'People no longer go into antiques shops'

Traditionally antiques dealers have been used to dealing in objects from history in a style more in tune with tradition than cutting-edge technology, but no longer After 35 years selling antique jewellery from Grays, an antiques market in Mayfair, central London, Olivia Gerrish decided it was time to move on He's a fourth-generation dealer, who with his father John Bly, a furniture and antiques expert for many years on BBC TV's The Antiques Roadshow, operates out of a gallery in the King's Road, Chelsea.

"People who used to do their research would go round antique shops, ask questions, look at things and perhaps go away and think about it." Dr Eleanor Quince, history lecturer at Southampton University, who has undertaken a study of Britain's antiques industry, says while dealers are divided as to whether the internet is negative or positive for business - many have felt the need to change their business model One solution - adopted by Olivia Gerrish and many others - says Freya Simms, CEO of Lapada, the UK's largest association of art and antiques dealers, has been to move up to the first floor of premises rather than pay to have a shop front For more on the changing face of the UK's antiques business - download or listen to all five episodes of Travis Elborough's BBC Radio 4 series, The Rise and Fall of the Antique. Source