Beginning as a family-run piano maintenance business in the 1870s and opening its piano and music shop in 1903, Mickleburgh’s has embarked on a new chapter, having shut up shop at its Stokes Croft premises at the end of October and relocated to a new home at Berkeley Place in Clifton, which opened in the middle of November.
Thankfully for its customers and music lovers, this move is only temporary for three years while its Stokes Croft store is demolished from its current ‘state of disrepair’ to be rebuilt as an entirely new-look shop. These new and improved premises will expand further to create a live events space and basement studios for teaching, practising and recording music.
In the meantime, its spacious home beneath the West End Car Park down towards Jacobs Wells Road is no less enticing, with a sea of instruments displayed on one level and all of the usual services on offer including piano services and, it is hoped, running small events to encourage even more people to play and learn music.
After 122 years in Stokes Croft, one of the oldest musical instruments shops in the city will return with a new lease of life. Since its original days, it has had several previous new leases of life, having been destroyed in the Blitz of 1942 and rebuilt to accommodate a wider range of instruments and accessories, as well as in more recent times, adapting to survive Covid-19 and cost of living crises.
The staff are, however, keen to ultimately return to the heart of Stokes Croft – regarded as a hub for creativity and community-led initiatives, and creating a unique arts scene which helps such independent businesses to flourish.
The company said before its move: “Stokes Croft has been our home since 1903, and this temporary move to Berkeley Place will enable us to keep our facilities here for what we hope will be another 100 years! We apologise for the inconvenience our closure and move causes, but we think it will be well worth it.”