Mark Saturday 21st June in your calendars when the rejuvenation of Hickman Street is fully completed!
It’s an exciting time for our town the launch of the kitchen and bathroom showroom by Lockwood Interiors, completes a series of recently opened business along the busy Hickman Street.
The family business, now owned by Brad Thomas, has operated in Gainsborough for four generations. More than 100 years ago, Mr Lockwood started his plumbing business and passed it to his son when he retired. Brad Thomas’ dad, Keith, worked for Mr Lockwood’s son, who passed the business to Keith, his “best worker”, when he retired.
Brad said: “My dad agreed to take it over and kept the name Lockwood. He did it for about four years, and I eventually took over from my dad in around 2018. Since then, the business has been evolving into what it is today.”
The shop itself showcases the brilliant work that Lockwood can and have produced, including boilers, modern kitchens and bathrooms with impressive mod cons like touch-activated light-up mirrors, clever storage, free-standing units and quirky towel rails.
As part of their shop, there is a design area where the design team can create customers’ bathrooms or kitchens before their very eyes.
“It lets customers literally bring their dream kitchen or bathroom to life. It’s good when a customer is here to be able to show them what their bathroom is going to look like and they can chop and change it as much as they want,” Brad said.
The previous owner of the shop was one of Lockwood’s clients and consulted Brad when the previous tenants moved out about what to do with the empty unit. At the time, the company operated from their depot at the Old Test Centre in Turpin Close, but when he saw the vacant unit, Brad saw it as a big opportunity to open a showroom down a busy street.
Since purchasing the commercial units, Brad and his team have galvanised the street by converting the former solicitors into this impressive new showroom and converting the former Weston Rooms into a state-of-the art gym, Becketts Health which opened at the beginning of this year.
Brad said: “We’ve renovated the insides of the buildings, tidied up the shop fronts and put new shop fronts in. I like to think we are doing our bit for the area, we’ve helped Beckett’s with their renovation and we’re doing this work here and now the street is looking great.”
The new Lockwood showroom and Becketts Health are directly opposite the new bus station, which recently underwent a major refurbishment including new shelters, street furniture and CCTV thanks to the Levelling Up Fund (LUF). Brad agrees the enhanced bus station will be great for attracting customers.
He said: “There’s busy footfall down this street, with the car park next to us and the buses going past,” he added: “We’ve got a new long glass shop front which we think will get some notice from people walking past and driving along Bridge Street.”
It’s an exciting time for the town, thanks to the ‘Thriving Gainsborough 2024’ project, funded by LUF, which has enabled multiple projects throughout the town centre such as the transformation of the former Baltic Mill site into additional green space, as well as the expansion of the Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) which has supported (and continues to) the refurbishment of heritage buildings and shop fronts within the historic town centre.
For further details about these initiatives or to find out more about investment opportunities in the town, please contact the Growth Team. Email: [email protected]