Card Factory

Our sto­ry begins with one man and his vision; to bring vibrant, colour­ful, hand-craft­ed arti­san clothes from far­away places to the mar­kets of Lon­don. It is a jour­ney that start­ed on a hip­py com­mune in Ibiza, 1970, and fin­ished with an over­land trip east, through Afghanistan and India. Our founder, Peter Simon, returned from his life-chang­ing adven­tures to pur­sue a new pas­sion for beau­ti­ful, bohemi­an-inspired pieces with hand-print­ed, hand-woven and cro­chet design details, which he start­ed to trade from a stall on Por­to­bel­lo Road, Lon­don. Three years lat­er, he opened the first Mon­soon store in Beauchamp Place. The first Mon­soon col­lec­tions fea­tured clothes made with hand-loomed cot­ton and silk fab­rics, organ­ic veg­etable dyes and arti­san block-print­ing techniques.

Smiggle, when a smile meets a giggle!

Smiggle, the world’s hottest sta­tionery brand, was born in 2003. The ulti­mate cre­ators of colour­ful, fun, fash­ion-for­ward sta­tionery. The first Smiggle store opened in Mel­bourne, Aus­tralia and word spread fast about the bright pens, note­books and gad­gets that filled a tiny, but very spe­cial place. The con­cept took off and the com­pa­ny soon hit 20 stores, where it caught the eye of the Just Group – Australasia’s most excit­ing fash­ion & appar­el retailer.

Smiggle joined the Just Group in August 2007 and has not looked back since! In 2008 Smiggle jumped the seas and opened its first inter­na­tion­al store in New Zealand. In 2011 Smiggle expand­ed into Sin­ga­pore, and in 2014 Smiggle opened its doors in the UK! It’s all part of the grand plan to be the world’s most excit­ing and famous sta­tionery brand.

Sta­tion­ers offer­ing a wide range of albums, frames, design­er sta­tionery, note­books and jour­nals, address books, diaries, can­dle hold­ers, mir­rors, mug sets and ceram­ics, toi­letries, bags, leather acces­sories and purs­es – all very tempt­ing and per­fect for friends and family!

Fras­er Hart is one of the UK’s lead­ing jew­ellers with 25 shops nation­wide. The Com­pa­ny began trad­ing in 1936 when founder Fred Hill set up a jew­ellery shop in Glas­gow and since then the busi­ness has con­tin­ued to grow from strength to strength.

We spe­cialise in a wide range of lux­u­ri­ous jew­ellery and pre­cious met­als includ­ing neck­laces, pen­dants, bracelets and ear­rings. Choose exquis­ite dia­monds includ­ing stun­ning engage­ment, eter­ni­ty, wed­ding and dress rings suit­able for every celebration.

We are proud to be autho­rised stock­ists for lead­ing brands includ­ing some of the world’s most pres­tige and pre­mi­um watch brands. Includ­ing Bre­itling, Omega, Fred­erique Con­stant, TAG Heuer, Bell & Ross, Guc­ci and Rado. We also hold a range of pres­ti­gious watch brands in-store includ­ing IWC. Select­ed stores are also autho­rised Rolex stockists.

We are proud to offer a bespoke jew­ellery and ring ser­vice enabling our cus­tomers to design and cus­tomise their own unique piece of jew­ellery to suit their spe­cif­ic requirements. 

In-store, we offer a com­plete repair, val­u­a­tion and insur­ance ser­vice along­side expert knowl­edge and advise on all aspects of jew­ellery and watch care and main­te­nance. Our expert jew­ellery repairs offer the high­est stan­dard of ser­vice to return your beloved jew­ellery back to its orig­i­nal con­di­tion or improve on it more, whilst our well-trained watch­mak­ers are on hand to ensure any issues can be expert­ly resolved.

At Fras­er Hart, we com­bine exper­tise with a pas­sion for excep­tion­al cus­tomer ser­vice, and you’ll always get the per­son­al touch you deserve. So, let us be at the heart of your cel­e­bra­tion – vis­it us in-store or online and be inspired.

One of the old­est, most estab­lished and fastest grow­ing law firms in the East of Eng­land. We offer legal ser­vices on a range of issues, both com­mer­cial and per­son­al as well as inde­pen­dent finan­cial advice and inter­na­tion­al business.

Estate Agents

Estab­lished in 1957 we have a proud his­to­ry of high qual­i­ty and pio­neer­ing com­mu­ni­ty eye care. We are tru­ly inde­pen­dent which means the prod­ucts we use and rec­om­mend are what we con­sid­er to be the best for you.

At Owen Aves we have a skilled team of qual­i­fied and GOC reg­is­tered optometrists and dis­pens­ing opti­cians, who are sup­port­ed by our expe­ri­enced and knowl­edge­able opti­cal assis­tants and recep­tion team.

We pro­vide eye exam­i­na­tions and con­tact lens checks for all ages and under­stand that every­one’s eye health and visu­al needs are unique. 

We have a great selec­tion of frames to suit all bud­gets includ­ing an exten­sive range of design­er and lux­u­ry eye­wear. Our frame range cov­ers con­tem­po­rary, tra­di­tion­al and clas­sic styles as well as light­weight tita­ni­um and rimless. 

From the day Mata­lan start­ed back in 1985, to today, over 30 years on, Matalan’s mis­sion has always stayed the same; to pro­vide out­stand­ing qual­i­ty and val­ue for mod­ern fam­i­lies. Mata­lan takes time to lis­ten, under­stand and evolve to fit chang­ing mod­ern fam­i­ly needs, always with an empha­sis on pro­vid­ing the high­est qual­i­ty cloth­ing and home­ware for the low­est price. 12 mil­lion UK fam­i­lies each year trust Mata­lan with their fam­i­ly bud­gets — to pro­vide the range, style, qual­i­ty and val­ue that enable them to run a hap­py fam­i­ly home. As a lead­ing UK and Inter­na­tion­al omni-chan­nel retail­er rang­ing from wom­enswear and menswear to home­ware and fur­ni­ture; Mata­lan offers some­thing for all. As of April 2019, Mata­lan has an impres­sive 230 UK stores and 30 Inter­na­tion­al fran­chise stores with­in Europe and the Mid­dle East, sup­port­ed with a rapid­ly grow­ing online channel.

Your the­atre, your stories

The Mer­cury is an artis­tic pow­er­house in the East – a vital, vibrant, wel­com­ing cen­tre of cul­ture for the peo­ple of Colch­ester, Essex and beyond.

The the­atre takes its name from the Roman mes­sen­ger god, Mercury.

It was Mercury’s task to con­nect the peo­ple with the gods, and so, in keep­ing with our name, con­nec­tion is at the heart of every­thing we do.

Tra­di­tion­al fam­i­ly gro­cers with over 100 cheeses, cof­fee roast­ed on the premis­es, large range of loose teas and our own ​‘hand cooked gam­mon ham. Many local prod­ucts and gift ham­pers or bas­kets avail­able all year. Colch­ester’s venue for your Christ­mas fayre.

Sense char­i­ty sup­ports the deaf, blind and com­plex needs of young peo­ple and adults. We pride our­selves in pro­vid­ing an excel­lent ser­vice as well as cater­ing to our cus­tomers needs. Our goods range from donat­ed design­er wear, books, Bric-à-brac trea­sures and new goods all at a rea­son­able price.

Superb pub ser­vices and great food dai­ly. Love­ly alfres­co area ide­al for din­ing with friends in the sum­mer. Great quiz on every Sunday. 

(Part of the Greene King group)