Hambleton Furniture store to close its doors

Hambleton Furniture in Walmgate is set to shut at the end of February after its proprietor John Murphy decided to retire on reaching 70.

Mr Murphy, from Thirsk, said he thought Hambleton was the last remaining shop in the city centre which sold furniture alone, and he anticipated the building - owned by York Conservation Trust- might end up becoming another restaurant, cafe or bar like many other premises in Walmgate and Fossgate.

“There used to be several furniture shops along here - there was also Macdonald’s and GA White’s,” he said. “Now they tend to be situated on the ring road, where there is parking.”

He said his shop’s most difficult time came just after Christmas in 2015, when it was flooded to a depth of three feet after the nearby River Foss burst its banks.

“I got a call on the evening from the manager, Wendy Hudson, and I came down the next day,” he said. “You couldn’t even get in. Things were floating in it.

“Everything had to be chucked because of contamination. We lost almost all the stock.The only things we could save were the mirrors on the wall.

“We didn’t re-open until mid-April. Everything had to be dried out and it had to be re-plastered and re-wired and new carpets fitted.”

He said the shop was called Hambleton Pine and Cane when he bought it from its founder in 1993, but it had stopped selling cane furniture altogether and now probably sold more oak furniture than pine, as the price of oak had fallen with cheap imports from China and Vietnam.

He said much of the shop’s trade was repeat business, and many customers had said how sorry they were to hear it was closing, and he wanted to thank them for their valued custom over the years.

Mr Murphy said he thought people would also miss Wendy’s dog, an Alsation Cross, which she brought to work with her.

He added that all items were on sale at a discount in an effort to sell all stock before the scheduled closure on February 28.