Lottie and the Chamber of Secrets

Our attic is also known as the Chamber of Secrets, and the most fun thing ever when we visit Mother (actually half the reason for coming) is to raid it for what treasures we can find!


I push open the door, and survey the scene. I'm surrounded by treasure and junk: offcuts of polystyrene packaging and an old computer keyboard nestle against vintage china and silver teasets. On top of a toolbox sits a box containing my old collection of Wade whimsies. A pair of bakelite telephones and a lucite lampstand perch on an antique console table. Boxes are stacked to waist height in places. I plunge in. First a couple of the smaller stacks. Then a rummage through an ikea bag filled with vintage linens and lace - I emerge with a 1950s apron and a pair of Victorian bloomers. I clamber over it, to tackle a stack of boxes. The first is full of ephemera, the next reveals a stocking form, curtain rings, random kitchenalia, a 1950s alarm clock and a velvet-lidded box of broken jewellery. I balance these precariously on the bag of linens, and open the wooden chest. Many hours pass while I browse and categorise newspapers and magazines covering over 120 years.


I gingerly continue through the attic, unpiling boxes into the available floor space and then restacking them to clear my path. I pull a tupperware of vintage buttons from under a box of family photos, a John Bull printing set and an Abba CD. I move a box of gramophone springs to uncover the paper-making set we've been looking for for ages (we knew it was there somewhere).



The camera battery died as I was taking the photos above - will try and post a photo of my finds tomorrow!