The “Not Just Vintage” shop dates back to the days of disco dancing and Saturday Night Fever
Gary Sharp, owner of Not Just Vintage in Birkenhead(Image: Iain Watts)
The “Not Just Vintage” shop in Birkenhead is more than a museum of antiques, old clothes, jewellery, memorabilia, books and music. At nearly half a century old, the tiny store is a relic in its own right, with a history dating back to the days of disco dancing and Saturday Night Fever.
The origins of the Not Just Vintage shop date back to 1978 with owner Gary Sharp, from Anfield. He said: “I was 27 when my fantastic mum said ‘we really love you but I think it’s time you stand on your own two feet and leave home to find your own place’. I was an only child but she used to say it was like living with a crowd.
“Looking through probably the Echo classifieds I saw an advert, to let flat, ballroom and shop for £25 per week, next door to what is now the NJV shop. I was paying that towards our household, so how much different could it be?
“The days when I didn’t plan, just did, and I was initially very successful. The plan was live there, open a licenced premises dance school and put another hairdressing salon in the shop – I already had one in Liverpool city centre. What could go wrong?”
Gary, now 74, enjoyed two years of booming business thanks to the disco craze that was sweeping the nation, and the business soon expanded to include sunbeds and a sauna.
He said: “Adding the sauna was a bit of mistake as I didn’t know it at the time but there was already a rather dubious sauna next door, so when we advertised we received a lot of colourful phone calls.”
But as soon as the business began to soar, it was brought plummeting back to earth by the 1980 recession. After struggling to stay afloat, Gary decided to close up shop in 1986 and moved into sales.
Ten years later he returned to self-employment in domestic property sales. It was then a chance encounter led him back to his old shop on Oxton Road.
He said: “After five years of buying domestic property I saw an advert for a house and flat in my old haunt, Oxton Road, one door down from the NJV shop. I offered £17,000 and they took it.
“On completion I found out they were redeveloping over the road as flats so I immediately ran up and down the top end of Oxton Road and bought as many as I could, 11 units including NJV, which was a fancy dress shop at the time.”
It was in 2013 that the old tenants in what is now the Not Just Vintage shop decided to move out, and the business became what it is known for today.
Gary Sharp, owner of Not Just Vintage in Birkenhead(Image: Iain Watts)
Gary brought in crafts fair organiser Stuart Clarke of Memory Lanes Fairs, Cavern Walks, to set up a six-week pop-up shop of around 30 different traders, each flogging their unique wares from within the tiny shop.
Gary said: “The most unusual item we had brought in was a lady wanting to sell a telescope, it looked unusual to me so I said leave it and I’ll do some research before making an offer.
“It turned out to be the award given to the best cadet of the year on the training ship HMS Conway. When she came back I told her it needed to go to the priory museum as it was too important an item from history to be sold and not displayed.
“We also had an original compass from a WW2 Lancaster bomber, which one of our collectors immediately bought.”
But with the rise of online shopping and second-hand selling sites such as eBay and Vinted, the antiques industry faces tough challenges in modern times.
Gary said: “As the business is going more and more towards online selling as it is convenient, this also makes harder to buy as everyone is selling online at top price. So we have only the occasional bargain online, and it’s getting less.
“The car boot sales have become worse for the same reason and are now well over 60% traders who are selling near retail, so where you could pick up six to 10 items, it’s now one to two if you are lucky. Sometimes we get a house clearance and people wandering in with nice items, so that helps.”
Gary Sharp, owner of Not Just Vintage in Birkenhead(Image: Iain Watts)
Luckily, Not Just Vintage was given a helping hand by an unlikely ally – supermarket chain Lidl, which opened on a formerly derelict patch of land opposite the shop.
Before this, Gary said, the area was plagued by frequent fly-tippers, making the area unpleasant for customers looking to park. When the Lidl deal was finally approved, he said he “broke out the champagne.”
He said: “The day it opened I watched as one car per minute drove into the car park. With a projected footfall of 8,000 per week I could not have wished for more.
“They allow us all to park there with no restrictions which is so fantastic for us, but also clever as our clients go in and buy something and then end up as regulars. So long as it remains like that it is a massive boost for our tenants.
“We also tie my dance career into the shop when Strictly comes along to brighten up the page and the clients love to talk about it when they come in.”