Well
The very fabric of life
Want to know the difference between rock climbing and mountaineering ? Go to an upholstery shop to talk about William Morris , of course . Denise Robins explains
“
, you can do rock climbing in the mountains , but generally when you go to the mountains , it ’ s more ... It ’ s not as technical as rock . You can climb up a mountain , depending on the mountain , but it ’ s not so technical that you need loads and loads of equipment like you do with rock climbing . With mountains you don ’ t necessarily need a harness , whereas he ’ ll be in a harness …”
It wasn ’ t a conversation I was expecting to have in a fabric and upholstery shop , but then again “ And we don ’ t know what happened , but he ended up in the back of an articulated lorry ” isn ’ t a sentence I expected to write when transcribing the interview tape .
The Whistler is with Denise Robins , wife of Adrian Robins , they of the fabric and upholstery shop of the same name in Guildford Road . We ’ re surrounded by rolls of beautiful fabrics and textiles and just lovely stuff you just want to touch and cover yourself with .
Adrian ’ s not here - “ Adrian ’ s off rock climbing in Scotland at the moment ” – and Denise is only here because she ’ s done something unnecessary to her knee . “ I won ’ t climb this year . I think … maybe the winter , late winter . But I think it ’ s a good six months .”
It ’ s a nice contrast , isn ’ t it ? The delicacy of the fabric world and the out and about mountaineering and all that .
“ We ’ re passionate about the outdoors , which is quite funny because everybody expects us to be passionate about our home , and you know , we ’ ve got a nice home , don ’ t get me wrong , we ’ ve got a nice home . But it ’ s just a nice home . I wouldn ’ t say we were passionate about our home and about everything being just so , that ’ s not really who we are .
As much as they love fabrics , it ’ s the white knuckle stuff that ’ s in their blood . “ We did loads of that . We still do . We were away every weekend in various clubs . We met in the Brighton Explorers Club , we were in the Sussex Mountaineering Federation , we were in Hastings Rock Club , the Brighton Excelsior Club . We were doing all that , all
the time working , that ’ s what we did . Yeah . And then when I was 27 , I had our first child . So I kind of stopped all the mountaineering and stuff then because I just did stuff with the kids . Adrian carried on I just thought I
We don ’ t know what happened , but he ended up in the back of an articulated lorry
was way too valuable to hurt myself !”
Do you still cycle and .. “ Yeah , yeah , mountain bike . Adrian had a very bad cycle accident 15 years ago and he was told he would never work again .” Wow , what happened ? “ He ’ s like the bionic man . He was training , he was doing triathlons at the time , and we don ’ t know what happened , but he ended up in the back of an articulated lorry . He broke his back , very badly punctured his lung , broke lots of ribs , sustained a head injury because his helmet split into and was in intensive care . He had to have surgery on his back , so had bone taken from his hip , put into his back and he ’ s got big metal rods in his back holding his back together . And slowly , being Adrian and because he ’ s so fit , he got back to swimming and , and then wanted to work again . So he only actually ended up having less than a year off . And then he was back at work .” And now he ’ s off rock climbing in Scotland . Crampons and ropes and all that .
Denise is Brighton through and through . “ Yeah my lot go back to the 16th century . My great , I think it ’ s great great great grandfather , was the last map person off the chain pier , the last person off the chain pier before it collapsed . He was head of maintenance or locked it all up or something . But it ’ s mentioned in a few books , because my maiden name is Fogden in which is an old Sussex name - and “ Adrian Robins ” the shop has been on Guildford Road since 1983 .
“ No , no , we didn ’ t have this one . Adrian rented the shop next door for two years . He ’ d finished an apprenticeship in town in upholstery , and then he set up on his own , and by time we ’ d got together this came up for sale , and he desperately wanted his own shop . So we sold my flat and bought this . When we bought it , it had been rented out to students as individual bedsits each room for about 10 years . It was utterly hideous . hideous , you know , it was it was so funny because we , you know , we were so young and people would come along and I just , I ’ d look at it and they just didn ’ t know what to say everybody thought we were completely mad . Because we had no money . And we bought this wreck . And , and they just say the word that was said all the time was potential .
1983 . That ’ s a fair while ago . The area must have changed hugely since then . “ There were lots of shops which have gone . We always fought to keep the shops because once they ’ re gone , they ’ re gone . They never come back ”
Do you remember what other shops they were on this stretch ?