The unusual York shop that started from a suitcase and traded for 53 years

Fossgate in York in 1980s. By York staff (Image: Staff)

Wonder in Fossgate sparks memories of York Barbican Bookshop

'NEW shop prepares to open in city’, is a familiar refrain.

This time it appears as the title of a Press article heralding ‘Wonder’, a new homeware and gift shop at 24 Fossgate.

I wish these entrepreneurs success in their business venture and hope it lasts longer than the handful of years that now seem to be the York standard.

Wonder in Fossgate - photo by NQ

(Image: Staff)

They follow a cafe which in turn succeeded a celebrated bookshop, the Barbican bookshop, which closed early in 2014, having traded there for 53 years.

You may wonder how the shop got its name? Simple really.

The business had a unique trajectory, starting in a suitcase, graduating to cardboard boxes, progressing to a room in a Fulford house, then a York market stall and eventually to Walmgate Bar with its barbican in 1963, hence the name; one of the most unusual shops in the country, let alone city.

Barbican Bookshop - photo supplied

The firm concentrated on Christian books and Bibles, new, second-hand and sometimes even antiquarian but then moved to 24 Fossgate with Walmgate Bar continuing in tandem for several years.

Range of stock spread to local history and topography, railways, aviation, Victorian & Edwardian novels, stamps for collectors and more. There is evidence that the 53-year stint was the second ‘literature’ incarnation of the property as the address is listed in an 1855 Fossgate Schedule of Traders as a bookshop.

Recommended reading:

At its peak the Barbican Bookshop, by then trading with its sister bookshop, Pickerings in Shambles (est. 1858), had branches at other sites in Yorkshire and the north-east as well as a presence in scores of churches across the city and county plus extramural activities at church gatherings and agricultural shows.

The ‘Barbican story’ is just one of many chapters in York’s history. It would be great if the new shopkeepers at this address manage fifty-three years!

Derek Reed

Middlethorpe Drive

York

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