‘You take the highs with the lows’: London’s ‘only Black-led high street vintage shop’ celebrates 10 years in Hackney

Jackie Dacres runs the shop and teaches at a secondary school. Photograph: courtesy Jackie Dacres

Rekindled Vintage, thought to be the only Black-owned vintage shop on London’s high streets, is celebrating 10 years since it opened in Hackney.

The Well Street store is an oasis of second-hand and contemporary pieces, each with a rich history and hand-picked by owner Jackie Dacres.

Over the course of the past decade, Jackie has welcomed tourists, celebrities, and regulars who have become old friends.

She told the Citizen: “It’s been amazing – you take the highs with the lows. I’ve had some beautiful pieces that have come and gone, people I’ve met from all around the world, some customers have even become friends, and others rely on me for my style and knowledge.”

Hackney-born Jackie founded Rekindled in Canning Town, where it was run as a market stall for five years.

She then decided that she needed a more permanent base from which to sell her wares, because she had started to acquire some special pieces that needed a secure home.

Rekindled is an ‘oasis of second-hand and contemporary pieces’. Photograph: courtesy Jackie Dacres

When she first visited the Well Street venue, she fell in love with the large, inviting windows and jumped at the opportunity to set up shop in the borough she grew up in.

“It was recommended to me to come and look on Well Street,” she recalled. “Something told me, ‘You’ve got to start somewhere, Jackie’, and I chose this one.

“I chose this one simply because I loved the frontage – it’s hardwood, it’s old-fashioned, I like that kind of aesthetic.

“I started as a pop-up shop initially, closed down that Christmas, and reopened as Rekindled.”

Jackie now runs the shop while also teaching at a secondary school in Haringey – so it’s safe to say she has her hands full.

And after 10 years working in Hackney and a whole childhood in the borough under her belt, Jackie has definitely noticed changes.

“I’m Hackney-born, I was educated here […] I am very much a local person,” she said. “It’s becoming more and more gentrified, definitely. There are certainly a lot more people in the creative industries – singers, musicians, writers, actors – that I’ve met here.

“But it’s also an area where people gravitate to. I’m a Hackney girl and I welcome anyone through the door, as long as they’re interested in clothes, interested in fashion – anyone is welcome here.”