RIP Wheatsheaf
Today was a sad day for scrapbooking, crafts or whatever you want to call it. The Wheatsheaf Art Shop, on Baker Street, has closed down for good.
They had a sale throughout December, with as much as 50% off art products (20% off craft products), which ended on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately I hadn’t visited the store at any time in December, due to my new job. I’d only found out about the closure when I paid them a visit earlier today.
I had only discovered this amazing shop a couple of months ago, and they contained a lot of items that I’d never thought of purchasing. There was something for artists, craftspeople, scrapbookers, graphic designers and the like. Recently I purchased an embossing heat tool as I wanted to get into embossing, and Wheatsheaf would have been perfect for the various inks and powders.
With the Wheatsheaf gone, I will have to find another haunt close to home for my crafts needs. As good as Cass and the London Graphic Centre is, I find myself asking whether it’s worth an hour’s trip just to browse and get more paper.
This was, in my opinion, the best art shop in London, both for price and staff.
Unfortunatey, most of the stock and the online mail order system was bought by a company in Chiswick and, I’m afraid, it’s not nearly as efficient or user friendly.
Some of my aquaintances have used the online service and been very disappointed. The shop is very quick to debit your cards but very slow to provide the goods. The Wheatsheaf used to get the goods to the customer, normally within a week. On certain occasions the goods would arrive the day after ordering!!.
Maybe it’s because they are new to this but they really should have got their act together before going online.