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“The first 40 years have been terrific and it’ll get beter.”


Simon Drew N


aysayers told the couple they wouldn’t last a season when they opened their Foss Street premises in 1981, but this gloomy appraisal only served to strengthen the


pair’s resolve to give their fledgling business their all. And their determination paid off as thanks to their originality,


creativity and hard graft, four decades later the gallery is still going strong – thriving and expanding, in fact – and the potent pair are confident of an even brighter future. Looking back to when it all began, Caroline remembered:


“We were teachers, 28-years-old with no kids. “We both enjoyed teaching - Simon taught biology and I


taught English - but we saw it as temporary. “Simon spent all his free time drawing and I started to search


for ideas to make this ‘hobby’ into a living and free us from the classroom.” Five years into their teaching careers, the couple decided to


turn their dreams into reality. Every weekend come rain or shine they left their home in Bognor Regis, armed with a simple canvas tent, to scour the Westcountry for a suitable shop premises. Caroline laughed: “We


couldn’t afford hotels and were the world’s worst campers, so we were in a hurry to find the right place. “One camping trip to Stoke Fleming in freezing weather,


This picture was taken on the day Simon and Caroline opened Plugprints, “celebrating together that we’d launched a subsidiary business and each wearing a Simon Drew Designs teeshirt.”


By Ginny Farrell


THE combination of art and humour has proved a winning one for Simon and Caroline Drew whose hugely successful and quirky gallery is celebrating its 40th birthday this year.


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