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| St Ives Cambridgeshire
A personal view
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| I've been asked to show some local shops - so here's a personal selection. In fact, St Ives is an attractive shopping centre to which many people come from the surrounding villages. There's most of what you'd expect in a small town - including a surprisingly large number of hairdressers (over 16 at the last count) and, in recent times, at least 7 charity shops! |
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| Crown Street stretches between Broadway and Market Hill. On the right are the Edinburgh Woollen Mill (happy home of never ending sales), Dewhursts the butchers (now replaced by Costa Coffee), and Superdrug (there are also centre-of-town pharmacies at Boots and Lloyds. As always in St Ives, look up at the tops of buildings above shop level, and you'll see a fascinating variety of styles! This photo was taken before the 1992 "improvements" that narrowed the street further. |
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| Some traditional shops (such as The Butchers Shop in Crown Street, seen here) still survive. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Most traditional of all was Bryants, (on the left) a department store, founded in Victorian times and run by the same family - but it closed in 2002. The white building in the right background used to be Woolworths. |
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| Locals were delighted when Eaden Lilley opened their impressive new department store in Bryants' old premises in time for Christmas 2003. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Then Townrow took over in 2009. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| United News in Crown Street used to be not only a newsagent but the post office too. It too is closed now. To the left is the Royal Oak pub that has the date 1502 over the door, but the building is probably 18th century. In 1801, a bullock is said to have escaped from the market nearby, and rampaged through the building and up the stairs, only to crash through a first floor window. |
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| M & Co's clothes shop (on the left of the picture) on Market Hill only dates from 1992, but the building goes back to 1719, when it was built as the Bell public house. The sign of the bell can still be seen midway between the two central windows immediately below the roof. |
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| Above Mackays door can be seen this old carved beam (dating from the 16th century) showing the arms of Ramsay Abbey. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Waitrose is by far the bigger (and more expensive) of the two supermarkets in the centre of town. It's conveniently situated alongside the main car park. It was built and opened in 1990 to combat the risk of large out-of-town supermarkets taking all the trade from the town centre.On the left of the picture, is the St Ives Public library (free internet access provided for library members!). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2008 saw the arrival of W H Smith (with its distinctive blue front) in the old Choices video shop. Unfortunately its presence must have contributed to the closure of Walkers Bookshop in Crown Street in 2009. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Go on to see places in St Ives that are OFF THE BEATEN TRACK or return to the PLACES TO SEE page |
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