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With everything from designer lights to vintage dresses and an Eighties Rubik's Cube, Brighton's biggest antique store Snooper's Paradise is a good place to your Christmas shopping.

Ruth Addicott goes for a snoop and talks to some of the stall owners about their extraordinary finds

Where can you find a designer Eames chair, a pair of tartan trousers worn by Ozzy Osbourne and a human flea comb all under one roof?

Wander down Kensington Gardens in Brighton's North Laine and try Snoopers Paradise - still going strong after 16 years.

Like an enormous treasure trove packed with vintage, retro, modern and mind-boggling entities, you're just as likely to come across a piece of tatty old rope as an antique letter rack worth thousands of pounds. But whether you're an antiques aficionado, a tourist on a nostalgia trip or simply love wading through junk, with up to 80 different stalls on show, there is always something different.

Pass through the turnstiles and you'll find cabinets laden with vintage jewellery, Star Wars miniatures, an Eighties Rubik's Cube and a somewhat bedraggled Sooty and Sweep. Over to the left is a pair of old riding boots, some huge blue paraffin containers with Esso on the front and a book entitled One Man, One Rod, just in case you need tips on fly-fishing.

One of the most eye-catching items in sight is the Retro American Classic Mercury Armchair (£275) - literally a chair reupholstered in the style of an old American car. Owner Stephen Gee has three stalls at the market. Specialising in design from the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies, he has everything from a chair shaped like an enormous hand (£295) to a pod seat (£125) complete with a warning saying: "This is an unusual item. Owning this might cause you to be the envy of your friends and neighbours. Not suitable for people without style."

Many of the larger items are snapped up by bar and club owners looking to create a retro feel but there are also miniature chairs and sofas popular with tourists as they start at £6.

The market is run by a team of staff which means stallholders can come and go as they please, giving them time to look for further gems while their stock is on sale. Stephen finds most of his pieces abroad and makes a trip to Europe in his VW camper van most weeks.

"I set off at 7am on a Friday, drive thousands of miles, gather the stuff, get back to Brighton and by the following Tuesday it's all gone again," he says.

"My biggest dread is emptying the boot because it's so tightly packed."

When he's not driving around getting lost (top of his Christmas list is a sat nav), Stephen spends his time trawling antique markets in France, Belgium and Luxembourg - many of which start as early as three or four in the morning. "I'm out there with my torch," he says. "It's hard work. Only when I get home and have time to sit back and look at everything, that's when I enjoy it. I used to collect everything then realised they weren't my possessions - they possessed me.

I have very few things I hang on to now."

One of his favourite items on the stall is a classic Eames chair (brand new it would cost £1,700, his revamped version is going for £275). Hanging over the chair he has a collection of lights including a remake of an original Sixties sputnik design and a limited edition Christian Dior lamp from a shop display in London.

Like most stallholders, Stephen has let go of things he wishes he'd kept, one being a 19th Century silver letter rack by Christopher Dresser.

"I'd never heard of Christopher Dresser until I went to Brighton Museum,"

he says. "The letter rack was probably worth around £6,000. Mine went for £30. I was so thrilled at the time to get £30 it never crossed my mind."

It's not unusual to find the odd celebrity browsing the stalls - Kylie, Jordan, Ozzy Osbourne, Bob Mortimer and Tom Conti are just a few of the stars to be spotted over the years.

Stephen also recalls the time Hollywood actress Cate Blanchett purchased a chest of drawers and he had to deliver it to her house.

"A woman answered the door juggling a child and said, Can you take it upstairs to the bathroom?'", he recalls. "Six flights of stairs later, huffing and puffing, I said to my friend, She's a bit bossy for the nanny'. And my friend said, That wasn't the nanny - that was Cate Blanchett'. I was agog.

She is the one person I would have been starstruck over."

Past the posh china, the Royal Doulton sculpture of Elvis (£79.50) and an antique sign saying: "There's no F in Parking", you come to a stall owned by Michael "Atters" Attree. Satirist, comedy writer and better known in Brighton for his handlebar moustache, he says he keeps his stall to indulge his habit of hoarding.

Comparing himself to a "demented curator" with his own little museum, he collects all sorts of bizarre items - there's a strange stuffed creature that looks like a hybrid of a bird and crocodile, and Victorian bottles with pills still in them. "I'm still trying each one out," he says.

Asked about more unusual items he cites some paranormal photographs of ectoplasm "from the Astral plane".

"There was a big movement in the Twenties," he explains. "I also found the skeleton of an entire bison once. I gave what I thought was all of it to a museum and then found the other leg.

It's just a pile of bones really, very dusty. That's on the stall."

He stumbles upon artefacts in all sorts of bizarre places. One of his favourite pastimes is wandering along the shores of the River Thames, where he claims you can find all sorts of medieval entities. "I found a 16th Century human flea comb just lying in the mud once," he says. "I kept that but managed to sell another one similar. It's the history behind it I find interesting. I also picked up a clay pipe from the 1770s with the bowl still intact, stuffed with tobacco which I had a smoke of. Absolutely foul but a damn sight better than the tobacco they sell today."

Apart from his penchant for old scientific equipment and "things that make a noise", one item he couldn't bear to part with was a beautiful 17th Century carved beam which takes pride of place on top of the fire in his house ("so I've got something to roast my chestnuts on").

Further along there are rails and rails of vintage clothes from the Seventies right back to the Victorian era. Neon crinoline skirts imported from America hang overhead, while a cabinet full of Venetian masks sits below. The masks, which are imported from Venice and cost £18-£45, are "flying out", according to Mandy, one of the stallholders.

Mandy specialises in second-hand clothes and ceramics herself and points out an original Thirties' travelling trunk called "What a Joy". Boxes overflowing with old postcards and faded photos are another draw - offering fashion inspiration to stallholders as well as a nostalgic trip for pensioners.

"Some people come in and just like looking through the baskets of old photographs all day," says Mandy.

"They get really nostalgic."

Around the corner, wearing a headscarf and scarlet lippy like the Land Girls of the Forties, is Tania Kadylak.

Highlights at her stall include a Forties leopard print coat (£48) and floral print lavender blue dress (£26). Then just as you've had your fill of Edwardian frills and ruffles, Tough Tarts appears. A favourite with punks, goths and Emo kids, Tough Tarts brings a modern day edge with its skin-tight jeans and Eighties cartoon-inspired hoodies.

Silver guitar bags and piano belts hang from the rails alongside an embellished military jacket made popular by groups such as My Chemical Romance.

The stall has had an interesting mix of celebs including Jordan, who bought a few corsets, and Eighties pop star Captain Sensible. Even legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne came in and snapped up a pair of the tartan skinny jeans (£28).

Outside on the pavement the flower print skirts (£30) by Nicola Quilter are just as popular. Made from thick cotton and available in a knee-length and mini version, they're versatile enough to be layered over jeans or tights on an autumn day.

Last but not least and looking rather dapper in a pinstripe suit on the cash desk is Rick Haines, doing his best not to get distracted by the porno badges on his left.

Despite their achingly hip outfits and thirst to stand out, most of the stallholders are reluctant to have their picture taken, some even refusing to give their names, claiming they "don't need the publicity" or are afraid of stalkers. ("You'd be surprised the amount of freaks and weirdos and some of the things that go on here,"

remarks one).

Manager Nic Drinkwater, who has been running the market for 16 years, isn't surprised and is just as elusive, hidden behind a large, locked door in his office upstairs. Cameras are strictly forbidden without his express permission and behind the seemingly relaxed atmosphere, there's a distinct feeling that "snooping" has its limits.

"It's like running a little village,"

says Nic, preferring to focus on the market. "It's also like a huge recycling plant, we wrap everything in newspaper.

It's the greenest place you could find."

So if you're looking for an original ET spaceship launcher, Magic Roundabout alarm clock or retro American car-style sofa, you know where to look.

Just don't take any photos.

3:27pm Monday 12th November 2007

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