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 Owned by 43-year-old artist Marcus Bracey, the gallery in
Walthamstow, called 'God's Own Junkyard', houses the collection
of four generations of his family who have made, bought and
displayed neon works.
The pieces are accompanied by kitsch memorabilia that Bracey has
collected from film sets and car boot sales across Britain,
leaving just enough room for a narrow winding aisle for visitors
to navigate their way through the gallery.
"This is my neon emporium, my museum of light, my Aladdin's
cave," Bracey told Reuters from the center of the high-ceilinged
studio which runs up an electricity bill of over 700 pounds
($900) a week.
Some of Bracey's works have appeared in films, including
"Mission Impossible" and "Eyes Wide Shut", or decorated
department stores, namely London's Selfridges, while others have
been bought by celebrities such as Kate Moss.
Bracey recently sold a large God Save the Queen neon sign in
front of a heart-shaped British, Union Jack, flag for 58,000
pounds ($74,700) at auction to a buyer in Dubai.
A replica is on display at God's Own Junkyard, which Bracey
opened with his father Chris in 2008 after running out of space
at home to store the family's work.
The earliest pieces in the showroom, often used for film shoots,
date back to the 1950s, when Marcus's grandfather left his job
as a miner in Wales to join a lighting company and eventually
make signs for carnivals across Britain.
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 "He left the dark and came into the light," Bracey said.
Numerous sex shop signs can also be found, pieces made in the
1980s by Marcus's father Chris who flooded London's seedy Soho
sex shops with a swath of fluorescent neon signs in a bid to
turn the area into a replica of Las Vegas.
Bracey's new works, which take around six weeks to make with
neon moulded over 800 degree burners, now sit alongside those of
his 17-year-old daughter Amber, a graffiti artist and next in
line to take over the family business.
Bracey, however, isn't ready to step away from his neon
wonderland just yet.
"The buzz, the feel, the happiness. To turn it on and see what
it looks like," he said of the excitement he gets every time he
flicks on those switches.
($1 = 0.7761 pounds)
(Editing by Susan Fenton)
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