We came home via a city we both used to haunt from time to time, and yet somewhere we'd not been in years.  It''s a fine city in that grand, Northern style: I bought my wedding dress here and used to think it a great place to shop.

 

 

We think the last time we were here could have been the first day of the UK lottery, when we came for some kind of industry dinner.   

 

 

This morning, we took shelter from the chill wind in the arcades which are somewhat smarter than we remembered.  We smiled as we spotted that the city centre has been styled into "Quarters".  Hmmm.

 

 

The shops in this "Quarter" were pretty smart, with prices not quite in keeping with the Monday morning shopping crowd, most of whom like us, we simply taking the warmest option on a February day, not stopping at all.

 

 

The fantastic market hall was bustling though and hadn't changed much from what we remember.  Good to see one of the early traders here is now successful enough to sponsor the market clock.

 

 

Having one of the arcades almost to ourselves did mean that we could stand and stare a little at shop windows on both sides which were full of old sewing machines.  With at least twenty in each of four or five windows, we were left wondering where on earth they got them all from?   Now, I've googled AllSaints and find that other stores in the chain have a similar theme going on and clearly I'm not the only one to worry about them cornering the market in antique Singers.

It does appear that I'm one of the last people to blog about those sewing machine displays though!!