Two York locations – including a former Costa – to be given new lease of life

Fabrication, a social enterprise in Coney Street, is turning two vacant units into a brand-new shop and an artist’s workshop for craftspeople to use.

The shop will be in the former Cath Kidston shop, in Stonegate, and the workshop will be in the former Costa and Subway, on the corner of Market Street and Feasegate.

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Fabrication owner Dawn Wood said the Coney Street unit closed on Sunday, January 5, with the team working to get the new sites ready over the festive period. 

“We thought, well, we don’t want two shops in York in Christmas, so we had to go for this one [the former Costa and Subway unit] before we needed it. We’ve been popping in and doing bits in between customers and some of our sellers have been making things,” Dawn said.

She added that the team hopes to be open in Stonegate by the third week in January. 

The current location for Fabrication on Coney Street While the artists do preliminary work on the space in Stonegate, there is work going on in their workshop as they turn it into a creative studio and exhibition space – something that Dawn said “gives us the community space that we’d like to put forward in York”.

Last year, the group put in a shared prosperity fund bid to turn the buildings on the corner of Feasegate and Market Street into an independent maker’s quarter – but were unable to sign leases in time after receiving the grant.

The group took the plunge after seeing the properties back on the market, and is now remodelling the building to ensure it has accessible toilets and space where workshops can take place.

The new shop where one exhibition has already been held as the team prepare for opening (Image: Provided) Dawn said: “The fact it’s happening all at the same time as Christmas retail is a bit ‘shellshocky’. It’s gone down very well – we’ve shown a lot of people down the workspaces for the end of January. The timing is not as I’d planned it, but it is what is – the universe tells you to do something, and we couldn’t just turn either down.

“Creative workspaces are needed but in York, they’re all clean creative – people think film work is all CGI but there’s still props, costumes, artwork done by paint, and artwork done by hand. 

“All that messy side of making, you need somewhere to go and there’s less of that available in city centres. It’s incredibly important so when we had the opportunity, we had to do it.”

The new workshop (Image: Provided) In addition to creatives, the team is also interested in working with heritage workers and heritage crafters from across the spectrum to help restore the top floors of their Stonegate site and ensure that they are fully useable.

Heritage builders looking for sites for their apprenticeship projects are asked to email york@fabricationcrafts.co.uk.