Celebrations as Kentish Town’s Blustons site reopens as a charity shop
Michael Albert, Madison Hill, and Marilyn Albert outside the newly re-opened Octavia Foundation Blustons clothes shop. Picture: John Cooper - Credit: Archant
Champagne corks were popped on Saturday as the well-known former Blustons clothes store in Kentish Town has been re-opened as a vintage charity shop.
The new ownership marks the latest chapter for the Grade-II listed shop in Kentish Town Road. Its former owners, Michael and Marilyn Albert, cut the ribbon for the Octavia store to open.
The store was closed and sold off in 2015, ending 84 years of it in the family.
“I’m very pleased to see the shop open again,” said Michael. “I think it is a positive thing for the local community and for me personally, it is great to see our old shop with its name so closely associated with my family, open for business again”.
The original signs have been spruced up, and the original features have been preserved.
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The opening on Saturday was marked by an auction for a famous Blustons polka-dot dress, similar to one that was in its window for decades.
The Octavia charity supports more than 2000 people in London each year affected by ill health, social isolation, or with employment issues.
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