Flog It! star Paul Martin has confessed that working in the antiques industry can be “difficult”.
The antiques dealer – who has starred on Trust Me, I’m a Dealer, Street Auction and Make Me a Dealer along with his Flog It! stints – continues his love for all things old off-screen, too, as well as being a drummer.
Speaking in 2023 on the Pippa Jane PR blog, Martin was asked how his Corsham antiques shop, The Table Gallery, was faring. And the verdict wasn’t positive.
He admitted: “It’s difficult. The High Street is suffering and there is not a lot of footfall. I am quite lucky that the people I sell to tend to be local repeat customers. People that move from the cities to rural Wiltshire from London, Bath or Bristol, people who up-size from cities and need their houses furnished.”
Paul admitted he had to cut down the opening hours of his shop.
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Paul Martin made a ‘difficult’ admission about his career (Image: BBC)
“I enjoy talking to and selling to people and I don’t like sitting around when no-one comes in, so I have cut down my hours to Friday and Saturday because of filming but I am open out of hours and I only live 5 minutes by car can meet people out of shop hours.
“The High Street is a tough industry. Fingers crossed it gets better – I am always looking for new clients [but] it’s too expensive to ship things at the moment. My client base is in the UK.”
Thankfully Paul’s filming commitments also keep him busy – last year he filmed The Great Auction Showdown for Channel 5, and he’s also a familiar face on
Paul is also a musician (Image: Getty)
Away from the world of antiques, Paul is a musician. He’s been a drummer for bands like Average White Band, The Quireboys and The Dogs D’Amour back in the 90s – and now he plays in local jazz and blues bands.
The star told Express.co.uk: “I really wanted to be a musician like most kids, be a famous pop star but it didn’t really work out. I was really good art and woodwork. My parents were graphic illustrators and my uncle was an antique dealer.
“So I always knew I would go into the arts somewhere. And for me, antiques is like art and theatre combined. Beautiful arty objects are one-off, finite. Displayed well, they become theatrical and dramatic and beautiful.”