C & H Fabrics

I love this shop because of it's old-fashioned, courteous approach when it comes to dealing with customers.
I recently bought a cheap pair of flip flops there on a trip into Brighton. On arriving home I found the security tag was still attached so rang the shop (originally) to complain.
When they realised I didn't actually live in Brighton they asked for my address and shoe size and told me their delivery driver would collect the tagged pair the following day at 2pm and would bring me another pair - which they did! He arrived at 2pm on the dot!!
I really can't think of anywhere else you would receive such excellent service. They deserve the 5 star rating - in fact - I'd give them 6 out of 5 if I could!
I also recommend their lovely coffee shop - if something's not on display but is on their menu, they are always happy to make it up for you.
Brilliant service from a brilliant company!

The highlight of my frequent visits to Brighton is to lose myself in the wonderful fabrics, curtains, patterns & wool departments of C&H Fabrics. There is something new every time. I home-in on the wool dept and gaze wonderingly at the sample tops and cardis displayed on the wall and wonder -can I do that? the staff are more than helpful and will always assist you with a query on a knitting pattern. Today, 2nd July 2011, I again visited the shop to get some inspiration to make cushion covers and were both delighted and bewildered at the array of fabics. Not only that, there was a sale on. A young lady assistant (I think she was called Donna) came to my rescue and could not have been more helpful and I left a very satisfied customer yet again. This shop may be described as 'old fashioned' but you cant beat them for courtesy, politness and willingness to help. This should be a training ground for all shop staff nationwide. Long may C&H Fabrics live.
Carol from Hassocks

C & H Fabrics were founded in 1933 and are now concentrated in the south coast area. They are a traditional, old-fashioned fabric store, selling all sorts of things for the home. As others have said, the ground floor is a total mish-mash of things - a well ordered curtain section on the left, and an opportunistic mess on the right at the front, which can sell anything from women's shoes to hand-bags depending on what they've got in. Very strange.

The Brighton store is set over three floors, and keeps a huge range of fabrics in stock, although the patterns tend to be traditional (lots of florals) rather than up-to-the-moment stylish. That said, they stock plenty of plain materials if you have a more minimalist flat: and anyway, chintzes are essential for gifts for great aunts.

In the past I'd found service to be a strong point, but recently it seems to have become more of a mixed bag; when trying to buy curtains recently, I encountered an incredibly snotty saleswoman who could not have patronised me more if she had tried. Needless to say, it completely put me off buying anything here. Others are more helpful, but service can be a bit slow if they have a mini rush on (ie three people in one department at once).

Getting in can be a problem, though: their very traditional opening hours feel rather limited these days - most shops in the area are open later (at least until 18h) and on Sundays, too. Good website, though.

C & H Fabrics is a great place for everything from curtains to Christmas presents. I’ve found some absolutely fabulous bargains in here in the past, including a very swish pair of fully lined, chocolate brown, baby blue-spotted curtains which were reduced from something ridiculous like £170 to the far more reasonable sum of £50.

The staff are also really helpful, first I had someone running around for about 20 minutes trying to find me the right kind of curtain hooks and then a very nice lady patiently explained to me exactly how to hang a curtain – something I’d clearly never done before in my life.

They also sell some gorgeous stuff for your home. I bought my Dad and Step-mum a set of gorgeous hand-painted, tile coasters for about £30 last Christmas – each one is a like little wine-related artwork, making them far too pretty to actually use as coasters. They’re now displayed rather attractively on their kitchen wall. Lovely.

C&H Fabrics is a fabric emporium situated on Western Road, Brighton. Comprising three floors, the store aims to supply all your general fabric needs, and also has a knitting section. The ground floor is something of a lucky dip. For the most part it’s a treasure trove of birthday presents for people you don’t know or like very much – a pair of cushions embroidered ‘chit’ and ‘chat’ for example, or a china cat wearing a bonnet and holding a giant bunch of roses. However, there are serendipitous moments, such as their beautifully made jewellery boxes, which come without the faintest taint of tat. Unless you can be bothered to wade through armies of ornamental grasses in rustic terracotta vases, though, take a sharp right on entry and head upstairs.

The highlights of the store for me are the haberdashery and knitting sections, where I found a wide variety of choice, colour and style to suit different tastes and price ranges. Unfortunately, the previously brilliant dress fabric section seems to have taken the decision to cater only to small children and their grandparents and consequently shows distinct tendencies towards the beige, nylon end of the spectrum. There is, however, a lot of choice if you are kitting yourself out to make costumes for amateur or school theatre productions. Neon netting, golden polyester and fish scale patterns abound, as does a bewildering range of animal prints in nylon, cotton, sateen and faux-fur. Having said that, there are a couple of stands selling designer prints including some geometric cotton ones that would definitely be both appealing and wearable for the 12 – 65 age bracket. The remnants table, despite looking beige and unappealing from a distance, on closer inspection yielded some gems including nearly a square metre of fuschia shot silk.

The upholstery section was average, with a wide range of very similar choices of fabric, all of which were quite expensive. However, you can buy pretty much any fixing, trim or accessory you could want, some of which you didn’t even know existed. When you’re replete with zip mending tools, satin ribbons, embroidery silks and unexpected remnants, you can ease your aching PIN finger with a little rest in the tea room. It defies its art-by-the-yard decor with delicious scones and tea and a chatty band of regulars, who will shower you in sartorial compliments and give you knitting tips. The whole store is worth a visit just for the glorious C&H Fabrics high tea.

Now, I'm unsure of how to judge this place on price as some things are very reasonable whilst other things are less so. You can't argue with the quality, but say I wanted a zip for example - I could pay £6 or so for an individually packaged one in here or skip across the road to fabricland and get one from a big elastic-banded bunch for 50p. I think it's worth keeping in mind when you can and can't afford to compromise on quality. The zip, once sewn in, wasn't going to be protecting my modesty in any way so I went for the 50p option.

The staff in here always seem really knowledgeable and helpful. There is a free consultation service for made-to-measure curtains which I think I'll try out.

I recently went in just to use their loo but found they had applied a code to the door which they only give out to paying customers because people (like me) were abusing the facility. I managed to get in by doing my best 'i'm a customer' face at a nice lady who worked there but felt guilty after that so went on a hunt for something to buy. I found that, incredibly, they have a shoe section and a remarkably tasteful and reasonably-priced one at that. So I came away with a pair of boots feeling very smug with my purchase.

The ground floor does this shop a real disservice, it looks much more antique-y and twee than it actually is. There’s some appalling ranges of ornaments visible from just inside the door, just behind the curtains etc, that would make many people turn and run.

Upstairs, however, things get much better, very quickly. The next two floors are filled with craft accessories, a huge amount of material of all sorts of calibres, including furniture textiles, which are not terribly easy to obtain, various types of needles, knitting wool, lots of patterns.

There are some women’s clothes, boots, handbags and so on, but they do feel a little out of place - I suspect they’re a historical hangover. It is a little bit in danger of doing a Woolies, i.e. trying to please all markets, while actually pleasing none, but for the moment, its doing well enough.

The cafe is adorable - it looks to me like a place where people take their mums when the mums don’t want any more Brighton experiences, thank you very much, they just want somewhere nice and quiet with reliable food. That said, I’ve been there on my own, and you can sit and read your book without any problem.

C&H Fabrics is a good old fashined shop. It's really handy for all your sewing, knitting, furnishing needs. They also sell gifts downstairs and is the kind of place that if you're looking for some random specific item you're bound to find it.
Although it is old fashioned and may seem a bit behind with the times they are more up to date than you'd expect with Vouge paterns and beautifull Liberty prints.
There is also a basic but pretty good cafe and they do student discount.