h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There is a shop in Islington, London, (54 Cross Street, London N1 1DA) called Celestial Buttons, It is run by Toby & Julia and sells the most fabulous buttons, ribbons, feathers and stuff,
Toby is the button bore of the century and will entertain and browbeat you on the respective merits of Mother of Pearl and injection moulded resin, and Julia gets the stuff others can only dream about.
If you need to renovate that jacket you love like a brother (or sister), a new set of gold passementerie buttons and braided eppaulettes will have the Duchess of York running for her Tailor screaming 'I want one too'.
They have a website (I built it!) at [Broken link removed by Moderator]where you can see some of the buttons for yourself, but you really need to visit the shop to appreciate its value

Cheers

Antoine le mag

Thank you very much for this one. Filed for next UK visit. Living in Hong Kong at present, I am buying lots of buttons at the stalls in Shenzhen and in the Western Market in Central HK The last ten things I have had made (I have found an excellent Shanghai tailor) have buttons that cost more than the fabric and in two cases the buttons cost more than the combined cost of the fabric and the tailoring. Does this sound cock-eyed to you?

I'm sure toby will look forward to your visit, the website has a selection of his wares and I am sure if you email him (click the bottom bar on the homepage) and let him know if there is anything specific you are looking for he will be able to source it for you and even ship it to you.

Regards

Antoine

Much as I hate to mention it. There are specailist Manchester United shops all over the place. In fact one is at Gatwick Village so you can browse before getting a flight.

There is also a street in Belfast where the Man U shop is four doors up from the rangers shop, and opposite the Sci-fi shop and at the corner of the street is an Formula One Shop. The street leads off Cornmarket and I will have to try and remember the actual name.

If you hate to mention it so much why mention it?
the ubiquity of Man Utd is something I slip online to get away from (my wife's father is from Salfold and she is an avid supporter of les diabolique rouges) and I would request that you do not mention it again, Rangers shop opposite, what about Celtic?

There isn't one in central Belfast. It's just all of these shops end up being a stone throw from each other that's the amazing thing.