The Old Curiosity Shop

Part of the window display in one of the growing number of Charity Shops 

which increase in number every year.

A Black and White Christmas

No shop is too small

to have its own flower bedecked bicycle.

Southside Street, on the Barbican.

My first sighting of an Easter Bunny

"All that glisters is not gold."

Shakespeare was definitely right about this shop's lighting display.

A sign of hard times

Recently released figures reveal a continuing increase 

in the number of homeless people and rough sleepers.

For many, times are getting harder.

Taunton

Taunton is the County Town of Somerset, 

the neighbouring county to Devon, where Plymouth is situated.

It is just over an hour, by train, from Plymouth and I was there recently visiting family.

Like many many county towns in England it retains many of its historic narrow streets and alleys.

This is Bath Place, a narrow walkway behind one of the main shopping streets.

It is home to a fascinating range of small, specialist shops, coffee shops and bistros.

Body Art is Big Business.

P lookin

The shop that sells hats by the kilo.

A Triptych on Main Street

Artists at work

The sweet jar

They don't look very appealing to me.

If all the empty shops available for rent

were advertised as attractively as this, many UK town centres would not look so forlorn.

I'm here!

But where are you?

Another flower bedecked bicycle.

It is almost compulsory for every small boutique, gallery or coffee shop, 

to have a decorated bicycle at the door.

This recent addition to the ciry's collection is in the Royal William Yard.

No Tea Shop.

                    Coffee Shop
                                       Gift Shop
                                                    Flower Shop
                                                                       etc. etc.
                                Is complete without a bicycle.

 

The Turkish Barber Shop.

I have often wondered why Turkish Barber Shops are springing up all over the UK,

Here is a recent addition to Plymouth's range of tonsorial emporia.

 Check out what Turkish Barbering offers

As you emerge suitably relaxed you might want to sample the Persian Cuisine next door.

Masks

The season of The Festival of the Masks is over 

but as yet there is little sign of the arrival of Spring.

Retro Chic

or Secondhand Shops, as they were called when I was young.

The memory lives on.

The Cinedrome, a cinema in Ebrington Street, close to the city centre, was opened in 1913,

It was badly damaged by German bombs in the blitz of 1941.

 It closed and did not re-open after the war. 

 

The auditorium was subsequently demolished, but the façade has survived.

This is how that façade looks today in 2018.