Time takes its toll on Stubbs

STEPHEN LEWIS reports

WITH every passing week it seems a little bit more of York's heritage disappears. Just before Christmas it was Mawson's. The family petshop had been trading from its Walmgate base for more than a century - but modern life finally caught up.

Owner John Mawson admitted the profit margins had become so tight in the teeth of competition from supermarkets and big chains he could only make a profit because he owned the premises and didn't have to pay rent.

But when he reached 70 he decided that enough was enough - and it was time to retire.

That was in December. Last week, the Evening Press revealed that the Rialto, that piece of York's musical history where the raw, young Beatles sang hits such as Love Me Do and Please, Please Me to hordes of screaming fans back in the early Sixties, could soon be bulldozed. For several years the Fishergate building that used to be the Rialto has actually housed Mecca Bingo. But for those hooked on nostalgia - and there are many - the news brought a real sense of loss.

Now it's the turn of another great York institution - the ironmongers FR Stubbs. Since 1915 the store - known to many as one of York's Aladdin's Caves - has stood proudly on the corner of Fossgate and Merchantgate.

It's main business was supplying the trade - but anyone desperate to find a screw for the old-fashioned plug at the back of their broom cupboard or a spare set of keys for the garage door was assured of a welcome.

That was what the family firm prided itself on - personal service backed up with a wealth of knowledge and experience.

But now Stubbs, too, is set to close.

Owner Bill Stubbs, whose grandfather Francis Richard Stubbs set the business up in 1904 and moved to the present Grade 11 listed building in 1915, has put the business on the market.

The building itself will follow suit once planning permission for conversion into flats or even a hotel has been obtained.

It is the end of an era - because FR Stubbs really is a link with a bygone age.

When Bill's grandfather Francis Richard Stubbs was first apprenticed to Bridge Street ironmonger Richard Varvill back in 1870, his family paid the princely sum of £75 for the privilege.

For his first year, the apprentice was paid half a crown a week in wages. By the time he was 21, that had risen to a guinea a week.

Soon, Francis Richard had bought a top hat and long coat and was working as a representative for Varvill's, drumming up trade by travelling in his pony and trap as far afield as Durham, showing his ironware and taking orders.

He obviously learned his trade well, because after Varvill's store was burned to the ground in 1904, Francis Richard - who had been given the pony and trap as a payoff - set up in business for himself.

His first shop was in Lady Peckitt's Yard. The business flourished and after little more than a decade Francis Richard was looking for new premises.

He chose a building on Foss Bridge which has been built in 1878 by linen and woollen traders WG Whitehead and Co - and FR Stubbs has remained there ever since.

It has continued patiently supplying customers with six-inch nails, screwdrivers and everything you are likely to need for the oddest of odd jobs around the house throughout two world wars, the York blitz and the great Minster fire as the city has gradually changed from a thriving Edwardian metropolis to a prosperous modern city.

But with the 21st century upon us, the pace of change may simply have become too great.

The shop has changed, both inside and out. A £3100,000 renovation programme just a couple of years ago was designed to ensure it entered the new century as healthy as it had begun the previous one. But there is no question that a shopper from the turn of the last century would still feel at home there.

That's partly what makes the shop so special. But Bill Stubbs, who is nearing 64 and about ready to retire, admits that competition with big DIY chains and supermarkets has been getting tougher.

The business still makes a profit, he stresses - but more and more customers, especially many of the York businesses the firm supplies, find it increasingly difficult to get to the store because of parking and access restrictions.

"It's done us well over the years," he says philosophically. "But now we are struggling. We cannot survive by people saying 'eeh, what a wonderful shop, I hope you won't change'. That doesn't pay the bills. It is cash in the tills that counts."

York Chartered Surveyor Alan Black, who is handling the sale and marketing of the business, admits that as York has changed, Stubbs has simply found itself in the wrong place.

"It is a great shame," he says. "But one should not feel too sad about change. A lot of people who have been in York all their lives are very sorry to see this old business close, but one has to be realistic.

"We are seeing a change in shopping patterns now. There are very few family businesses left in the city centre. More and more businesses associated with trade, as opposed to pure retail, are finding it convenient to relocate to business parks for easier access.

"If Mr Stubbs was to walk into my office now and say he was setting up an ironmonger's business now, he would not be saying can you find me a five storey building in the centre of York.

"He would be asking for a substantial modern retail warehouse on the outskirts of York."

Mr Stubbs says if he were a younger man he might just consider relocating the family firm to somewhere like Clifton Moor. But not now.

None of the younger Stubbs generation is prepared to take on the business either. Mr Stubbs' three sons all have their own careers and his daughter Susie, who has been helping him run the business, is not prepared to take on the responsibility of running it herself - even though she's convinced it could be a success in the right location.

So it looks as though one of York's few remaining family-owned stores is finally to close, after an innings of almost 100 years.

"It is a sad day," says Mr Stubbs. "If I was still 35 I would have considered relocating. But I cannot stop the clock and I'm nearly 64 now."

Updated: 11:41 Wednesday, February 14, 2001