Comments on: Impressive frontage (refused) on Bootham

By: YorkStories

YorkStories — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:23:33 +0000

I think you’re right David that it’s the recess and also the glazing bars on the windows that are/were an issue. But maybe it will be passed as okay now. It seems a waste of materials to have to rip it out and redo it.

Your closing paragraph provoked wry laughter … I also feel we should perhaps be paying more attention to those ‘mundane’ but necessary facilities needed in a city encouraging millions of visitors a year.

By: David

David — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 09:56:41 +0000

That latest picture must be the one the applicants included in their proposal. I haven’t managed to visit the new frontage and so can’t really work out what the planners do not like about it. It cannot be the doors being in the central position, given that the council wanted Sainsburys to place them there when the supermarket actually wanted to move the entrance to the right. So I can only guess that the planners think that the entrance recess is not deep enough, although there is indeed some recess there. The other objection might be that they feel there is too much window space; I suppose they can measure that from the square footage of clear glazing post refit. Of course when it was a tea merchant/grocers they favoured huge glass frontages to display their latest wares. When it became a supermarket, the internal layout became more functional rather than decorative with the window space dedicated to advertising instead of product. I didn’t know that it was once a Walter Wilsons but that chain had indeed spread to York as there was one in Heworth.

I suppose there is no point trying to second guess what the planners don’t like about the new frontage. This is, after all, a council that thinks it is more important to lavish funds on York 800 festivities - celebrating the creative accounting of 800 years ago - rather than do mundane tasks like providing and emptying litter bins.

By: YorkStories

YorkStories — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 09:30:25 +0000

Thanks Stephen. The photo is on this link: http://www.yorkstories.co.uk/news_and_views/index.php/2012/07/02/25-bootham-again/

Nice photo in the local press archive showing this area of Bootham in the 1950s – http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/pics/lookback/view/gallery_234286.Archive_images_from_the_Evening_Press/
– the shop isn’t clear, but it does have a long-forgotten garage where the new Sainsbury’s now stands.

By: stephen

stephen — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 02:20:46 +0000

The latest picture in ‘’25 Bootham Again'’ of the 2′d July,shows the shop pretty well how I remember it in the early 1950 period when I visited it for personal reasons.It was called either Walter Wilsons,or Cross grocers,and the windows and interior were very similar to the frontage in the photo.This place has had an interesting commercial history.

By: YorkStories

YorkStories — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 18:15:42 +0000

Re Grandways – just found this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8050359@N07/3561209488/
– immediately recognised that carrier bag!

By: David

David — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:39:52 +0000

It must have been Grandways for quite a number of years - it had a very distinct red and yellow striped sign and I think they even had a blind in these colours which they could roll out over the shop. (Just to confuse matters, I think Grandways was actually owned by Jacksons who must have offloaded the larger stores and rebranded the smaller ones back to Jacksons during one of their rejigs.)

I remember the door to the Roxy nightclub but cannot recall any of the proprietors of the smaller shop to the the right so you are doing much better than me in remembering that off licence!