A plug

We bought curtains for our three downstairs rooms not long after we moved to Epsom, around thirty years ago. Perhaps from what was Bentall's of Kington; a firm which still exists but which stopped doing curtains some time ago.

All the curtains turned out well, but those in the front room take the brunt of the sun and thirty years on were more or less worn out - and on their second lot of linings.

Much cogitation and conference about what to do, and we eventually went to Fabric World on West Hill, behind Enterprise Cars, in what used to be a small garage. Excellent choice of fabrics, good service and the curtains were made up in about a month. Being nearby, we took the precaution of having them come out and check our measurements. Very pleased with the result.

Four or five shades of red on an off-white background. As it happens, a retro pattern which is very much a monochrome version of the first curtains we ever bought, from Liberty's, described as of Regent Street, but I would have said of Great Marlborough Street, once the home of that fine bookshop called Grant & Cutler, now, I think, vanished inside Foyle's of Charing Cross Road.

The shop man told us that quite a lot of curtain fabrics recycle patterns of yesteryear. People like them, no copyright fees and much reduced artist fees. Everybody wins, except the artists, who have to diversify into the packaging for breakfast cereals. I don't suppose they still use the silk screen printing processes of yesteryear, but I wonder what they do instead?

PS: I think Liberty's used to print their fabrics in workshops in Merton Mills, near Colliers Wood tube station. A place once full of long hairs and interesting second hand bookshops - and from where we still have a few books in our possession. But the large format economic atlas of Ontario, very much the last hurrah for economic cartographers, received honourable burial at the bottom of my allotment compost heap, some years ago now.

Reference 1: https://www.fabricworldlondon.co.uk/.