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It’s hard to believe today that when City Arcade opened in 1901 it was part of a planned series of arcades that took shoppers under cover through the streets of Birmingham’s city centre. Much of the area ended up as rubble after a massive bomb attack in April 1941, but a small stretch of City…
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Approaching its 150th anniversary, Birmingham’s Great Western Arcade has survived being bombed in the Blitz, and has undergone several renovations since the war, but has retained its Victorian feel and is still a busy walkway between Snow Hill station and the city centre. One of the entrances was destroyed by a bomb in 1940, though…
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Leicester’s Silver Arcade is a magnificent 4-storey building, with superb balconies running along each floor, looking down on the main walkway, which runs from Silver Street to Cank Street. There are a few anomalies around its exact vintage, however. The claim in glass above the main entrance now declares ‘1899,’ and Margaret MacKeith agrees with…
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The little, crescent-shaped arcade with two entrances on Keighley’s North Street is part of the larger Arcade Chambers building in this former grand Yorkshire mill town. There is a hair salon fronting onto the street, but the main tenant in the arcade these days is surely RiRi’s Coffee House, with its stylish shop front painted…
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The two Victorian arcades in Halifax run into the indoor market building, which was opened by the future George VI, when he was still Duke of York in 1896. The arcades have the classic glass and ironwork ceiling, with impressive stonework entrances, but they are both quite short and are divided by Russell Street, so…