Is golden era on Abbeydale Road - Sheffield's top independent street - drawing to a close?
Sheffield’s most interesting, up-and-coming street is the best it’s been for years - but is it all about to end?
Abbeydale Road is rammed with independent shops, bars and restaurants run by people from all over the world.
It’s where people go to do something with their dreams, not all of them about making loads of money, so you have quirky, niche businesses galore.
And yet, so far, the big brands that would ruin it all have stayed away (Pizza Hut gets a pass for being run by a local franchisee).
A stroll down the street is exciting - if you mentally block out the traffic - for the huge range of nationalities, the energy and the choice.
But there are some who fear the golden era could be coming to a close.
Multiple challenges threaten to snuff out new and fragile enterprises.
The cost of everything, especially energy, is way up and customer spending is down. There has also been a corresponding spike in thefts and break-ins, according to Nicole Jewitt, of Cole’s Corner, a record shop, cafe and bar on the junction with Frederick Road.
She said: “It was a great street until a year ago. Since then there have been so many break-ins and attempted break-ins round here, especially in the last few weeks.
“Between being robbed and not having customers it’s really dire at the moment.”
The shop, which is only open Thursday to Sunday, has stopped selling fried food after the price of oil more than doubled.
Nicole is going to get a second job so she can keep it open, despite doing 50 hours a week already, she says.
She admits Cole’s is a ‘lifestyle business’, where the lifestyle comes first.
And she likes Abbeydale Road, which is bolstered by an appreciative clientele in surrounding Nether Edge and Meersbrook.
She said: It’s full of independents that have individuality, it’s not smothered by homogenised High Street chains.”
Division Street was like this but then it got Taco Bell, she points out.
In contrast, Abbeydale Road has one-offs like Gravel Pit which sells records, prints and plants and Jameson’s antiques, gifts, tearoom and kitchen.
But Nicole says she’s starting to see closures already.
“It’s costing us twice as much to get half as many customers. When times are tough places like this are choices. If the government doesn’t step in businesses will close.”
Joanne O’Connell is deputy manager of Rumkeg which opened six months ago. Brought up in the area, she thinks Abbeydale Road is the best it’s been.
Old friend Liz Gash, who has lived on Chippinghouse Road since 1988, agrees.
She welcomes places like Forge Bakehouse which is more expensive than some, but ‘you can completely taste the difference’, she says.
Amici and Bici is another success story. It has extended sideways and built an outside seating area.
Waitress Molly Goss has worked there six years and knows Abbeydale Road well.
“It’s got authenticity,” she says.
But all the shopkeepers agree the traffic is worse since Little London Road was closed to vehicles to create a cycle route.
But if you didn’t like traffic you wouldn't go to Abbeydale Road anyway.
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