Wave a flag for Walcot

As we all know it’s been an incredibly tough few months in retail, but a resilient collective of independent traders in Bath are determined to bring the fun back into retail on their street.

Walcot Street in Bath has always been renowned as an area that draws artists and creativity. Not content with watching their little street fade into obscurity, as soon as the lockdown was repealed, they mustered.

This determined group of independent traders have spent this summer collaborating to dress the street in bright celebratory style to welcome visitors back in style.

Blessed by a great mix of creative skills, the team of volunteer traders all pitched in to put a plan in place to bring some much-needed cheer to anyone visiting the street. Local independent stationery designer Athena Cauley-Yu from Meticulous Ink created a stunning unique font and colourway especially for this project.

Cassie Rowland, from Walcot Marketing explained, “The aim of this project is really to give everyone that visits our street a bit of joy. We loved Athena’s design ideas; they were so bright and fun – we felt they really showcased the creativity of the street.”

The team have filled Walcot Street with bundles of cheerful bunting, and to date have hung over fifty flags the length of the street. There’s a real festival feel on the street this autumn.

Adrian Dolan, Chair of the Walcot Street Traders and co-owner of Bath Aqua Glass coordinated the funding for this project. He explained: ‘ l have been trading on the street now for over twenty years and we’ve never seen anything like the past few months. We wanted to use the community funds the street had been saving to really brighten things up and leave no doubt that Walcot is back and open for business.

Thanks to Bath BID’s support we were able to put this whole project together without asking for any extra funding from the street traders. We know how tough things have been for them and we wanted to give a little back to all the shops here”.

With so many well-known interior brands, unique independent shops and artisans on the street, here is a great sense of community to Walcot that stands it out as a great place to explore.

Carmen Schmidt who owns independent wool shop ‘A Yarn Story’ on the street has been really thrilled to help make a difference like this, “It’s so rewarding when you look down our little street and see people smiling at all the gorgeous flags and bunting. As a trader it’s so lovely to see people coming back to Walcot now”.

The team are planning to leave the new Walcot Street dressing up throughout the autumn and encourage anyone to come and visit this jewel of a retail experience right in the heart of Bath