This website is for people who are into ironmongers. It’s for people who need to use ironmongers (or hardware) shops regularly, for those who prefer local rather than out of town stores and for those that simply like meandering into traditional shops for this and that.
The site celebrates these remarkable shops, what they offer, the people behind the counter and their customers. And it invites dialogue about their contemporary importance. Starting in Scotland.
If you ask people in Scotland what they think about ironmongers almost everyone, after a short pause, will smile. They are most likely then to describe the mystery and aroma of an ironmongers shop from their childhood. Or recall one they visited last week where an assistant helped to solve a DIY or gardening problem.
If you’ve time for a longer conversation, they might wonder whether ironmongers are ‘dying out’, start to speculate whether society has moved too far towards ‘ending not mending’, throwing things away rather than repairing them. When they start bewailing the fact that modern gadgets are designed not to be repaired, that the population is becoming deskilled and to question the impact of consumerism on global sustainability, its time to direct them to this website.
Here you and they can share stories and photographs, talk about the practical and the aesthetic importance of traditional ironmongers and about how to promote and support their continuing healthy contribution to 21st century life.