Meet the locals – The Curious Fox..
The Curious Fox is a gorgeous gift shop located on Beech Road, Chorlton that has been run by partners David Dodsworth and Stewart Hutcheon since 2018. Inside the shop you’ll find a fantastic selection of wonderful products including luxury soaps, candles and diffusers, a fabulous array of beautiful and unusual cards, and from November the rear of the shop becomes a magical grotto packed full of amazing Christmas decorations and gifts.
David explained ‘Christmas is a really big time for the shop, and we try to source really great decorations and gifts from as early as February, it’s important to be organised in advance for the season as it can be bumper time if you get it right.’
David’s partner Stewart first came to Manchester 23 years ago to work in children’s animation where he worked as a prop maker on several children’s TV shows including Bob the Builder, but now he channels his model-making passion into creating incredible window displays, which have now become a Christmas tradition in the local community. Previous years displays have brought families from all over greater Manchester and beyond to marvel at his creations, and this year’s exhibit shows signs of being the most popular yet
‘This year’s theme is Manchester Christmas in the late 1960’s’ said Stewart
‘I’ve tried to evoke a classic Coronation Street vibe with this year’s display, I’ve hand sculpted each of the figures to be reminiscent of realistic people that you might recognise eg your mum, your gran or a woman down the road’
‘Everything has been handmade including little leather handbags and woolly jumpers, but my favourite part is the corner shop, which is fully stocked with over 300 tiny products, most of which we made in lockdown to pass the time. I’ve even made all the houses brick by brick, using lollypop sticks, over 900 per house! It’s been an enormous amount of work, but it has already proved to be well worth the effort judging by people’s reaction to it.’
‘I had the idea a few years ago and have been working towards it gradually, it was actually meant to be last year’s display, but some of the figures were chosen to be in an Exhibition with Grayson Perry as part of his Art Club Show, so they were away last Christmas. We were lucky enough to meet Grayson, who was fantastic, he loved the figures and said how much they reminded him of his aunts when he was growing up’
‘Creating a magical Christmas window really attracts people to our shop, and one of the best parts about that is seeing the children’s faces light up, we had one 5 year old boy come in to the shop especially to tell us that it was the best Christmas window he’d ever seen in his life! And that was just such a funny and endearing moment, it was priceless.’
David and Stewart are looking forward to another wonderful Christmas season in the shop, and you can visit The Curious Fox on Beech Road, Monday to Sunday between the hours of 10am and 5.30pm.
Eddie – Monday 20th November 2023. (Image used from our marketing team).
