Below Stairsof Hungerford

Below Stairs of Hungerford is an antiques shop on the High Street, opposite the site where Stewart Hofgartner first traded after moving to Hungerford in 1983. Hofgartner spent two years selling from a unit at the Hungerford Antiques Arcade before buying the building across the street that now houses the business. The shop specialises in English pieces from the 19th and early 20th centuries, stating that it carries no modern items or reproductions. Stock spans lighting, architectural and interior fittings, kitchenware, garden ornament, furniture, fireside equipment and taxidermy, arranged across five themed showrooms around a central courtyard and organised into roughly 140 subject categories. Two workshops on the premises employ craftsmen who repair and recondition pieces as they arrive, from rewiring old lamps to restoring furniture finishes. The shop has expanded by acquiring neighbouring buildings over four decades of trading but remains a single site on Hungerford High Street.