The Belfry
Long after the coffee cups from the Cricket Café next door have ceased their clatter, a wan light seeps from the inner sanctum of the Belfry. Here, beneath a ceiling flocked with giant moth and butterfly wings and amid an array of cunningly crafted masks, Jane Clugston, the shop’s proprietor, can be found practicing her conjurer’s craft, daubing a flourish of pearlescent paint on a dragon tail or smoothing a skull’s sinister socket. For more than 15 years, Clugston has been cloistered here on SE Belmont St, purveying outré handmade costume accessories to a clientèle serious about achieving a singular look.
And although the shop keeps ample business hours around Halloween and Mardi Gras, its accessibility is less predictable throughout the rest of the Gregorian calendar. So while you may browse the Belfry’s stunning displays of pagan regalia on one day, you might find it locked as tightly as an enchanted wardrobe the next, leaving you to wonder whether Clugston’s flights of fancy were real, or if perhaps you just have bats in your belfry.
