York Ghost Merchants Acquire a New Building to Haunt

York Ghost Merchants have a new building space at the Georgian street St Saviourgate.

The shop opened in Summer 2019, around six months before the first national lockdown hit and despite the Shambles shop closure during the many lockdowns, the shop has gone from strength to strength.

The shop prides itself on being unique, as the ghosts are not normal mundane souvenirs, but rather a memorable keepsake which provides a more imaginative experience than the ordinary.

Co-Director of York Ghost Merchants, Angus McArthur said: “I wanted to find somewhere that felt like a home, with the added history and atmosphere that the Shambles establishment adds to the experience.

“When we entered the Georgian building, we had a gut feeling it was the right location to expand our business practices as we didn’t want to move into an industrial workplace or a new build as it wouldn’t have felt authentic to us.”

The new Georgian building will allow for more room to make the ghosts and provide them the luxury of space to be able to continue with their ghost launches, and provide enough ghosts for their Shambles shop.

Angus told YorNews: “The creativity keeps us elevated; we’ve gone from 3 to 14 employers who are predominantly based in and from York.

“The new workshop will enable us to have more workshop space and allow us to employ more people who can all fit within the same workshop.”

Additionally, the new location will provide more room for the merchants to host more events, such as ghost story readings, as during the lockdowns, they held poetry and ghost story competitions which were very popular.

When sat with Co-Director Angus McArthur, he grinned when the table next to us sees a girl take a ghost figure out of her bag. He smiled and said: “For some it’s a form of gratification, they come to the shop to see it, buy a souvenir ghost, and say they’ve been.

“For others it has become a deeper connection, they enjoy the experience of going down the Shambles and visiting the store and building a collection of ghosts.”

The shop has become a worldwide phenomenon with around 30% of their sales coming from the USA. They have continued to see growth on social medias with a customer made TikTok receiving over 4 million views last summer. Impressively, the store only owns an Instagram account to relay information and updates to their customer base, all of their advertising is done via customers word of mouth.

Currently, the Shambles shop only allows eight people at a time as this way they can really engage with the Victorian styled experience. The merchants are known for their authentically made designs which are based off York’s obscure history.

Long queues for the shop are a given now due to its popularity and its prime location on a heavily tourist populated street.

There are talks that they may use the new site on Saviourgate to potentially make a booking system for shopping and browsing the figurines for those who may have travelled from further afield.

Moreover, the shop will always be primarily based at the Shambles and the new site will be there to present more opportunity of growing the community and shop itself. As the demand they receive weekly from footfall needs to be met with enough ghosts and the new site will allow them more space to produce the bespoke one-of-a-kind figures.

To keep updated on the York Ghost Merchants, you can follow their Instagram or visit their website.