WHITCHURCH'S hugely-popular music venue Percy's Cafe has put a number of its quirkiest items up for an auction that could raise more than £20,000 to help keep the business afloat.

The venue, in Watergate Street, is known all over the world where it has welcomed many international bands, and its walls are adorned with weird and wonderful items.

And now some items, including a vintage road sign to the town, a fez-wearing monkey and a tiger rug, are up for auction with Halls in Shrewsbury by venue owner Mark Dawson.

Senior valuer Alexander Clement said: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a collection as diverse as that inside the wonderful Aladdin’s cave that is Percy’s Cafe.

"Mark has a great eye for the unique, the quirky and the macabre and how to bring it all together.

"We have a select range of items on offer which gives an insight into the unusual world hidden away in Watergate Street in Whitchurch.

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"I’m confident that we’ll get collectors far and wide wanting a little piece of the famous venue as well as those looking for something unusual to decorate their homes.”

Percy's originally opened in 2006 as a café bar but became a music venue in 2015 when Mark wanted to incorporate his love of grassroots rock'n'roll into the business.

In addition to being a bar owner, Mark also bought and sold antiques and curios within the trade, bringing many of his eclectic finds into Percy’s to decorate it.

These included an impressive array of taxidermy as well as movie and TV props and costumes, furniture, automobilia and even human skeletons retired from medical research.

Alexander added: "But the Covid crisis took its toll, like all such venues, and so the owner has been finding new homes for selected items from his collection, raising funds to keep the business alive until it’s able to reopen fully.

"Halls were engaged to market the collection which includes full tiger, leopard and lion skin rugs, three human part-skeletons, and even an archive of artwork by the infamous Ronnie Kray and Charles Bronson as well as furniture, paintings and other collectables."

The auction takes oplace on Wednesday, April 14.