The Food Gallery, one of Marlborough’s favourite coffee shops, down at the St Peter’s end of the High Street and next door to The Wellington Arms is changing ownership. Bob Holman, son Rich and daughter Kat are selling after a successful twenty one years trading and building an excellent reputation. Marlborough’s High Street is a competitive area, especially for coffee, tea and cakes but The Food Gallery, at the less visited end of the High Street is rarely less than nearly full.
Elsewhere – ‘The Marlborough’ is now shut, as reported here a few days ago. Will this re-emerge, and if so, wiil it still be ‘The Marlborough’ or maybe revert back to it’s original name of ‘The Sun Inn’? Very traditional and one of Marlborough’s ‘heritage’ pubs it was known to many as ‘The Sun’ and is still referred to in that way although it was ‘The Marlborough’ for a dozen or so years.
WHSmith has gone. OK, that’s not quite correct, the signs ‘WHSmith’ and all branding have gone, the store is still there, open and with what appears to be the same range of stock displayed on the shelves, but on the outside – and inside it’s now rebranded as ‘TG Jones’. What does this mean in practice? On the surface, nothing. We learned that the national WHSmith chain of High Street stores had been sold to a ‘retail and consumer investment boutique’ Modella Capital, who also own Hobbycraft, and all outlets are being rebranded as TG Jones. For us in Marlborough this happened last week.
The Wellie – or ‘The Wellington Arms’ to be formal, is still there but the landlords, Stonegate are looking for new tenants, as we reported in the same story as the closure of ‘The Marlborough’. Lloyds Bank, or the former home of Marlborough’s last High Street bank is being ‘GAILed’. Workmen are in doing the entrance and stairway to the upper floor accommodation and a temporary GAIL’s poster hangs on the wall above the benches, When will this open? Scheduled for 11 September, open seven days a week between 07:00 and 18:00.
Marlborough Traffic – letter from Edward Vale
