Past Master

Prestige Homes catches up with Sunbury Antiques Market expert Edward Cruttenden to find out more about the fair where stars including Harry Styles, Paloma Faith and Bill Nighy choose to shop.

Founded more than 45 years by Sue Cruttenden, Sunbury Antiques Market has grown into one of the largest and longest running markets in the UK. Based primarily at Kempton Park in Sunbury, treasure hunters can now enjoy sales at Sandown Racecourse in Esher, Wimbledon and at Denbies Vineyard in Dorking, which is a new venue for 2025.

Today Sunbury Antiques Market is run by Sue’s son Edward and his wife Jennie. Edward says the business has been such a big part of his life it almost feels like it is in his DNA.

“My mother was the brains behind it,” says Edward. “She gave up her full-time job when my brother and I came into this world but like a lot of mums, she still needed a job and one that could work around us. Some of her friends were in the antiques trade and suggested she went to a couple of fairs. So my grandmother lent her some money and off she went.”

While Sue’s early forays into the trade didn’t quite go to plan - losing cash on a fake clock and losing another haul when the bottom of the box she was carrying her goods in gave way and everything smashed on the ground - she remained committed to her new career deciding instead to run the sales, rather than visit them.

Sue approached Kempton Park Racecourse and the family have been running fairs there since 1979.

“My brother and I were involved from the beginning. It was all the talk at the dinner table, in the car, we went along in holidays - it is sort of in my DNA,” Edward laughs. “I did go to college and had other jobs but then around 20 years ago, mum decided she wanted to slow down a bit and I knew I wanted to work alongside her.”

Sadly, Sue passed away in 2013, leaving Edward and his wife Jennie to manage what by now was an established family business.

“We then took on Sandown Park, seven years ago and another at Raynes Park near Wimbledon five years ago."

“Me and Jen do everything - planning, marketing, booking everyone in - everything.”

Kempton Park takes place on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month. There are around 600 traders who regularly attend with stalls both inside and outside selling everything from jewellery and ceramics to candlesticks and bicycles. If it is old, it can be sold.

As well as the many dealers and antiques hunters, the sales have become a magnet for interior stylists, set designers and even the occasional celebrity.

“We get a lot of prop buyers at Kempton,” says Edward. “Where we are is not far from Shepperton Studios, which is now home to Netflix, that’s great for us and more importantly great for the traders."

“Times can be hard for sellers - battling the economy and the weather - so when someone from a production company comes to the fair their budgets are hefty. If a dealer has a table offering a certain theme or period and that is what the designer is looking for, then it has been known for them to take the whole lot.”

The fairs are now recognised as something of a global brand with visitors arriving from the Far East and the US.

“People come from everywhere and the response is always really positive. Actually one of the best things about the fairs is the people. The dealers come from across the UK, and France - so there is a great mix of pieces."

“Buyers often don’t know what they are looking for until they see it and most definitely go away with something. It is not a fine-art fair but it is definitely not a car boot. These are genuine antiques but they can be anything from a few pounds to a few thousand.”

So what should we be looking for?

“Mid-20^th-century furniture - G-Plan pieces have been doing a really good trade,” reveals Edward. “But I think we may have seen the peak on that. Before that we had heavy industrial type pieces which are still popular and before that it was shabby chic, and French farmhouse. Something will always appeal to someone.”

The antiques trade has always been popular, but thanks to TV programmes such as Antiques Roadshow, Cash in the Attic and Bargain Hunt, the trend for authentic and original pieces seems to know no bounds.

“We had Bargain Hunt at Sandown,” Edward reveals. “We get approached a lot, but Kempton is such a big fair and we do attract a lot of very private individuals and some well-known faces too including Richard E Grant, Harry Styles, Gary Lineker and Paloma Faith and Bill Nighy so we don’t really want cameras there all the time."

“We want all our guests to be able to relax and wander around and enjoy the fair. We are proud of what we do and we do it together. All the traders, all the visitors - they make the fair and they are the ones that make it successful.”

To find out more about Sunbury Antiques, including future sales dates, visit: sunburyantiques.com