Comments on: ‘Retail offer’ studies: city centre survivors

By: kelly h

kelly h — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 23:35:56 +0000

The logistics of travelling into York have to be taken into account in regards to city centre retail, the park & ride is great but if you live in a village like me, ‘nipping in’ is quite a lengthy operation, compared to getting to Sainsbury’s and back in an hour. I wont go into CYC car parking prices right now as that would be negative (£11 for 5 hours!!!) When i do go in i like to make a day of it, go in a cafe on Gillygate, have a mosey through Museum Gardens, then tick items off the shopping list, usually Tullivers or Barnitts for things that can’t be bought at the nearest ‘retail park’.

By: Deborah Roberts

Deborah Roberts — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 17:59:21 +0000

I well remember The Dolls Hospital , just through the bar in Petergate facing The Hole in the Wall pub.At that time 1950s all dolls came with properly fixed arms, legs and heads and should they get broken that’s where you could get them mended ( no throwing away of toys in those days )
Does anyone remember the chinese restaurant in Stonegate.
First of its kind in York in the 1960s and a great treat to go to at the time.
The tobacconist at the other end of Petergate ( with its red Indian sign outside )
I used to buy Black Russian and those pretty coloured Sobrani ciggies there on pay day .
No longer smoke !
And my mother bought me a wonderful Silver Cross pram for my first child from the pram shop in the next street to the Shambles ( cant recall the shop name )
My favourite was the little antiques shop in Minster gate run by a boyfriend at the time Chris Holt and his partner .
I still wear a silver ring from there ( 50 years on nearly )
Happy days

By: Jeremy Piercy

Jeremy Piercy — Sun, 24 Sep 2017 12:03:50 +0000

Thanks for your interesting article; in my view York is the finest shopping city in the UK. Because of the conservation orders on so many buildings, the chain stores can’t move in and knock them all into the neat rectangular shapes they like; also, most shops are too small. So York is an ideal place for independent retailers like myself to start up (the full story is in my book ‘Coffins, Cats & Fair Trade Sex Toys’). Behind Shared Earth’s success are its huge variety of Fair Trade and eco products; we travel abroad regularly and some of our products you can’t get anywhere else. The uniqueness of York’s shops make it so much more interesting than most towns where all the shops are much the same.

By: AndyT

AndyT — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 17:05:59 +0000

York is slightly unusual for still having real secondhand bookshops and at least two were there in the 70s or earlier – Ken Spelman’s in Micklegate and the Minster Gate bookshop.
Some of the bike shops must still be there as well, I hope? Though I suspect the huge one on Clifford Street has gone.

By: Drake

Drake — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 12:10:39 +0000

I have been spending my hols in York since 1986. I stayed in a little terrace in Kyme St and was slack jawed walking in to the city at the range of beautiful shops..I would remember all those here. I remember Tullivers veggie cafe on Goodramgate and Make Your Mark when it was on Walmgate. Those no longer around would include The Micklegate Collectors Shop,The Blake Head Book Shop and The Wholefood Cafe…The Stonegate Arcade …what happened to that ?

By: Paul Lowman

Paul Lowman — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 21:31:25 +0000

Nice post, keep up the good work.

I have a small specialist record / book shop on Gillygate, now entering it’s 7th Year trading. In the big scheme of things, I guess we’re pretty niche. Our customer base consists of a small army of local regulars, non-local semi-regulars, and the odd random tourist.

Your point “just because out of town centres are there, doesn’t mean we have to shop at them” is right, but people *do* choose to shop at them, and this suggests an uncomfortable truth: in a city where many liberal / left-leaning / ideologically anti-globalisation type people like to think of themselves as The Type Of People Who Support Local Indies, the reality is that a lot of them, like billions of other people in the Western world, are slowly drifting away from that sort of traditional high street shopping. Conflicted about this shift, they’ve sought to rationalise it by saying “town is a mess”, “its full of drunks”, “it’s all bars now”, “there’s no shops left” – gross exaggerations all. These narratives are driven to at least some extent I think by people looking to justify to themselves why they never come into town. Yes there are a lot of hen / stag parties around at a weekend – but what does that have to do with somebody *never* shopping in town, at any time? Yes lots of shops have closed – but there are still hundreds of amazing shops here.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a discrace that the council currently has no retail strategy, and there are things that can and must be done. But I also wish people would be honest with themselves about their relationship with highstreet shopping in 2017.