A York shop has pulled out of the city centre with the owner blaming astronomical rents and anti-social behaviour.
Devil’s Elbow Antiques is about to open at its new home in The Bull Centre on Stockton Lane.
Specialising in antiques, textiles, vintage interiors and books, it was previously based on Little Stonegate, but owner Evie Southgate said that location no longer worked.
She told YorkMix: “The final straw for us was the crippling increase of costs, rents and rates.
“Then one of our large 10ft wide windows was smashed before Christmas, which proved very costly.
“The drunken anti social behaviour we had to deal with every weekend just made it unbearable really.
“As prices increased, we just thought, why are we paying astronomical rents and rates, to have people throwing up their bottomless brunch on the path outside our shop window in the middle of the day? Or using our open door as a social smoking area?”
Evie added: “We loved the aesthetic of the shop, but the street is certainly more suited to drinkers and just wasn’t suitable for us or our customers.
“Our customers often used to say ‘I bet you wish you could pick this shop up and move it’.”
The business is about to hold a a soft opening at the Bull Centre on Saturday (15 April).
“Our new premises is around 75% cheaper and much bigger,” Evie said.
“We’ll have lots of set open weekends and there will be appointments available too. We hope to return to York high street in the future when the time is right.”
Find out more on the Devil’s Elbow Antiques Instagram page.