Oh my. Today I discovered a treasure trove of epic proportions. If vintage and retro gets your heart pumping, this place could quite possibly give you a coronary. The Woolloongabba Antique Centre is a huge 1500 square metre warehouse in Brisbane jampacked with thousands of items from years gone by. They have all your expected vintage wares. Wooden crates and apothecary bottles, records and brooches, furniture and signage and some stunning frocks that could have been taken directly from Betty Draper’s wardrobe. I spent a good two hours wandering around in a daze, it was so much to take in.
It’s a great set up. There is so much stuff in there, I thought, how could they possibly have the time to source all these goods? It would be a full time job for sixty people, then I realised that’s essentially true. It’s an unusual and very clever set-up. The floor space is divided into dozens of little rooms without doors or walls that all meld into each other. (Kind of like Ikea, but without the one way traffic). Each piece of floor space is rented by a different vendor, but they aren’t manning the store all the time. So as a customer you are able to shop at what looks like one giant store, but it’s really a multitude of retro and collector stores all under the one roof.
It is a destination that really needs hours to be appreciated. Make a whole morning of it and have a cappucino and a little baked cheesecake at the 1950′s inspired café (it’s worth popping in for the coffee alone, the barista has skills). If you need respite halfway through, there is a mini theater up the back where you can rest your tired feet and watch an old black and white Elvis movie.
It was my birthday yesterday and my brother and his lovely girlfriend gave me the best present ever, a credit note to buy what ever I wanted in this store. I was so overwhelmed with trying to take it all in, I looked at a thousand things and couldn’t decide what to take home. I have given myself an excuse to go back for another visit, like I needed an excuse!
So what did you end up buying?! I’ve been here too, amazing place, very overwhelming!
I bought a sweet little cake stand and a door handle… I’m going back to get some vintage advertising prints
what a lovely and thoughtful gift, you’ll have lots of fun spending it! you’ve just made me realise i’m well overdue for a visit
happy birthday again, was lovely to meet you on the weekend x
It was great to meet you too!
You would have been in your element. Did the credit card survive? xx
This place must be newish? I don’t remember hearing about this one when we lived on the Gold Coast, looks like a heap of fun.
I think it’s only about 18 months ago that they opened it. It’s fabulous, I’m going to squeeze in another visit before I go home.