Lucy’s Fresh floristry
For ten years, I sold fresh, local flowers in my shops, and for 3 years I made all the guest bouquets for The Newt in Somerset Hotel just up the road from my Castle Cary shop. I have always chosen to only deal with top quality, local British growers across the South of England, from Cornwall/ Isles of Scilly, to Norfolk, and special favourite Rosebie Morton at The Real Flower Company.
The pattern and costs of regular floristry has changed since the Lockdown time, and as I want to continue supplying and creating the best I can, I now only offer my floristry at select times of year, rather than weekly. So, most obviously, Mothers’ Day, end of June -July, and Christmas are peak periods when the orders come flooding in for collection and posting. You can always call the shop (01963 359102) to check upcoming seasons or place an order. We always offer a complimentary presentation wrapping with water and hand-written notecard. The colour palette of flowers on offer is my choice of best available varieties that day/week.
Article Interior Design launches JuLY 2026
My approach is that residential design should take a client’s Art Collection as the focal point of the home, together with its architecture, to truly reflect a person’s artistic interests and personality through their owned objects, within a cohesive home environment. My background these past 20 years as a retail buyer, florist and merchandiser/stylist for my shops, and furthermore helping my husband David to curate and handle our monthly selling exhibitions at our gallery, David Simon Contemporary, since 2013, gives me a varied and broad experience across the Arts and Design, together with an upbringing learning antiques and an education in the expressive arts.
I have been selling Edward Bulmer’s Natural Paint through my shop since 2013, and helping my customers with colour in their homes, and with furnishings from my shop, so it seemed a natural progression to expand into Interior Design formally, and I am currently on the way to gaining my qualification from London’s KLC School of Interior Design this year. A dedicated Design section of the website will follow soon, and more details of the interiors suppliers I have chosen to work with, such as Liberty London Fabrics and Papers, Heal’s, Tom Raffield, Alfred Newall furniture and carefully selected craftsmen and small businesses and makers across Somerset, to fit my kitchen and bathroom designs. Whole project management is offered.
SPECIAL RATES of 50% discount to my first 4 client bookings starting from September 2026……. (2 SLOTS LEFT)
Old Stuckey’s Bank, 37 High St. Castle Cary, SOMERSET
BA7 7AW
Article is the creative output of Sussex-born Lucy Quantrill-Simon, who is the buyer, merchandiser, florist and stylist behind the brand and shop, which has a high street premises (Est. 2013) and an online store.
You can find Lucy’s careful selection of favourite and useful products, from stationery to skincare and scents, scarves, and the sweetest gifts for small children, amidst beautiful original artworks and ceramics from the art gallery she shares with husband David next door.
“I champion stylish & high quality designer-makers you don’t find in most places, so you will find one-off objects and articles of great beauty here. If you’re searching for a particular thing, ask us and we can help source it for you. I first opened ‘article’ in Bath in 2013, which is my second retail business (first shop in Edinburgh, 2007). We relocated the business premises to Castle Cary in 2019.
This year I am expanding my offering to a complete interior design service following my qualification from KLC London. “ Lucy
What we do
Established in Bath over thirteen years ago, and now located in a restored bank in Castle Cary, Article is the creative output of musician and retailer Lucy Quantrill-Simon.
“Possessed of my own clear aesthetic principles, an eye for design and a taste for quality, I hope you enjoy the eclectic offering my shop brings, of good things for stylish living. I check everything I buy and make for quality, value, sustainability and beauty.
My style, through the shop’s curated products, is inspired by nature in terms of materials and often subject, mixed with an artistic and intelligent design aesthetic, inspired by certain movements in art, and also by the nostalgia within our childhood hearts.
Someone at Time Out magazine once described my first shop (in Edinburgh, 2007), as “A thinking lady’s boutique” which I rather hope still fits…”
about our Dried Flowers
Originally from Sussex, and a trained classical musician, Article founder Lucy Quantrill-Simon used to spend every Saturday as a teenager exploring all the independent shops in her home town of Brighton, being endlessly inspired by the retail landscape in the buzzing seaside town. She opened her first shop at the age of 24, in Edinburgh, and has kept shop since, subsequently moving to Bath and then rural Somerset and moving her shop along with the journeying. The careful selection of products chosen for sale in the shop are sourced by Lucy’s eye for design and keen sense of the importance of value, quality, exclusivity and beauty in combination, mostly led by a particular colour palette reminiscent of the Bloomsbury art movement and illustrative and surface pattern. Since marrying Art Gallerist David in Bath some time ago, the pair operate their two businesses, the art gallery and shop, alongside eachother, now housed in a restored Georgian bank on Castle Cary’s High Street. Their little daughter sometimes joins them and loves to join in and talk to people. Lucy is in the shop most days and oversees every aspect of her business.