The Breeze Shop, Mill Street (1988 – 2026)
Perth's only kite and windmill specialist has closed, after a day of 2mph winds finally broke its spirit.
Kites, which need wind, which Perth has today declined to provide. Photo: Peggy Reimchen, “Layered, mixed shadows (3576450555)”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
The Breeze Shop, which sold kites, windsocks, garden windmills and those little spinning flowers you stick in a plant pot, has closed after 38 years on Mill Street.
Its owners said they had struggled for some time, but that today’s forecast of 2mph winds was “the final straw”. “Two miles an hour,” said one. “You can’t fly a kite in that. You can’t even spin a windmill in that. You can just about blow out a candle if you lean in.”
The shop was much loved by Perth’s children, who would arrive on a breezy Saturday, buy a kite, take it to the North Inch and return it, in pieces, by teatime. The shop always gave them a discount on a new one. “We weren’t really selling kites,” said the owner. “We were renting them by the crash.”
Its proudest moment came in 1997, when a kite bought in the shop was seen flying over the North Inch for eleven hours in a strong westerly. It was eventually found in Scone, still flying, tied to a lamppost, its owner having gone home for his tea.
The Breeze Shop also sold a small number of weather vanes, which locals said were the most honest things in Perth. “They tell you which way the wind’s blowing,” said one regular. “Unlike some people.”
The Breeze Shop is survived by 140 unsold windsocks, which hang from the ceiling of the empty shop, completely still, and will remain so until at least Thursday.
The real story: Perth forecast (Met Office)
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