A New Home for Azendi Leeds

It's been an exciting week for the team in Azendi Leeds, as we opened our new store in Thornton's Arcade.

A Historic New Location

Our new store is situated in the Victorian Thornton's Arcade which connects Briggate to Lands Lane. The arcade is the oldest in Leeds, opened in 1878. Charles Thornton, a local entrepreneur, came up with the idea of creating a street of shops that would be enclosed and covered with a vaulted glass ceiling. He commissioned Leeds architect, George Smith, to design the neo-Gothic arcade. The arcade is absolutely beautiful, with the high glass ceilings letting in the daylight while providing the benefit of keeping our customers protected from the elements! A famous feature of the arcade is the 'Ivanhoe Clock', made by William Potts and Sons. It features life-size figures of characters from Sir Walter Scott's novel, which chime on every quarter hour.

Colours, Lights and Cabinets!

It is important to us that the new store feels inviting and friendly, as well as creating a display space that is easy to browse. So our new store has been weeks in the planning, and busy with builders, shopfitters and decorators before we could get our hands on it to add the finishing touches and the all-important jewellery. The shop layout was designed and fitted to our specifications by specialist jewellery cabinet-makers, IWM Designs. We chose honey-toned oak for the cabinets to create warmth in store. The golden tones of the wood sit beautifully with a the blue colour scheme we have chosen (gorgeous paints from Farrow & Ball). One of the most important aspects of a jewellery store is the lighting so we have made sure that each cabinet is well-lit with bright, daylight LED lights, allowing the finest detail on the jewellery to be clearly seen.

The Final Countdown

Finally, once the building and decorating was complete, the team had a very early start and got to work in setting out the displays and placing all the jewellery into the cabinets. It was a very long day of visual merchandising but everyone's spirits were high, working in such a beautiful store. We have to say a big thank you to our fantastic new neighbours, Kapow Coffee, who kept the team fuelled up throughout the day! Eventually, we were happy that everything was ready, the displays were finished, the team were prepared, and the champagne was chilling ready for opening day. The new store opened its doors on Thursday 12th September and we have had such a positive reaction from customers old and new. Customers were able to sip a glass of champagne as they browsed the new store, and enjoy a delicious mini-cupcake or two (freshly made by the divine Cakes and Carousels).

We'd love to see you at the new Thornton’s Arcade store - come and tell us what you think of our new home! Janette, Samantha and the team can't wait to welcome you in store to enjoy the surroundings and browse the beautifully designed jewellery. We look forward to seeing you soon.