Love Belper – At Christmas

Deciding to stay local, Ashley Franklin seeks out the festive gems to be found in his nearest town

- Ashley Franklin

Will it be festive cheer for the High Street in Derbyshire? Winner of the first-ever Best British High Street Award in 2014 – out of 135 contenders – Belper was nominated again this year. The town is teeming with a gift, homeware, fashion and jewellery stores which are part of a wide spectrum of shops, cafés, pubs, and restaurants – over 160 – with few empty units to be seen. There is no denying that the High Street is in decline but no one seems to have told Belper.

‘Belper is buzzing,’ says Neil Hunt of gift shop Nordicana, who came to the town two and a half years ago, one of many businesses attracted by the buoyancy of Belper’s retail scene. Rebekah Wright of childrenswear shop Cheeky Bambini says Belper’s High Street award was a strong factor in her decision to set up shop 18 months ago.

A fresh plus factor for Rebekah and the other High Street businesses has been Love Belper, an organization that promotes the town’s independent shops and dining and drinking establishments. Love Belper was founded by Laura Armstrong of Strut Menswear. Concerned about low footfall during weekdays, she set up a Facebook group with other local retailers to work as a team on marketing the town. ‘The idea snowballed,’ recounts Laura. ‘We had 1,000 Facebook followers within a few days.’

‘Retail is hard,’ adds Laura, ‘and because so many other retailers know that, they were only too eager to help. So many businesses, especially the independents, are here because they do love Belper, and I just knew that if more people saw the richness, variety, and quality of the town’s retail landscape, they would come to love Belper, too.’