T Alena Brett

DO NOT go into this shop unless there is something you really have to have, and are ready to be abused by the shopkeeper for it. My husband and I were standing outside her shop looking at her prints on display, and she came running out yelling at us not to handle the merchandise with one hand. We weren’t even touching anything. We both are very careful and respectful customers of antiquities. There were two other people nearby who simply fled when she burst out of her store barking at everyone. She grumpily invited us to enter her store, and I was immediately accused of leaning on a glass cabinet. I was several inches away from anything. She got up from her chair, complaining how she has to run this business all by herself since her father passed away, and now I’m making her get up with her bad knees to walk over to me in her incredible pain so she could show me some book she decided I was looking at. I was not looking at anything, told her so, but she came over anyway. I said I was sorry she has bad knees, and that I was making her walk in her condition, but how was I to know this? She started yelling that I «should have guessed now, shouldn’t I»! This woman is clearly not interested in selling anything, and I left her shop shaken and upset by her treatment.

Walking through Trafalgar Sq toward the City and came across this interesting-​looking shop on a street lined with antiquarian book-​sellers. Wandered in for a look as I’m always interested in adding to my modest collection of antique maps. Proprietor (Ms Brett) was stand-​offish and rude from the start. Wife and I were stunned and two other browsers in the shop tittered in embarassment. Ms. Brett followed us around her tiny store tut-​tutting us for not being serious enough collectors to grace the likes of her store. She railed at length about her store being the finest of its kind in London, though truthfully all I saw were pages cut from 19^th century Punch magazines marketed as antique fine art prints. Could get the same for less money and with less attitude on eBay. Regardless, it was absolutely appalling behaviour — never seen before or since in London or anywhere else by me. I would suggest you avoid this wretched woman like the plague.

T. Alena Brett has a fantastic selection of fascinating and very old prints, and documents, etc. She is refreshingly open and readily shares her clearly abundant knowledge of her inventory. Adding an old document written on parchment to a room makes it feel as if someone just read a book in it. I cannot think of a better source than T. Alena Brett for this!

I found T. Alena Brett situated next to one of my favourite bookstores in London. I was walking past and, being a fan of trinkets and the likes thereof, I couldn’t help but notice the stunning display of very English antique prints and reprints in the shop front. Browsing through the (albeit clumsily mounted) selection of prints ranging from traditionally used illustrations to cartoons used in newspapers that date back as far as the eye can see. I decided to walk in to see what else was on offer, and inside was much of the same; an abundant lot of these brilliant printed eccentricities piled higledy pigledy in this quaint little shop. After talking to the shop owner for a while (a refreshingly upfront lady, who seemed to know a lot about prints and cartography), I made off having spend £10 on two reprints a feeling rather satisfied with myself. If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary to decorate your front room, you should stop by and see what T. Alena Brett has to offer.