The Yorkshire high street which is the best in Britain

It has just been named High Street of the Year, so what’s the secret of Bishopthorpe Road’s success? Sarah Freeman heads to the York parade to find out.
Bishopthorpe Road in York has just been named High Street of the Year.Bishopthorpe Road in York has just been named High Street of the Year.
Bishopthorpe Road in York has just been named High Street of the Year.

It’s a few minutes before 9am and on Bishopthorpe Road in York, Johnny Hayes is in his kitchenware shop, apologising for being a little bleary eyed as he listens to a message on his mobile phone.

It’s from the Welcome to Yorkshire boss Sir Gary Verity, congratulating him after the parade was named Britain’s Best High Street. Hayes picked up the award the previous afternoon and admits to having had a few wines by way of celebration. They were well deserved. Hayes, who previously owned the hardware shop Pextons is a Bishopthorpe Road stalwart and over the best part of a decade has watched its transformation from an ordinary parade of shops to something of a middleclass Mecca.

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These days on Bishopthorpe Road or Bishy Road as it’s known to the locals, in the space of a few yards you can buy a loaf of artisan bread, have your bike serviced and pick up an organic babygrow for £17 each.

However, it could have all been very different. Back in 2007, yummy mummies were thin on the ground in this part of York, a number of units stood empty and Bargain Booze attracted one of the street’s biggest footfalls. When the recession hit, the area’s independent traders feared if they didn’t do something, their days might be numbered.

“That year we were hit particularly hard,” says Hayes, a man who never misses an opportunity to promote the area just a 10 minut walk from the city centre. Even his coffee cups are emblazoned with the I Love Bishy Road logo. “Terry’s closed its chocolate factory just up the road, which was major employer and the post office also shut down. Both brought a lot of people to this part of town and without them we were worried about what would happen. There was a very real chance that properties would either stay empty or be taken over by fast food chains.”

In an effort to beat the downturn, Hayes, who then owned Pextons hardware shop, along with the owners of bike shop Cycle Heaven founded the Bishopthorpe Road Traders’ Association on the simple principle that they were stronger together than they were apart.

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It soon proved to be so. While 2007 had begun badly, it ended rather better with the opening of the Pig and Pastry. The brainchild of Steve and Julia Holding it gave Bishy Road an injection of cafe culture.

“It’s funny because this area used to have a bit of an edge to it and initially I was a bit dubious about moving here,” says Steve. “There was already a cafe on the parade, but it had changed hands a few times and I guess we hoped we could offer something a bit different. I guess the biggest change over the last 10 years has been the quality of the shops, that and the fact we do work collectively.”

Hayes says the Holdings provided the catalyst for real change on Bishy Road which has since seen two more cafes and a family-run Thai restaurant join the independent grocers, butchers and florist.

It’s an attractive offer and over the last few years the association has not only banged the drum for shopping locally, but it has also managed to harness a little old fashioned community spirit. It’s success is obvious. The Christmas lights which are strung across the parade were paid for through crowd-funding - the association raised the £5,000 it needed in just 10 days and when they were officially switched on a couple of weeks ago by York Theatre Royal’s panto dame Berwick Kaler, 5,000 people turned out.

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“We’ve worked hard and we’ve had a bit of luck,” says Johnny, referring to the fact that both the Grand Depart and last year’s Tour de Yorkshire rode down Bishopthorpe Road. “The Tour went past a lot of places, but we made sure we made the most of it. We had yellow bikes above the all the shop fronts, Bishy Road became Bishy Rue, the The Swan pub became Le Swan and of course we had a street party.”

Those kind of events have brought new customers to the area and crucially they have kept coming back to support both the new businesses and the already established shops. The title of longest serving Bishy Road trader goes to Robin Wetherill, who opened Bishopgate Antiques in 1965.

“The area was very different then, there were three butchers, a wet fish shop and there was hardly anything at all on that side of the street,” he says pointing to where a small queue has formed outside The Pig and Pastry. “It’s funny though, this whole area could have disappeared entirely had the council gone ahead with plans to run the inner ring road through here. All of it would have gone, but thankfully someone saw sense.”

After selling Pextons three years ago and opening a smaller cookware shop, Hayes was also persuaded to stand as an independent candidate in the City Council elections. With three positions going in the Micklegate ward, he polled 2,843 votes - 500 more than Labour’s Julie Gunnell who came second.

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“Winning High Street of the Year is great for us, but I also think we have something to share with other areas,” he says. “I first got involved in local politics when there were concerns a former B&Q site into a big out of town supermarket

“I was there to represent the interest of small businesses. I told the council about the impact it would have, but all the evidence was inadmissible because at the time York hadn’t approved its local plan.”

The bureaucracy is complex, but towns and cities without a local plan, which provides a framework for all future development, leave themselves open to the risk of a planning free for all and the chance of small businesses being crushed by the big retail giants.

“There is something to be preserved here,” says Hayes. “It’s why when The Winning Post pub just up the road came up for sale we had it listed as a community asset and it’s why we are going to put in place our own neighbourhood plan. It has to be about working together as a community.”

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Former social worker Gaynor Parr-Manley is Bishy Road’s newest trader, having opened the gift shop Olive’s Nest just three weeks ago.

“I looked at some places in the city centre but they didn’t feel quite right,” she says. “I already knew this area of York quite well and when you are just starting out having the support of something like the trader’s association is hugely important.”

The High Street of the Year Award is not the first accolade for Bishy Road or the Clementhorpe area of York. Two years ago it was ranked ninth in The Times newspaper’s top 30 coolest places to live.

“After that happened the radio came down to do a piece and the reporter stopped one old dear and asked her what it was like to live in the ninth coolest place in the country,” says Hayes. “She turned to him and said, ‘Well you’re right it can be a bit draughty’. I love that. We might have gone a little up in the world, but the same old Bishy Road spirit lives on.”

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