It’s been a strange and challenging year, but one of the bright spots has been the Coppergate brollies.
And now the Coppergate Centre has revealed its final brollywalk display of 2020 – displaying blue skies, butterflies and birds.
The new set of umbrellas have been installed ready for the August bank holiday weekend, and will remain in place – weather permitting – until the end of September.
As centre manager, Pippa Unwin, explains, the unpredictable British summer weather can cause a few challenges for the displays.
“Since our Rainbow brollywalk was installed in May, we’ve had some incredibly strong winds – including gale-force winds in the last week alone – which tend to batter our brollies beyond the limits of even the strongest umbrellas,” she said.
“We folded the ‘We Love York’ umbrellas when the high winds hit last week, and with another storm hitting York this week, we’ve left them folded for safety reasons.”
New coffee kiosk
However, with rather more clement weather forecast for the bank holiday weekend and into the final week of York’s school holidays, it is hoped that they will brighten the visit of the many shoppers and tourists expected to descend on St Mary’s Square over the long weekend, and locals to relax with a coffee, ice-cream or slice of pizza away from the traffic.
“The new displays include humming birds, cardinal butterflies and blue birds dancing in the air above Coppergate Walk – a very cheery end to the summer, and another wonderful opportunity for people to take photographs of our Instagram-friendly displays,” said Pippa.
The Butterflies and Birds Brollywalk is not the only new feature in the shopping centre, with the opening of Spring Espresso in St Mary’s Square earlier this month.
The company, which also has branches in Fossgate and Lendal, now operates from the kiosk formerly used by Carluccio’s – with an outdoor seating area perfect for social distanced beverages. The kiosk operates daily from 8am until 5pm.