Chrysos the hardware store

dion

Chrysos has finally bitten the dust. The bailiffs have shut it down.

No doubt due to the turmoil in the credit markets and a downturn in high street spending.

Where are we supposed to go now for our widgets etc?

And any bets on what it will become?

Pete

Wig shop

dominic

Woody's Hardware

tosscat

Oh no. They really never did have anything I needed though, and I always used to try there first. It's a real shame though.

Ian

I'm with tosscat. Been in there any number of times and they have never stocked what I wanted. Also didn't seem to know much about the things they were selling. So neither global markets nor consumer confidence to blame - just good old fashioned demand and supply.

andy

I think the new hardware place - down near Cats, was probably to blame for the demise of Chrysos.

In the last six months I have bought some drain unblocker, a garden sieve thing, some grass seed and various other odds and sods that I looked for first in Chrysos (it's closer), but always found in the other place.

Colette

Yep, the other place is definitely much better.

tosscat

And it has a piranha in the window.

tosscat

But it's still sad - I used to work out whether I was early or late for work by whether the the Chrysos man had hung his galvanised bin on the mesh outside. I never wanted a galvanised bin though. Especially not at 6.30am.

matt

I've never found anything than some cut keys in Chrysos, but have bought loads from JC's Hardware (by Cats) which has recently changed names. Also, the guy in Chrysos had seriously thick specs that made him look like a black Trevor Horn circa Buggles!

dion

i never even knew they cut keys! maybe it would have all turned out differently...

they always had what i wanted. even if it never quite was the right size/shape when i got it home.

apparently the rent was about £1200 a month which means selling a lot of curtain hooks and nails and masking tape.

and there is a Woody's homeware in the basement of Woody's - it is a bit scary and full of rugs and pans. stairs are just next to the lift

poxy

There's a downstairs in Woody's? Get outta here.

Colette

Seriously? a downstairs? in Woody's? And it sells rugs?
This may be the most exciting thing to have been revealed here. Ever.

poxy

Woody won't quite know what has happened when, tonight, every member of sg.org descends (quite literally) into his shop to see if this rumour is true.

andy

see you all there.

poxy

Wow! It's a veritable Aladdin's cave down there.

dion

See? I wasn't making it all up... Just try rubbing the lamp!

PS. Have you found the secret room at Tesco's yet?

tosscat

I never dare go down there. They often used to project films which I always assumed were Turkish onto the wall at the bottom of the stairs so I always liked to imagine there was some sort of cinema cum club, a bit like the back room of Cizgi (if that had had a cinema).

naomi

there's a lift in woody's?

hello.
i joined stroudgreen.org last night because i was peeing myself reading this thread especially and thought you should know. your knowledge of what's opening, what's closing etc is very exciting and now i can get one over on my husband who likes to try and get there first by texting me on his way home from work when he's seen builders in an empty shop. (that sounds a bit sad doesn't it. but we love stroud green you see).

now, i'm very sad about chrysos...that guy was a charactor, but may i offer an alternative hardware shop even though it's not in stroud green, or is that against the law? it's on blackstock road and it's called mix. they have everything you could ever wish for.

please don't ban me yet.

andy

Hello Naomi. Welcome. I'm totally amazed by all the 'secret rooms' on Stroud Green Road. It's not a street, it's a level on Super Mario Bros.

poxy

Walking down SGR this morning there was a bit of kerfuffle outside the lock-up to the left-hand side of La Porchetta. There's now an administrator's notice gaffer taped to the shutter stating that La Porchetta's (In Administration) lease has been absolutely terminated.

La Porchetta was open for lunch.

tosscat

What can it mean?

matt

Mix on Blackstock is great, yes. I get all my hard to find light bulbs there! I've added it to the Directory page.

Ali

Shame about Chrysos Hardware. It used to be located in the front part of where the Dairy Pub is now ( the bit on the corner of Crouch Hil where there is the door you can't use ) before being moved to it's curent location. It had a great box of odd nuts, bolts and screws that you could always find what you wanted

flembo

I used to buy compost and biodegrable food bags at Chrysos but he never had anything else I needed. I tried to buy things but he would say no. He did have an interesting mix of things but not stuff I needed. The other hardware shop by Cats used to have what I needed. The rent sounds very high. No wonder he couldn't keep going.

I noticed a sign or an ad in the local paper about La Porchetta. The last time I went I thought the pizza was disappointing and not as good as Pappagone. I remember years ago it was good but that was a while ago. It's a bit worrying the number of cafes, shops shutting at the moment. As long as Starbucks don't move in, I'll be happy.

matt

How much is the rent? Mix DIY beats both Chrysos and near-Cats' DIY shop combined.

tosscat

If it were in SG, maybe, but it's not.

matt

neither is the rest of the world

poxy

Discount Store (to the left of Chapter One) was having an everything reduced, no unreasonable offer refused, closing down sale as I walked past this evening.

Given the sparse shelves and the number of folks fighting over what little was left I don't expect it to be open tomorrow.

tosscat

I popped in there the other day and was suprised at how little there was on the shelves then. I was disappointed to see they had sold all the holographic Jesus address books though.

Ali

Is this the Credit Crunch hitting SGR with people not spending so much or have the rents suddenly gone up or is it something else ?