Retail Interview Horsfall & Wright, Berkhamsted


When a new gift shop relocated to his doorstop, Paul Hughes decided to pay it a visit


Horsfall & Wright, Berkhamsted


D 34 gifts today


espite only having a population of around 16,000, the Hertfordshire


town of Berkhamsted is remarkably well catered for by gift shops. On the west side of the high street, heading towards Tring and Aylesbury is a veritable corridor of gifting. Local multiple retailer Temptation


Gifts has a shop, and almost directly opposite is at home dot.com, which, despite the name is a bricks and mortar operation. A few metres away is Woods of Berkhamsted, a high street-facing garden centre containing a constantly refreshed country-style gift shop. Just around the corner, heading towards the train station is the Number Twenty gift shop, which raises funds for a local hospice. Now this healthy selection has been complemented by another; run by husband and wife team Steve and Sarah. T e eponymous Horsfall & Wright relocated from Wanstead, east London at the start of October into a relatively rare vacant unit formerly occupied by a menswear retailer. A reasonably affl uent area,


Berkhamsted is just north of Watford and around half an hour’s commute


from London Euston. It is also the home of Lema Publishing, which produces Gifts Today and several other magazines for the retail trade. Just a few days after Horsfall & Wright opened, I paid a visit to the premises.


Gifts Today: What was behind the move to Berkhamsted? Steve Horsfall: We had both lived in London for 20 years and fancied a change of scenery, more than anything else. We decided that it would be nice to move to the country. My family are originally from Berkhamsted and I went to school here, so I know the area quite well. It’s a good market town with a busy high street. Our shop in Wanstead was much


smaller, and at the quieter end of the high street. Here we are in a bigger unit and we’re right in the middle. Although we were inbetween two tube stations on the central line in Wanstead, it did feel more like a village than London - it was part of Essex until 1965. Sarah Wright: T is unit is twice as big as the one we had, and has so much more potential. It will give us the opportunity to stock more ranges. Eventually, we are going to move into furniture.


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