11:00am Tuesday 13th July 2010
By Andrew Ffrench
A HARDWARE shop which has served Oxford for more than 50 years is set to close and could be turned into flats.
Broughtons, in North Parade, North Oxford, is closing down, with the building up for sale for £695,000.
Last week it emerged that Gill & Co, which has been in the city for 480 years, is to close at the end of next month.
The shop, in Wheatsheaf Yard, off High Street, has suffered a fall in trade and owner Victor Hunt decided to close instead of renewing the lease later this year.
Broughtons’ owner John Broughton, 65, is retiring and moving to Wolvercote to spend more time on his hobbies of cycling, photography, amateur radio and writing cycle route guides.
He said: “We first moved here on Bastille Day 1975, and I plan to close at the end of the month, although I could stay open a bit longer if I still have stock to sell.
“I thought it would be less complicated selling the property without including the business, so that’s what I’m doing.
“But if someone came along and bought the property, who wanted to keep the shop going, then I would be happy to sell them my stock.
“It’s going to be an enormous wrench, but I have been in retail for 50 years and the time has come to do something different.”
The shop could be turned into flats, according to estate agents Savills.
Broughtons was bought in 1975 as a joint venture by Mr Broughton, then 30, and his parents Henry and Winifred, who first set up in business in 1959, in St Clement’s.
The shop originally focused on TV rentals, but the family added general hardware and household lines and services such as key cutting.
Other independent hardware specialists say they are staying in business.
Mark Smith, manager of the Smith and Low hardware store, in Hollow Way, Cowley, said: “Hardware shops are dropping like flies at the moment, which is a shame.
“We’re doing okay in the present climate and people come back for the service and the bits that the big sheds don’t stock. This place is a real Aladdin’s Cave and I think there’s still a place for shops like us.”
Steve Gibson, 43, a carpenter from Cowley, said: “It’s a real shame these places are closing. When I heard Gill’s was going, I called the MP Andrew Smith to see if he could do anything about it.”
Stuart Silvester, who runs Silvester’s Stores, in Magdalen Road, East Oxford, said in April his shop could be forced to close if a controlled parking area was introduced.
The scheme is currently on hold, but Mr Silvester said: “I’m sorry to hear that Gill’s is closing, because it’s an Oxford institution.
“We have no immediate plans to close but if controlled parking is introduced, which was the plan earlier this year, then I think it could affect our trade.
“If the council does eventually decide to go ahead with it, then we will think seriously about closing, because I would rather get out and be solvent than go broke.”
affrench@oxfordmail.co.uk
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