Open All Hours (filming location)

On the way up to Scarborough for a long Easter weekend I went via a small town called Balby, up streets of stout terraced houses to find a "Beautique" hairdressers. This doubles as “Arkwrights” grocers shop from the popular television series Open All Hours starring Ronnie Barker as the stammering miser with a gift for selling anything.

It ran for 26 episodes over four series from 1976 to 1985 and revived again in 2013 as Still Open All Hours.

When you watch these television programmes you get an idea of the street layout is like but the reality is slightly different. It’s a dead end street and I assume the premises was chosen as cameras and crew could conveniently set up their gear at the dead end with little inconvenience. I’m surprised the hairdressers hadn’t been butchered into two flats for maximum rent. It’s the kind of place Phyllis, Betty and Maude would go every week for a purple rinse, free magazines and a chat about “that Primrose who’s all fur coat and no knickers.”

Have you recognised the shop on the end?

Looking up and down the street…