Meet the owners

Meet David

The toast of Portobello Road and Camden’s iconic markets for many years, Goldrush Vintage opened on Green Street in December. Owner David Crawford gives us a tour

We’d love to hear how Goldrush Vintage started?

We opened our Cambridge store on December 1 last year but I’ve been running the business since 1998. We began on a little second-hand market in Corby which is where I grew up. We did that for a year then moved to Portobello Road Market and then Camden until 2007, when they redeveloped the area. Since 2013 we’ve been doing pop-up vintage fairs in universities all over the UK, which have been very popular.

What inspired you to work in the world of vintage clothing?

I’ve always been into the environment, recycling and reusing and never one for shiny new things. So, in terms of clothing, if I like it, I’ll wear it. I actually trained to be a chef but alongside that job I was selling clothes which I’d bought from charity shops and realised I was making more money doing that than working 70 hours a week in a kitchen, so it was a no-brainer which career to follow!

Why did you choose to open Goldrush Vintage in Cambridge?

We live about 45 minutes away and it’s where we always come for a day out shopping as a family. I like the fact that it has so many independent shops. I’ve had my eye on opening a shop in Cambridge for the past 10 years.

Can you talk us through what you sell over your two floors?

We sell a large range of anything vintage and used although not all our range is technically vintage; some pieces like Barbour jackets, Levi’s and branded clothes may be just a few years old. We have clothes for men and women, with children’s clothes arriving soon, plus accessories including sunglasses, rings, handbags and costume jewellery.

What do you have specifically for women?

We’ve got a couple of rails of Y2K, so the millennium aesthetic influenced by pop bands like the Spice Girls and B*witched, including cropped denim jackets, skirts and branded tops from the likes of Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren. We also do lingerie as outerwear, dresses and skirts from the 60s to the 2000s. Downstairs we have ladies’ jeans which are mainly 80s high-waist tapered leg and Y2K low waist flared leg, and come from the States.

And what about your offering for men?

We sell all manner of T-shirts including music T-shirts, sports ones from Adidas, Nike and Puma plus American prints. We do the same range with sweatshirts and some branded knitwear labels from the 80s to modern day. We have a lot of American workwear, which is a bestseller, and Carhartt brandwear which has gone mental in recent years. We do leather and suede for men and women, biker jackets of all sorts, a hippy mix of anything ethnic, plus footwear such as cowboy and biker boots. We stock the quintessential British look so Barbour and tweed jackets, as well as the classic Levi’s, Lee and Wrangler denim jackets which are unisex.

What inspired the name?

When we were in Camden we sold a stupid amount of jeans; we’d have thousands of denims, and Levi’s originated from the Gold Rush in California. They sold dungarees as they called them (but jeans as we now know them) to the miners in San Francisco, so it grew from there.

How have you been received by Cambridge folk?

It’s been very good. So many customers have commented on the competitive price and the huge range. Then you tell them that there is a downstairs and they disappear for another hour!

What makes Goldrush Vintage so unique?

We like to think our prices are very reasonable and the size of the shop allows us to have a wide range of vintage items. I would like to think also that it’s our friendliness. We always greet customers as they arrive, but we don’t hard sell; we let people wander and browse in a relaxed manner.

Goldrush Vintage is at 15 Green Street, Cambridge, and open 12-6pm daily (closing at 5pm on Sundays). Follow @goldrushvintage