15 Mar What links a famous London department store to a joke shop in Hull???
The answer is simple – inspiration!
Firstly, a very happy birthday to Selfridges which opened its doors on London’s Oxford Street on this day (March 15th) in 1909 and it has been selling a huge variety of luxury goods ever since. I used to work right nearby and many a happy lunchtime was spent browsing all the goodies from food to lipsticks to beautiful handbags and everything in between!
Selfridges wanted to embrace British humour by opening its own joke shop at its “The Corner Shop” located, in guess what, one corner of the store! They used Dinsdale’s unique shop front as inspiration for their pop-up shop which is open all this month.
As for the real Dinsdale’s – well that’s a Hull institution. It’s been located in the lovely Hepworth Arcade since it opened in the 1930s and has remained a family run business all that time. It’s a great spot for kids to spend their pocket money or to pick up a few stocking fillers.
I was once guiding outside when the manager leapt out of the door in a Donald Trump mask which delighted my visitors (and made me jump about a mile!)
The Hepworth Arcade was completed in the late 1800s and is a traditional Victorian shopping arcade with plenty of great independent shops including a brilliant hat shop and a record shop that has pictures of all the famous musicians connected with Hull. If you’d like to see for yourself, please get in touch to arrange a walking tour of Hull.
A huge thank you to fellow Blue Badge Tourist Guide, Julia Huber for taking and sending me her pictures of Selfridges.