Kirkgate Arcade, Otley, W. Yorkshire

Kirkgate Arcade in the busy Yorkshire market town of Otley is a bustling little arcade packed with small independent businesses offering a really wide range of services and products.

There’s the workmanlike hardware store near the entrance to the arcade, and a traditional sweet shop opposite that; there’s a barber’s, a beauty salon, a vintage clothes shop, a wonderful clock repair shop with fabulous old grandfather clocks in the window, a toy shop, a ‘collectables’ shop, a café, a curtain shop, and then a couple of more modern concepts…

‘Wobbly Bob’ is a shop where anybody can rent out a shelf to sell their own products, almost like a pop-up shelf within a permanent shop unit. A really creative idea that other arcades might follow. And there is a hand-made soap shop, and last but not least a shop with home-made jams and sauces, with quirky flavours to attract the foodies of Otley.

The paving at the entrance to the arcade still has the name Jacksons Arcade showing; there is a kind of balcony above the shop fronts, though no sign any longer of an upper floor here; and there are interesting pieces of artwork at either end of the arcade (which, by the way, does not lead through to anywhere else, ending instead in a row of public toilets): above the far end are some sculpted classical figures, though whether these are original features is not clear, and looking back down the arcade towards the Kirkgate entrance there is a mural with a scene from Otley of old.

There’s a great vibe in this arcade, the café was busy, and there’s a fair bit of footfall, even though it doesn’t serve as a sheltered shortcut to anywhere. A great example of a small town arcade keeping going, with creativity and energy.

My favourite shop today

I have to give this to the beautiful clock shop, with its range of lovely clock faces, as well as Grandfathers, mantlepiece clocks and other old timekeepers. But the café was also really friendly (giving me a slight discount when its cash-only rule meant I had to empty my purse to pay for my tea and sandwich). And I really enjoyed the jams from the home-made sauce and jam shop.

My pick of the arcade’s past

Built around 1901, with adverts for letting the shop units going into the local newspapers from late 1901 through most of 1902. So, although building work might just have begun on this arcade in Otley, it is stretching it a bit to call it a ‘Victorian Arcade,’ since the Queen died in January 1901. Edwardian doesn’t have the same nostalgic ring as ‘Victorian,’ but for me it makes this arcade just as interesting.

Jackson’s furniture store gave the arcade its initial name and occupied a large shop in the arcade. Jackson’s ran a system basically of hire purchase for major pieces of household furniture. So, one advert from 1908 gave an example of the scheme. For a down payment of 5/- and then a weekly payment of 1/6 (though the advert didn’t mention how many weekly payments would be needed) the buyer would have: a “very massive, heavily-mounted brass bedstead, with best wire mattress and flock bed, pillows and bolster, handsome kitchen sideboard with bevelled glass, pair of bedroom toilets with swing glass and marble slab.”

By the outbreak of the Second World War, the British Legion had taken over the club rooms upstairs in the arcade, and in September 1939 they opened up the club premises for the free use of troops in the town.

Stories in this section courtesy of www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk, British Library Board, Wharfedale & Airedale Observer, Shipley Times & Express, 30 September 1939.