‘G-Granville!’ Property auction to sell TV’s Open All Hours shop
Mark Jenkinson, part of the Eddisons auctions group, is to put the famous shop under the hammer on October 16th.
An auction house in the North of England is preparing to put one of the UK’s most famous commercial properties under the hammer.
Sheffield firm Mark Jenkinson, which is part of the Eddisons auctions group is selling the property, which for years has been an unprepossessing hairdressing salon in Doncaster, on 16th October.
Older readers may recognise the shop, which is on Lister Avenue south of Doncaster city centre and was used for all the external shots (pictured) for the long-running 1970s BBC TV series Open All Hours starring Ronnie Barker and David Jason (picture with nurse Gladys Emmanuel played by Lynda Baron. The shop in the series was a general store called Arkrights.
Saved from demolition in 2008 by campaigners, the iconic end-terrace building, which is currently a vacant hairdressing salon on the ground floor, has two tenanted, self-contained apartments above.
Mark Jenkinson is selling the well-known building on behalf of their joint agent Kembles Estates, with a guide price of £150,000.
Associate director James Vandenbrook says: “The shop is instantly recognisable from the outside as the backdrop to the drama that played out between Ronnie Barker’s spendthrift grocer Arkwright and his long-suffering errand boy Granville.
“It really is part of television history and of course that has created lots of interest in the sale from potential bidders. It will be interesting to see what happens when the auction closes – and what the next episode will hold for this totally unique end-of-terrace Doncaster property.”
Previous sale
Mark Jenkinson has a challenge on its hands. In 2008 estate agency William H Brown failed in its attempt to auction the property but it is understood later struck a deal for more than £132,000 with one of the bidders.
Open All Hours ran for 26 episodes between 1973 and 1985. After Ronnie Barker’s death in 2005, the series was revived as Still Open All Hours from 2013 to 2019, with Granville running the shop and once more featuring the Lister Avenue property as the exterior of Arkwright’s store.