There’s plenty of old stuff in Geordie Malone and Eartha Smith’s place. Lots to look at, and most of it has a story attached to it. It would be easy, however, to overlook one thing in a display unit at the top of the stairs – a tiny little glass bottle, cracked all over, a bit dirty looking inside, and all they have left from one chapter in their lives.
“It still has smoke in it,” says Eartha, explaining that she found it in the ashes after Morrow Park, an old Newcastle bowling club and arts hub, burnt down. It’s where she and Geordie met, and where both of them had been living at one stage. When Morrow Park went up in flames, Eartha, who has a vintage clothes business, had all her stock there. “I lost everything – hundreds of dresses and