The shelves of Whatnot & China Town tell a story of English heritage, from Wedgwood and Spode to Royal Doulton Staffordshire figures. These familiar pieces, often seen in British homes, now line the walls of a shop in Kalk Bay, South Africa, creating an unexpected porcelain paradise. One visitor first noticed the shop’s black-and-white sign during a holiday in the coastal suburb, known for its antique stores and tide pools.
Stepping inside reveals 16 rooms packed with fragile tea sets, pottery, and glassware stacked from floor to ceiling. The shop’s collection is overwhelming. Paths wind through narrow lanes of tableware, with only small gaps left to walk. A strong sense of calm is needed to move through the space, where enthusiasm is tempered by the need to handle delicate items carefully.
A Legacy of British Emigration
The presence of so much English pottery in South Africa is no accident. The 20th century saw hundreds of thousands of Britons emigrate to South Africa, drawn by its mountains, coastline, and reliable climate. This migration, along with the country’s colonial history, brought many cherished household items from Britain.
Relics of Britain’s design history fill South African antique shops and auction houses. Nearly 80 percent of Whatnot & China Town’s stock comes from England. Families often brought prized tea sets and figurines when they emigrated. When households were later broken up, many of these pieces found their way into the hands of dealers.
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The Shop’s Humble Beginnings
Zambia-born Edith Sanders, known as Mrs Sanders, founded the business 40 years ago. It started with a single chair she and her late husband, Max, bought at auction and sold for a ten-rand profit. They used that money to buy their first “box of junk,” which became the foundation of the shop.
The business began on the main Kalk Bay high street, where Edith filled five shops with her inventory. She lived in a flat above with her employees, Ivan Gregory Pentz and Nomvuyo ‘Gladys’. Ivan describes Edith as a woman of high standards who was not afraid to voice her opinion. The trio managed the shop together, with Gladys and Ivan helping Edith oversee the growing collection. Edith was known for her sharp wit and quick tongue, and her customers were not immune to it.
As Ivan’s family grew, he moved out of the flat above the shop. Edith seized the opportunity to relocate the business away from the main thoroughfare. She moved Whatnot upstairs, knocking through a wall to join two flats together. This is where the shop’s 16-room layout began to take shape. Moving the entire stock from the front to the back took three months, with Ivan, Edith, and a carpenter carrying thousands of pieces one by one. In the end, only two shelves’ worth of stock wouldn’t fit.
The shop, now in its fourth decade, is beloved locally, with people returning year after year to find that missing saucer, or simply, as one visitor did, to stand in awe of this collection of thoughtful, decorative design. Since Mrs Sanders died in 2024, at 90, the shop has passed to her son, Gordon, and buying has slowed almost to a stop. Gordon lives in Limpopo, in the bushveld on the opposite side of the country, and was always, in his mother’s words, ‘bush happy’ rather than shop-minded. ‘I don’t think it’s his cup of tea’, says Ivan wryly.
A New Chapter for the Shop
Gordon has put the business up for sale, hoping a ceramics aficionado will want to carry it on. Even under this moratorium, the shop remains brimming and much visited by both customers and the curious. Gladys knows every piece in the inventory – every pattern and every name. Often, she dips her hand into this store of history and pulls out the exact piece missing from a buyer’s collection; she even dreams about the plates, she says.
Originally, each of the 16 rooms was given over to a single maker. Passing through it meant moving between the portfolios of rival English potteries. But then Mrs Sanders bought more than the original scheme allowed for. The tidy logic of the rooms began, in Ivan’s words, to ‘get a little wonky, but still lots of fun’. So Clarice Cliff would find herself nestled between a Wedgwood vase and a Spode saucer.
A Home for Fragile Histories
At Whatnot & China Town, transplanted from their origins, these fragile pieces of home have become pieces of other homes, other lives. The shop stands as a unique collection of British heritage in a South African coastal town. It continues to draw those who appreciate the history and craftsmanship of these objects.
