Glass Shop - Chatterton Road

We've recently had a bit of bad news when we came to consider selling our house.  Apparently our extension which was completed in August 2008 was never given final sign off by Bromley Council Building Control.  The Building Inspector came round and advised that it had failed because our back door which is within 1 metre of our neighbours boundary, was not fire proof certificated to ½ hour.  The Building Inspector was very nice about it but we were frustrated to find out that he had warned the builders that the door was unsuitable, before, during and after they fitted the bloody thing!  Bastards!

Anyway, the Inspector advised us that if we replaced the inner pane of the door with certificated glass then he would pass it, which led me to my trip to Glass in Chatterton Road.

Glass is next to the Chinese in Chatterton Road, the posh one you can sit in, not the hideously cheap and nasty takeaway a little further down (where the chicken is as white as fresh snow, and as tasty!).  I have never really looked in the shop because I’ve never really needed to, but I’d obviously noticed its existence as it was the first place I thought of. 

I initially went along on Wednesday at around 1:30pm only to find that it closed half day on a Wednesday.  Rather than being annoyed I quite liked this!  Growing up in Biggin Hill in the early eighties, all of the shops closed half day on a Wednesday (RJ Bryant’s, Liptons etc) and it makes me think of the borough as a little more rural than most other areas of Greater London!

There were a couple of numbers in the window so I called them up the next day.  The landline was never answered so I called the mobile only to be told “Sorry mate, he’s not on this number anymore...” before being hung up on.  The only alternative was to ‘trek’ the 5 minutes back round to the Glass Shop itself.

As I approached I saw that the little sign in the window said it was open, as I opened the rotten front door (no expense wasted on shop front glass here!) I saw a gentleman in his late fifties sitting huddled by an old gas fire in the corner of a very empty, very old and very sparsely decorated room.  There were a few off cuts of glass here and there and some ‘mirror glue’ but other than that it you would have thought you were standing in a practically empty garage rather than a shop.  I explained my problem to him, asked if he fitted glass only to be told “no”!

He explained that he only sold to people who fitted the glass themselves (or I presume someone who just wanted to own a piece of glass), but despite the fact that it became very clear very quickly that he wasn’t going to make any money out of me at all, the guy was seriously helpful.  Explaining the options I had for the certificated glass, letting me know how much I should be expecting to pay, even giving me a couple of numbers of people who could do the job without expecting them to actually get the glass from him!  He then said that he didn’t have the glass to show me, as he had been badly hit by the recession and couldn’t even afford stock this month as he had to ensure the rent was paid.  And also this was his last year of business before he retired anyway.  Really wanted to buy a piece of glass there and then, although he didn’t have what I needed and I wouldn’t have the first clue about fitting it (it would break, into a lot of pieces)!

So, if you need a piece of glass, like the old traditional village type shops and businesses instead of the big corporate and want to talk to someone who knows the subject and is as helpful as they could possibly be then visit ‘Glass’ in Chatterton Road, available for this year only.