Overview of the stores.

Have you ever wondered how old shoes looked? What fabric was used to make them? How heavy or light they where? Where they made for people with big feet or small? Which colours where used the most in the 19^th century? Well you can do that in Northampton’s Museum & Art Gallery shoe store tour.

 

 

 

The tour isn’t like any other tours. I have been into many museum tours, but this was different, and I was lucky to have the experience. First a guide told what types of shoes they have, how many, from which centuries, told me and the others in the tour a bit about the shoes. And then came the fun part. We were given white gloves and I had to wear them when I touched the shoes. Yes, in the shoe store you are allowed to touch shoes and look at them very closely. When I walked in the room where they keep all of the shoes I was surprised. The shoes weren’t displayed in shelves behind a glass door. They were in boxes in movable shelves. If I wanted to see shoes I had to rotate a handle to move the shelves just to get to the box I wanted to. Then I had to walk between the shelves and take the box of my choice. When the tour guide gave us the gloves she instructed us how we need to deal with the shoes. When you see a box you want you have to take it carefully not messing the order of the boxes. Then take the shoe out carefully and after you have looked at it you have to put it back exactly the way it was and where it was.

 

In the shoe store they have many various types of shoes from various years. They have a big collection of sneakers, Chinese shoes and every day shoes. It is very easy to find what you are looking for in the shoe store, because everything is much organised. The shoes are arranged by years and the labels of the years are on the shelves. Women’s shoes are in the boxes with red dots on them and the men’s are in the boxes with the blue dots. And on every box there is a description of the shoes that are inside the box. So you can now what type of shoes are in the box without even opening it.

 

 

I think everyone would enjoy the shoe store tour. Even if you don’t like shoes that much, or you are not interested in history, then just for the experience to wear the white gloves and being able to touch something in the museum, finally. I would definitely recommend the shoe store tour to everyone, because I had an amazing time and experience.