Blog: Student Life #5

A welcoming lady who works in Hyde + Seek was telling me about how very few students find the quirky little shop during their first year of university as it is tucked away off the main high street. As she was saying this I realised – that’s exactly me. Now in my second year, I have only just discovered what I am sure will become one of my favourite shops in Exeter.

Hyde + Seek is the ultimate gift shop – I challenge anyone to find a better place in Exeter to buy your friends and family their birthday and Christmas presents. For £7.95 you can buy a book with a seemingly endless supply of mug cake recipes (a mug cake is a cake in a mug that takes around five minutes to prepare and microwave – awesome, I know).

The kitchen wear, clocks and gnomes are all cute and unique which makes giving what would otherwise be a boring gift, really sweet and memorable. Walking around, I couldn’t stop thinking of individuals I knew who would love certain items – don’t blame me for not specifying, what if my mum reads this and finds out her Christmas present?

Other items on sale include mugs with inventive slogans and designs, eggs from which you can grow daisies, colour changing umbrellas and the most amazing scented candles I have ever come across. The scents are strong but not sickening and there’s some original smells that you won’t come across anywhere else like the margarita scented candles. There’s a risk of discovering objects you never knew you wanted, but you want so badly. For instance, it’s now become one of my life goals to own a scratch-map from which I can scratch away all of the countries I have visited.

Even the experience of shopping at Hyde + Seek is enjoyable as they often play gentle acoustic music that suits the colourful and relaxed atmosphere. In fact, the colours made the shop stand-out the most from ordinary gift shops. Items are packed into the relatively small space, on all four walls and on islands in the middle of the store, even piled up by the checkout and hanging down from the ceiling. That’s not because Hyde + Seek is untidy, well, it has character, but it’s because there’s so much in there for customers to choose from.

So with Christmas on the horizon – yes, there’s less than eight weeks to go now – Hyde + Seek would be my number one recommendation for present shopping.

Have a look at the Hyde + Seek Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/hydeandseekexeter

Or even better, go and explore for yourself at 15 Paris Street, EX1 2JB.
Photos taken by Jessikah Hope Stenson on 19.10.2015.