewhere in Dulwich Village) and his brother Mr George Austin was also there. Mr Alf got most of his stock from auctions of house clearance furniture etc. When it arrived by lorry it was divided into the decent furniture and antiques which went on the ground floor, the other household furniture and beds were man handled on to the upper floors (there was no lift). There were other full time staff at the shop, Ken Begley and Maurice Wonacott and a Mr Masser (?) who worked in the office. There was also a full time upholsterer/french polisher who used to smarten up many of the antiques. One of Mr Austins' sayings was that 'every thing is for sale' and this was certainly true. I learnt that you can sell anything if the price is right, and lots of punters would come into the shop and buy complete rubbish. We also used to see some buyers from the big London auction houses who came round looking for items to 'pad out' sales in the west end. Looking back I certainly learnt a lot. They were good times.
