We started by removing the glass from the existing opaque shop-front. Between the bare mullions we perched four little wooden boxes. We sought to present the store as a series of tiny market stalls – somewhere you might buy a glass of lemonade from a kid at a school fair. Reclaimed timbers and copper sheets deliver organic roughness and patina; small canopies enclose an intimate space for selection and exchange; amber glass casts the whole scene in a warm, sunny tint. Collectively, these qualities define Whites & Co as a tiny island of warm, humane space.

At Whites & Co we took the smallest store in Britomart, and made it smaller. In doing so we generated a system for building humble little stores out of parts that would fit in the back of a van. One day, when it’s all grown up, we hope Whites & Co will be delivering these little wooden boxes all over the country.

Photographer Jeremy Toth