Down The Pub: A Cockney Tale Of Old Storage Trunks

When I first stumbled across the circus clown trunk, I stopped in my tracks. The hand-drawn clown staring upside down across the front felt like more than decoration. It felt like a fragment of a lost world — an old fairground life. Old storage boxes aren’t just places to keep things. They’re keepers of journeys. Before suitcases rolled through airports, art station platform trunks were the way people travelled. Built solid, heavy duty, sometimes decorated with brass corners or painted lettering. I remember when the circus came to town once a year.

Posters glued to walls promised elephants, fire breathers, acrobats — and always clowns. Looking at the trunk feels like it was there backstage, stuffed with costumes and props, waiting for the show to begin.