BBC Open All Hours shop to go under the hammer

A Doncaster hairdressers salon that was best known as the corner shop in the BBC’s much-loved sitcom Open All Hours is to go up for sale by auction this month.

The property, on Lister Avenue, south of Doncaster city centre, was used for the external shots of the eponymous Arkwright’s in the long-running show, which starred Ronnie Barker and David Jason.

Saved from demolition in 2008 by campaigners, the iconic end-terrace building, which is currently a vacant hairdressing salon on the ground floor with two tenanted, self-contained apartments above, will go up for auction on 16 October.

Sheffield auction house Mark Jenkinson, which is part of the Eddisons property group, is selling the well-known building on behalf of their joint agent Kembles Estates, with a guide price of £150,000+. Mark Jenkinson associate director James Vandenbrook said: “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.”

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.