Old Tales, Retold: Inside St Andrews' New Antique Shop

Having now been here a year, I find it surprising how temporary St Andrews can be. Eight months feels like eight weeks — new friends, old friends, places in and out, news shops opening and closing, new tourists, old tourists, first years in, fourth years out. We seem to live in a cycle, constantly moving ahead, without looking back. Yet St Andrews’s new and only antique shop on South Street, Fable, runs on a completely different timeline. 

I spoke to business owner India Russel and her partner, Kai. Their passion for the process is immense. “We collect things with a story,” Russell explained. “I like age, and Kai goes for story-based pieces because he’s a writer.” Combining their artistic and linguistic interests, each piece they acquire has its own unique background. 

Walking into the store, I am taken out of the speed of the town. Surrounded by local relics collected in Fife, to pieces from across the continent, the space feels precious. “You realise antique shops don't have to be old and dusty,” Russell said. “It's what you make the space.” 

Having started collecting six years ago during lockdown, Russell rented spaces in Dundee where she also ran life-drawing classes. The pair began collecting in the South of England when Russell realised, “It's so precious to have something with so much history and interest in your hands.” 

Russell’s background in art plays a massive role in the shop. Looking up, you can see her art decorating the ceilings and also the brand, beautiful and intense golds and red, with a medieval twist on “her animals,” all in mural form. “Owning these bits informs my artwork — they become things that you can tangibly interact with,” explained Russel. Her interest in the collecting process and her own art is eminent; you feel it in every inch of the shop. There is also more to her art than meets the eye. Using stoneware clay and kiln fires, she works around auspicious dates, “binding art and spirituality together.”

“It seemed a shame there hadn’t been a shop in a place with so much history,” Kai said. With St Andrews spanning 500 years of integral history, from the Reformation to the witch craze, Fable has it all. “We are going for decorative and salvaged items rather than traditional furniture,” he added.

Decorating the width of the ceiling is a banner mourning the seven persecuted witches in St Andrews. In a glass case, the Saducismus Triumphatus by Joseph Granville from 1681 accounts for confessions and consorts with the Devil. When asked about her favourite, Russell pointed me to the wooden carving on the wall. “St John over here, from 1300,” she explained. “It's crazy to be in the vicinity of something so old.” Fable does not just look to the past but brings history forward.

Fable has only been open for two weeks, and yet it already has a massive appeal within the town. “We had such a lovely reception from students, with some very eclectic conversations,” Russell said. “We think we know everything about a piece, and then someone comes in and tells us something we've never heard.” 

Hearing Kai and Russel talk about collecting, the process felt much more than just random objects from far and wide. “You can actually own parts of History,” Russell explained. “Every piece has such a connection to St Andrews.” 

“Each piece has a story, and when someone takes a piece, they are adding to the next chapter, ” Kai explained. Russell describes their role as that of custodians. Though a hobby that, at first, may seem inaccessible to many, Fable changes the script around antiques. Their target audience isn’t just overseas investors or acquired collectors, but also students, tourists, or locals. 

“We are influenced by the seasons, May Day, Christmas, and Harvest Fairs,” Russell said. “We want to tie things back to the Land and Lore.” The ‘Land and Lore’ rhetoric seems to be at the heart of their brand, with Russell’s vision including good-luck charms made with found objects across local beaches. She also discussed a social aspect, looking ahead to planning drawing nights and social events. 

“You can see the love and care in all these pieces. People care enough to keep [them] alive,” Kai said. With a sixteenth-century St Andrew decorating the windowsill, it is clear what Fable is about: It combines modernity with our past, while reflecting on the legacies of our town. 

Photos courtesy of Maisie Everitt