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More than 100 people waited in line as The Repair Shop‘s Jay Blades opened his first real store yesterday in a bid to help revive Britain’s struggling high streets.
The TV star, 53, who helps bring old and broken pieces of furniture and antiques back to life in the hit BBC One show, welcomed a flurry of customers to his new business in Poole, Dorset.
If successful, he hopes it could be the first of many Jay & Co shops across the country.
It represents the latest triumph for Mr Blades, having welcomed King Charles to his workshop and received an MBE last year, in what is something of a modern rags-to-riches tale.
The furniture maker endured a troubled early life on a council estate in Hackney, east London, where he grew up in poverty after his father abandoned his much-loved mother Barbara.
The shop has 50 restored chairs, sofas, lamps and other furniture, with some pieces priced at thousands of pounds. Items include swivel chairs worth £1,000 as well as a 1960s sofa for £1,950.
Jay Blades opened his first real store yesterday in a bid to help revive Britain’s struggling high streets
The TV star, 53, who helps bring old and broken pieces of furniture and antiques back to life in the hit BBC One show, welcomed a flurry of customers to his new business in Poole, Dorset
More than 100 people waited in line outside the Jay & Co store for its much-anticipated opening on Tuesday
A range of colourful furniture, lovingly restored by Mr Blades and Steve Wyatt, is for sale in the shop
If successful, Mr Blades hopes it could be the first of many Jay & Co shops across the country
He left school without qualifications, found himself wrapped up in gang culture and, by his twenties, ended up homeless and suffering a mental breakdown.
The father-of-three, who’s now engaged to fitness trainer Lisa-Marie Zbozen, said he could fit all his belongings in one carrier bag when he lived in a hostel before he was given social housing on the Victorian Peabody estate.
Dyslexic and unable to read, it wasn’t until the star reached 51 that he began to tackle the illiteracy problem that had haunted him all of his adult life – after he’d found fame on the show that tapped into the nation’s obsession with heritage crafting.
Speaking at the opening of his shop yesterday, Mr Blades told The Times: ‘Restoring furniture is like restoring yourself.
‘If you see a broken, knackered chair and you’re able to fix it, put stuff into it, paint it, glue it, screw another leg on it, put some fabric on it, give it that unique twist.
‘Nobody should be put on the scrap heap. We all have a use. You just need certain things put into you in order to shine.’
He set up the business with Steve Wyatt, whose background also includes homelessness as well as a 22-year drug addiction and a spell behind bars.
Mr Wyatt was trained in furniture restoration via Jay’s charity Out Of The Dark, in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
Mr Blades said: ‘There is no reason why other people can’t do what Steve and I have done here. But it’s special to do this with Steve because I’ve known him a really long time.
‘The amount of people who have come is surreal and overwhelming. It’s crazy.
‘It’s unbelievable the impact The Repair Shop has had on people. I’ve opened a shop because I wanted to show that the high street is not dead, it can still thrive.’
Crowds pack in for a view of the store and Jay Blades in Poole, Dorset, yesterday
Jay Blades and business partner Steve Wyatt in the new store in Poole, Dorset
Window shoppers take a peek at the restored furniture on sale in Jay & Co yesterday
Crowds wait outside the store, ready for it to open in the heart of Poole, Dorset, yesterday
It represents the latest triumph for Mr Blades, having welcomed King Charles to his workshop and received an MBE last year, in what is something of a modern rags-to-riches tale
King Charles is to guest starred in a special episode of show as part of the BBC’s centenary celebrations last year
Mr Wyatt, 45, said: ‘I started restoring things and Jay said to me, ‘What can you do differently?’ and here it is. Our shop.’
Jay, who has been homeless himself, added: ‘There is no reason why other people can’t do what Steve and I have done here.
‘But it’s special to do this with Steve because I’ve known him a really long time.’
The shop has 50 of the business partners’ restored chairs, sofas, lamps and other furniture, with some pieces priced at thousands of pounds.
Items include swivel chairs worth £1,000 as well as a 1960s sofa for £1,950.
Sue Dickson, 59, a foster carer who queued to meet the TV star, said: ‘I think he’s brilliant and it is great for the area that he has brought his shop to Poole.’
Mr Blades has filmed almost 300 episodes of The Repair Shop, which sees him and his team of craftspeople restore anything that members of the public bring to them.
Last year, as part of the BBC’s centenary celebrations, customers included King Charles, who brought in an 18th century bracket clock and a ceramic antique made for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.
Filming takes place in a barn at Weald & Downland Living Museum in West Sussex, but the public are not allowed in while the cameras roll.
Jay Blades’ rags-to-riches story: From east London council estate to star of TV’s The Repair Shop
The furniture maker endured a troubled early life on a council estate in Hackney, where he grew up in poverty after his father abandoned his much-loved mother Barbara.
He left school without qualifications, found himself wrapped up in gang culture and, by his twenties, ended up homeless and suffering a mental breakdown.
The father-of-three, who’s now engaged to fitness trainer Lisa-Marie Zbozen, said he could fit all his belongings in one carrier bag when he lived in a hostel before he was given social housing on the Victorian Peabody estate.
Dyslexic and unable to read, it wasn’t until the star reached 51 that he began to tackle the illiteracy problem that had haunted him all of his adult life – after he’d found fame on the show that tapped into the nation’s obsession with heritage crafting.
Speaking about when he was homeless, Mr Blades said: ‘At 21 I was all over the place, I had no direction, I left London because I was getting into loads of fights and there were people after me.
Furniture maker Blades, 52, has seen his career flourish in recent years after he took on the main presenting role on the hugely successful BBC craft show; marking a stark contrast to a tough childhood growing up in North London with his mother Barbara (pictured)
MBE: Jay was given the honour for services to craft and in recognition of his work promoting heritage craft and restoration in the UK
‘My mum moved to Luton and I lived up there with her for a bit.
‘I had my first child, and then split up with the missus, and moved back to London, then I ended up homeless and went into a hostel.’
‘I had a supermarket carrier bag with all of my stuff in there and it wasn’t a lot. I remember thinking, ‘is this what my life has come to, is this the end for me?”
But the TV star was helped out of the hostel and was given social housing on the Peabody estate, which was built in 1910, along with three other young men.
When Mr Blades lived on the estate, it had a strict list of 17 rules for tenants which banned dogs and wallpaper and said everyone had to be vaccinated against smallpox.
The father-of-three is now happily engaged to fitness trainer Lisa-Marie Zbozen
Blades has spoken previously how he was brought up in impoverished conditions, after his mother Barbara (pictured) was abandoned by his father when he was a baby
Looking back: Jay made the admission on his new documentary series, There’s No Place Like Home, where he revisited his old flat on the Peabody estate (pictured)
The Peabody estate was founded by American philanthropist George Peabody who wanted to provide affordable housing for Londoners living in slum conditions, but with rules on moral conduct.
Mr Blades said it was when he was living in the flat that he found voluntary work which kickstarted his career as a furniture restorer and designer.
His earlier life was similarly bleak, he’s revealed previously that he used to live amongst rats in his childhood home in Hackney, north-east London.
The star told how he was brought up in impoverished conditions, after his mother Barbara was abandoned by his father when he was a baby.
He said: ‘When I was born my mum came to live here with my uncle. My mum got pregnant with the man who contributed towards my birth and he left her high and dry.’
The BBC show has propelled Blades to being a household name after the furniture maker was picked to host the show
Jay added: ‘[He] took all her money from her, said he was going to promise her this and that, and he didn’t, he just disappeared. The time for my mum must have been quite desperate I would say.
‘There was loads of rubbish everywhere, there were rats.’
In 2021, the presenter starred in the BBC documentary Learning to Read at 51, which saw the once-illiterate star tackle the written word after years of being unable to read.
The presenter learned how to read last summer using the same techniques children use, such as phonics.
Speaking to The Sun at the time, Mr Blades recalled how he was brought to tears when he received a letter from his teenage daughter Zola, who lives in Turkey with his ex-wife Jade, and was able to read it.
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