Ghost Town: The High Street

Haus of Lucy takes us on a stroll down Ghost Town's High Street, and explains how she populated her town's main thoroughfare...

"In addition to that fateful day in Croydon when I first got the idea for Ghost Town, I also noticed that on my regular trips to small town charity shops (they have the BEST stuff!), the high streets were beginning to appear characterless, tired and indistinguishable from one another due in part to people shopping online or in out of town shopping centres.

The shops were all the same, with Subways, Caffé Neros, estate agents, charity shops, vape stores and betting shops replacing the independent retailers that had once given a town its unique character and flavour. 

Once I'd found those two twee, chocolate-boxy shop fronts in a charity shop in Bexhill I knew that I wanted to recreate an entire high street.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, these particular ceramic shop fronts are very collectable so I almost bankrupted myself on eBay tracking down the shops I needed! I ploughed on and started to build my street starting with Greggs and Poundland, then adding shops day by day - a Tesco Express, a sex shop, Cash Converters and even Admiral - a high street casino.

I also transformed several teapots and jam pots using a combination of polymer clay and air drying clay to either flatten the existing fascias or to build them up into something different. Then I hand-painted the windows and shop logos. The hardest part was knowing when to stop and even after 'handing in' my work to Enter Gallery, I still produced a further four shops!

The day I felt I'd really captured today's high street was when I went to Burgess Hill to escape the King’s Coronation and to plunder the town’s charity shops (only to find they were all closed due to the Coronation!) As I walked along the high street, I felt like I’d been supersized into my own real life Ghost Town. Almost every shop I’d recreated in ceramic form was there. It felt quite surreal!"

View Haus of Lucy’s Ghost Town collection.

Continue your tour of Ghost Town by clicking the links below:

Welcome to Ghost Town

Ghost Town: The Park

Ghost Town: The People of Ghost Town

Ghost Town: Neighbourhood Watch

Ghost Town: Tea and Biscuits