Pickwick's Mercantile — Attraction in Portsmouth

When asked what my favourite place in all the world is, I say automatically, "Portsmouth." When asked what my favourite place in all of Portsmouth is, I could potentially regale my audience with tales of the beautiful views of Prescott Park, or the lovingly accurate re-creations of the past found at Strawbery Banke. I might even choose to simply describe the whole of Market Square, where one could spend hours wandering and admiring the traditional seacoast architecture while treading upon the sometimes-misshapen red bricked sidewalks.

While all of these things contribute to why Portsmouth is my favourite place, I wouldn't call any of them my absolute favourite place. Instead, I would drag them along, as I do with all of my guests, to one or all of the unassuming shops that still hold my boylike wonder as strongly as they did when I first entered them.

Many stores simply arrange their merchandise in neat and tidy rows to make each product easy to read, easy to nab, easy to buy. At Pickwick's however, the shopping experience is transformed from a mundane time-killer into what feels like a quick romp through a theme park's gift shop -- with none of the overpriced pap you'd regret buying as soon as you got home. Each time I leave one of their stores, my only regret is that I could not afford to buy more of the unique items that I have only ever seen within their walls.

In short, each Pickwick store is an experience in itself and to claim to have seen all the wonders of Portsmouth without visiting them all is to do the entire city a disservice. Pickwick's is truly a gem hidden within the bricked sidewalks of the seacoast, and I can only hope that their reign of brilliance will continue for...

We used to adore Pickwick’s and bought most of our Christmas gifts here. I’ve visited twice in the last couple of weeks and couldn’t wait to get out of the store. Firstly, the shop has become too overcrowded. Just the amount of stuff everywhere. You can’t walk around comfortably, or pick up anything to look at without knocking down items. Which they must know because there are signs everywhere to not touch this, ask for help to look at that, don’t smell the perfume - ask someone to spray it for you, don’t open the candle lids, don’t handle the clothing, don’t read the books, avoid breathing the air. Kidding on the last one but barely. Tiny signs every where telling you to get help with trying to buy anything but only one employee in the shop. I’m not going to ask someone to spray 6 perfumes for me (can you imagine how overwhelming the smell would be?). Thus, you can rest assured that for the first time ever, I left the shop twice without making a single purchase. Make a choice. Either it’s a store or it’s a museum. It wasn’t fun to be there anymore. It...

I absolutely loved my experience here! I come every time I am in Portsmouth. Today, I noticed that they carry an excellent range of niche perfumes that I haven’t yet had the chance to smell. The employee at the perfume counter (named Piccadilly?) was incredibly helpful and patient. He helped me narrow down my scent preferences and then provided individualized recommendations. All in all, I think I smelled close to 15 different perfumes before deciding on one! Yet he never made me feel rushed or like I was being too picky. Even after I settled on my purchase, he helped me smell several other scents that I thought just looked interesting. Next time I or a friend is in the market for another perfume, I will be making the trip back up to Pickwick’s for the excellent selection and even better...