October’s Spotlight: Niche Bathgate!
Stumbling upon this absolute gem of a place was a series of unexpected events, after one day, a friend and I decided to do our weekly shop in Bathgate, west Lothian. In the seven years I have lived in Linlithgow, never mind the previous decades I’d lived in Edinburgh, Bathgate was only ever 20-30 minutes away by train or car, yet, I had never been. That was until that day we decided to shop there and I fell in love with the journey to and the place itself.
Two of the three routes you can take from Linlithgow are stunning (we haven’t taken the third yet). The scenery, the tree tunnels that honestly could be portals to another world and the patchwork of farmland that spreads out form the road for miles. I was shook. How did I not know?
Once we arrived, I didn’t know why, I just liked being there. So, we decided to come on a non-food shop day and explore the town centre.
That’s when we discovered Niche. The window display drew us in, but once inside I was immediately obsessed. Filled with one-off quirky items like Monster drink cans made into actual monsters, potion bottles, antiques turned into quirky homeware items, and absolutely stunning flips of books made into flower bouquet holders. And then there was what I bought that day: book pages turned into a pumpkin with burned edges. The scent of the burnt pages was still in the air when we walked in, with Lisa the owner and artist behind the bespoke items, telling us she had only burnt the pages of my pumpkin in the last hour. I was completely smitten by the whole place. The enchanting items, and Lisa too, who was so warm, friendly, chatted to us easily but gave us space to look and who is clearly very talented.
I promised her I would spread the word, tell as many people as I could find about her wonderful shop, and I thought making Niche October’s Witchy Business Spotlight was just the way to do that.
You can find Niche at 64 George Street Bathgate West Lothian EH48 1PD.