Locals Flock to The English Shop

A steady stream of customers wandered into in St. Charles Thursday afternoon, hoping to stock up on British food, Union Jack flags and tea before Friday’s royal wedding.

By 4:30 p.m. Thursday, the shop was out of commemorative tea cups and down to the last pale blue plate featuring a photo of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

“We’re out of clotted cream and I’ve had nine people who wanted it today,” said Scott Kerivan, who works at the shop. He said more merchandise was expected Friday. “Tomorrow is a little too late.”

Eileen Pritchard, who opened The English Shop in 1984, said she has been surprised by American’s interest in the wedding.

“I didn’t expect it to be this wild,” she said.

She started ordering merchandise ranging from T-shirts to teapots several months ago, but said didn’t order enough. She said people have bought a lot of tea and frozen foods they planned to serve at wedding-watching parties Friday. 

“A lot of people want ideas,” she said. “They want to know, ‘What should I put in tea sandwiches?”

She recommends watercress or smoked salmon. "It’s been kind of fun,” she said. “Americans are so into it.”

Shelley Burnette, of Ellisville, was walking around The English Shop with her husband Thursday. She said she did not plan to get up early Friday to watch the wedding, but would set her digital video recorder. She said she feels like there has been too much media coverage of the couple’s engagement.

”Please let this girl have some peace,” she said. “Diana never did.”

Amanda Titus, 50, stopped by store on Main Street to stock up on food for the wedding-watching party she planned to host at her house in St. Ann. 

Titus, who grew up in Buckden, England, said she would get up at 3 a.m., although the wedding was scheduled to start around 5 a.m. Central Standard Time. Titus said she married her husband the same year Prince Charles married Princess Diana, in 1981. She said this time, the American people seems to be making a bigger deal of the wedding than the English.

"My sister and brother said there's nothing big happening at all," she said. "Everyone is pleased it's a bank holiday."

Although Prichard remembers when Queen Elizabeth married Prince Phillip, she said she’s not planning to be up early to watch the wedding herself.

“I have to work,” she said.