LONG closed shops are coming back to life in parts of York city centre - but one short street is a curious exception, with no fewer than seven premises currently lying empty.

Feasegate seems to be the street that businesses forgot, after shops, a hair salon, a restaurant, a bank and part of a department store closed and have so far failed to reopen.

The street's entrance to the former BHS department store remains boarded up, with original plans to open a cycle shop there apparently abandoned. The other former BHS entrances in Coney Street and New Street have long since reopened, as the front doors to Sports Direct and Flannels respectively.

Another former Feasegate shop lying empty is the ex-CMD womenswear store, which closed in 2016, blaming high business rates and competition from out-of town shopping developments.

There’s also the long closed Max Headroom hair salon, the Shuropody chiropody clinic, which ceased trading in 2020 due to the end of its lease, and the Cooperative Bank branch, which also closed in 2020.

The Costa Coffee shop on the corner of Feasegate and Market Street closed in December 2021 as a big new branch opened in nearby Parliament Street, and Charlie’s Pizzeria & The Hi Ho Club closed last October.

On a positive note, the appearance of some empty premises has been improved by 'wraps' on the windows installed by York BID and a former opticians on the corner of Feasegate and Parliament Street has recently reopened as York's new visitor information centre.

Asked whether the closures of so many businesses in one short street was purely coincidental and whether he was confident that, in time, the street will again be thriving, Andrew Hedley, of Blacks Property Consultants, recalled times when other streets had suffered from a surfeit of empty premises and had recovered.

"I walked up Feasegate first thing on Friday morning and was equally surprised," he said.

"However, it is a short street where empty units will get noticed more and, for most people, Market Street and Feasegate are one street.

"Whenever this happens in times of market readjustment, inevitably involving rental levels, I always think back to the early 1990’s when the front page of York Press had a large number of empty shops in Stonegate.

"We saw this as a challenge and, playing our part, one by one they found new occupiers, albeit at lower rents at the time, with many of the then new occupiers still there now.

"Don’t forget how Davygate looked a couple of years ago and how it will look in a few months when exciting new names are in situ.

"Only last Thursday, I had a well-established retailer asking me if I was aware of anything coming up in Davygate, clearly anticipating the street will soon be back at its best! Frustrating that I had nothing to offer."