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41 Exmouth Market
020 7713 6185

A SHABBY, run-down Exmouth Market looked just perfect to young jewellery entrepreneur Jos Skeates when he was scouting around for premises to start his business.

It was 1997, the year when “things could only get better” as New Labour took the reins and the Britpop cultural revolution gave young people the confidence to put their ideas into practise.

Just out of Central St Martin’s College of Art and brimming with optimism, a 28-year-old Jos was determined to fulfil an ambition to make and sell stylish and original jewellery to adorn his fashionable contemporaries.

“I’d just finished a degree in jewellery design and was looking for a workshop to carry on my work,” Jos recalls.    

“Exmouth Market was pretty run down at the time so I managed to get a very cheap deal on empty premises and we then opened it up.   

“We hit the area just as it was on the up.”

Now Jos’s shop EC One – proudly named after the local vicinity – is smart and cool but still offers a friendly and bespoke service.  

“We begged, borrowed and stole to get the shop open and we’ve been doing that ever since,” said Jos.

And he’s opened up a branch in Notting Hill, which long ago lost the shabby chic feel which makes Exmouth Market so appealing.

But a clue to his allegiance lies in the fact that the Notting Hill outlet is still called EC One.

“Exmouth Market is that bit more friendly,” he said.