We remember York’s lost family businesses that have closed

As reported, Paul Stride at Monks Cross is shutting up shop with the retirement of owner Kevin Clarkson after more than 40 years of trading.

York has a proud history as a thriving trading hub and continues to attract entrepreneurs who choose to do business here. We delve into our archives to remember some of the shops we have loved and lost, from booksellers and butchers to pet stores and toy shops.

1.It’s ten years since shoppers waved goodbye to London’s News and Toys in Hawthorne Grove, Heworth, which closed in 2015 after more than eight decades. It was first opened in East Parade in 1914 by Frederick London, selling cards, toys and stationery, as well as newspapers, magazines and tobacco, and moved to its more familiar location in the early 1930s. The toy department closed first, but management intended to keep the newsagent open. However, 12 months later, the shutters went down for one last time.

The last day of trading at London’s Newsagents in Heworth. Photo: The Press2. One of York’s oldest butchers Scotts Butchers closed in 2008, having been at its Low Petergate home for 130 years. Scotts prided itself on making pies in the shop in the same way it had done for 30 years, using its own locally-produced livestock as much as possible and was said to be the last business producing an official York ham.

3. In 2001 we waved goodbye to FR Stubbs ironmongers, one of the most famous old businesses in the city.

FR Stubbs had traded from the same grade II listed building on the corner of Fossgate and Merchantgate since 1915.

The owner Bill Stubbs’ grandfather Francis Richard Stubbs set up the family business in 1904 in Lady Peckitt’s Yard, having started out as an apprentice at Bridge Street ironmonger Richard Varvill in 1870.

After Varvill’s store burned to the ground in 1904, Francis Richard – who had been given the pony and trap as a payoff – set up in business for himself.

His first shop in Lady Peckitt’s Yard flourished and after little more than a decade he needed new premises and chose the building on Foss Bridge which had been built in 1878 by linen and woollen traders WG Whitehead and Co .

Fossgate ironmonger FR Stubbs in 1924.

4.Barbican Bookshop closed in 2014 after 53 years of trading, including 46 in Fossgate.

The shop specialised in Christian books but also had an eclectic stock, including railway and aviation books.

The shop first opened in Walmgate Bar in 1961, owned by Dick Rollinson, and moved to Fossgate six years later. Les and Jean Bingham took over as owners in 1973 and it remained in the family.

Their son Andy, manager, said the shop had been a beacon of light on the high street for the church community in York and a thanksgiving service was held in the shop when it closed to say a final farewell to staff and customers.

5. Cox’s Leather Shop in Shambles also closed in 2014 after trading for 93 years. Cox’s was founded by William Cox, a shoe repairer from Northampton, and was known as Cox of Northampton until the 1980s. Mr Cox was joined in the business by his nephew Percy Nutt and his wife Annie.

Having no family of his own, Mr Cox sold the business to Percy in the 1950s, and it continued as a shoe-repairers until the 1970s when, after expanding into a second adjacent Shambles property, their daughter Marjorie and son-in-law Alan Johnson became part of the business.

They increased the range of products by selling sheepskin and leather goods and expanded the premises by acquiring a third adjacent property.

Alan and Marjorie’s sons Matthew and Philip ran the business for the final 30 years.

Matthew Johnson, left, and Philip Johnson, in their family business Cox’s Leather Shop in Shambles, before it closed.6. Russell’s of York closed in 2000 after 96 years in business. Charles Sidney Russell set up the firm on Lawrence Street just before the turn of the 20th century when he was just 18, selling his hand-made models. A trained motorcycle and bicycle builder, he was also a motor dealer for a spell and replaced his Lawrence Street premises with a purpose-built showroom – Russell’s Central Cars. In 1929 he opened a second shop in Clifford Street. His son, Sidney became managing director and his daughters Suzanne and Shirley later joined the board.

In 1986, CS Russell (York) Ltd turned its Lawrence Street motorcycle depot into a purely cycle business. Four years later, the firm moved from Clifford Street to its third premises and opened the Toft Green shop in 1990.

By February 2000, the Toft Green shop closed, ending the company’s near-century link with York.

Russell’s Bikes’ shop in Lawrence Street, 1979.

7. Older shoppers will remember Leak & Thorp department store – dubbed the ‘Selfridges of York’ by many.

It opened in 1848 when William Leak first opened a shop at 35 Parliament Street, later joined by Mr H B Thorp, giving the business its name.

In 1869, the shop relocated to Coney Street and stood the test of time, surviving First World War, and the Depression, before being reduced to rubble by the ravages of a fire in 1933.

That was not to be the end. It was rebuilt and held its own until closing in the late 1980s – with the units going on to be occupied by Next, Monsoon, and River Island.

Leak & Thorpe stood the test of time and was dubbed the ‘Selfridges of York’.