Guild Antiques is Glasgow's answer to The Repair Shop

Guild Antiques and Restoration is run by master upholsterer Jonathan Conkey and his team of skilled craftspeople who use traditional tools and techniques to painstakingly restore rare and beautiful heritage pieces and heirlooms.

Old things are nurtured and respected here, as are the old ways of looking after them. 

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Walking inside I am greeted with the sounds of 1940s music, a wall of hanging fabrics, and almost every kind of seating imaginable. 

There are pieces with material made from horse hair woven with cotton, a 1930s chair with powder pink Pierre Frey velvet, and silks commissioned by Marie Antoinette which survived a revolution. 

Jonathan Conkey with recently restored chairs in Guild Antiques and Restoration (Image: Colin Mearns)

And then there is the workshop, which is a kind of hospital for old forgotten items, where towers of stacked sofas and chairs with their skeletons exposed wait patiently to be remade. 

Jonathan says it feels like Glasgow's answer to The Repair Shop, the popular BBC show where expert craftspeople restore beloved heirlooms. 

"There are a lot of people who come in with furniture that belonged to their great grandmother and that sentimental attachment is what makes people want to restore them," he says.

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"You can breathe new life into it with fancy new fabrics. You don’t have to be slavishly devoted to the past, but the best excuse for restoring something is the fundamental attachment. 

 "We have people who've inherited from their parents but recognise these things were built to last, they have a kind of soul to them.

“Today’s stuff is clinical. Whereas the old ones have a life. They have a character to them that modern furniture doesn’t."

Jonathan Conkey restoring an antique chair (Image: Colin Mearns)

There is an ethos here which almost predates the term sustainable, of being frugal with resources and mending what is broken, rather than simply dumping it and replacing it with something new.

"We are a disposable world," says Jonathan, "There are still good designers out there if you pay for them, but the vast majority it's there for a couple of years then gone, which is a complete shame."

As well as restoring people's cherished heirlooms, Jonathan finds items at auctions and salvages furniture destined for the tip. Even their scraps of fabrics are reused, given to local artists or fashion students. 

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He says: “I think things like The Repair Shop have helped immeasurably for people to value the things they have and understand it’s possible to renew things rather than throwing them out. 

“So much goes into landfill because people don’t think of the money they are spending on it going into how long it’s going to be there, it’s short term thinking.

"You can get a piece of Victorian furniture that can go for another hundred years, be restored, then go for another 100 years again. You are only replacing things which are renewable."

Jonathan Conkey in his workshop at Guild Antiques and Restoration, Glasgow (Image: Colin Mearns)

A former banker who is originally from Northern Ireland, Jonathan was working for the National Trust when his job was cut around 12 years ago. 

"I thought, what can I do with myself? Something that works for my patient mind." 

He decided to move to Glasgow as it was one of the few places which had a traditional furniture restoration course.

"It's satisfying rebuilding things. I was a Lego baby," Jonathan says, "You can imagine the feeling of bringing a thing at the end of its life through the door and leaving your mark on it.

"It’s never dull, no two pieces are the same. You have got sewing, choosing interesting fabrics. Trims and all those areas you can have fun with. 

"We had something from 1820, the person who covered it had written their name inside, it’s a nice connection to the past."

Jonathan Conkey with his vast collection of chairs (Image: Colin Mearns)

Now 50, Jonathan opened Guild Antiques and Restoration in January 2020, where he refurbishes pieces from the Regency era all the way to the 1950s and '60s. 

"It's keeping traditional skills alive," he says, "There are not many people who do this. We do things right with all the stitching done properly and traditionally, knowing that will last another 100 years.

"There are very few places that do it traditionally, the way we do it. We are one of the few who have access to the very good fabric companies in Paris and Milan. We are almost interior designers in that way."

One of his arch nemeses is a material which is in almost every piece of modern furniture. 

"I have had horror stories of a nice old bit of furniture people have shoved foam in," Jonathan says, "If you sit down on a piece of foam you are shooting chemicals into the air, whereas old things it's just natural fabrics. 

"When petrol runs out foam’s going to be very expensive, we might have to go back to natural fibres and springs. We really should be using natural fabrics in our furniture."

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So long as old furniture is kept out of landfill, the vast majority of materials are salvageable and reusable, Jonathan says. 

"I guess everything comes down to money but I feel you should try whatever you can. We just pile things into the dump, even the wood is reusable."

But Jonathan feels hope for the future with the growing awareness of sustainability and resurgence of old crafts. He is also considering hosting classes for anyone interested in learning the techniques. 

“There’s definitely a revived interest in it, of people wanting to keep things and give them a new life. There’s work being done to try and keep these traditional skills being taught and pass them on."

To find out more, visit guild.scot