Shops we love: Beckon

File under: retail, Wellington

You may have noticed that most of the shops featured in the "Shops we love" posts specialise in items that you can eat, drink, read or wear. That's because I'm generally happy to leave interior design and homeware stores to those who actually spend some time at home, but in Beckon's case, I'm willing to make an exception.

This little shop, which opened last week in Willis St just along from Willis St Village, has a few qualities that set it apart. First, unlike chains such as Askew, Iko Iko or the Vault, it's a one-off shop run by and named after its owner (Bec Knox). Secondly, virtually all of the merchandise is designed and made in New Zealand, and much of it has a distinctive local flavour. And finally, most of the items are surprisingly reasonably priced.

This stretch of Willis St (between Manners and Dixon streets) is starting to get a bit livelier again. There are a couple of new cafe/bars at the south end - Eclipse (aka Mystery Bar #3) and Mojo Invincible (aka Mystery bar #9) - and rumour has it that the old Armadillo site (which was briefly Ostro) will reopen soon. The Settlement may be a ghost of its former self, and under threat of demolition, but it'll be interesting to see what happens when DoC moves into the renovated Mid City complex and the apartments on the former Fishbowl site are complete.