The Cecil Brewer staircase

I love it when a store has a photogenic feature.  It makes for a great marketing opportunity!  Heal’s on Tottenham Court Road has such a feature.  Heal’s first opened its doors in 1810, at a different location.  But as luck would have it, the Heal family produced an amazing architect, Cecil Brewer who designed their flagship store on Tottenham Court Road.  The store is a large, open space filled with beautiful things.  I am always tempted to take a bowl, or a mug or a plate or a set of place mats to the counter and take the beautiful thing home to my tiny flat!  I haven’t succumbed to the urge yet, but I think it’s only a matter of time until I allow myself the indulgence.

Apart from being responsible for the architectural masterpiece that is the Heal’s flagship store, Cecil Brewer was responsible for creating the beautiful spiraling staircase that so many photo buffs have photographed.  It’s a star feature on Instagram for people visiting London.

I visited Heal’s primarily to look for Duralex cups because I wanted to bring them back to the Philippines as it carries a line of clear glass cups and saucers that my dad loves.  But apart from the Duralex cup hunt, I really did want to take a photo of the Cecil Brewer staircase.  I took a photo before, but I wanted to take a better one.  So after checking on the cups, I went to the back of the store and took my photo of the staircase from the foot of the spiral looking up at the beautiful light fixture.

I loved this latest photo.  Mostly because it was very quiet at Heal’s on the day and I had the spiral staircase all to myself (for a while, anyway).  After posting it on Instagram, a few days later, the picture got featured on Culture Trip London‘s (amazing) Instagram feed.  To say that I was tickled pink is an understatement.  The only word to describe how I felt was the Filipino word kilig.  It’s nice to be recognised like that.  Ha!  I’m really pleased that I’m taking noteworthy photos because it’s so much fun learning how to use a camera, properly!

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