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Retailer Spotlight
Insider
Information Tucked among the smart cafes, French Embassy and the infamous Daquise Polish restaurant, a meeting spot for spies in the Second World War, is the Medici Gallery in London’s South Kensington, a greeting card shop that opened its doors in 1938, a stone’s throw from the city’s largest museums on Exhibition Road. But it’s no secret that the Medici Gallery is thriving today under the ‘surveillance’ of shop manager Tim Reynolds. With a Retas 2019 accolade pride of place in its window, hailing it the Best Independent Greeting Card Retailer - London, PG met up for a retailing reconnaissance at this historic shop. Surrounded by some of the world’s greatest institutions of art, design, natural history and science, the Medici Gallery, near to London’s South Kensington Tube station, first opened its doors in 1938 selling its own Medici colour fine art reproduction prints, art materials, a huge amount of postcards and a framing service. “Because we are so close to the Natural History Museum, the V&A, Science Museum and Royal Albert Hall there has always been this sort of big art hub going on,” explains Tim Reynolds, manager of the independent greeting card store located in one of the most prestigious, culturally rich and wealthy areas of the capital. And it’s against the odds of sky-high retail rates and rents, the changing retail landscape, internet shopping and shop closures that the Medici Gallery is thriving, as testified by it being crowned Best Independent Card Retailer - London at The Retas 2019. “We’ve got a kind of anomaly here really. We’ve done very well in the last decade, not just because we’ve worked hard and made the shop work with the stock and the window displays, but because the museums have 30
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
really upped their game,” says Tim, citing how the V&A has opened up new galleries and it’s had huge exhibitions, including on Versace, Vivienne Westwood, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Christian Dior and Frida Kahlo. “And then there’s the ice skating rink at the Natural History Museum in winter, and the butterfly tent in the summer, the list goes on and on,” adds Tim. Top: The Medici Gallery team: (Left to right) Elizabeth Curtin, Matthew Huggett, Tim Reynolds, Charlie Wheatley and Agnieszka KielakMahood. Above: In its early days the Medici Gallery sold its own Medici colour fine art reproduction prints, art materials and postcards. Right: The Medici Gallery’s 2019 Retas trophy sitting in the shop window on a plinth, with a tinsel Shirley Bassey curtain.
In addition, the large number of Blue Plaques on buildings in the area also attracts visitors too. “Many artists used to live in the area, such as Francis Bacon and Irish painter John Lavery,” reveals Tim. The area has an artistic history, that, and espionage. Tim reveals: “There was a spy drop off behind the nearby Brompton Oratory, and they used to meet at the Daquise Polish restaurant nearby. In fact, the bookshop two stores away has a bookshelf in its downstairs stockroom and behind it is a little hatch, and that’s where the spies used to meet. The chap who took over the shop said he found some papers referring to the Second World War, which are now with the Imperial War Museum.” Tim became part of the Medici Gallery’s ‘history’ when he took on the responsibility of running the shop in 2001, “and from day one we were pretty much left to our own devices to run the shop.” And he has a great closeknit team of staff working alongside him, including assistant manager, Charlie Wheatley, who started in 2011. “In the interview the light came shining through