Bigfern Guide to Shopping in Market Harborough

Olde Worlde Shops
Church Street, which is situated just behind the High Street, is one of those back streets full of character, with it's cobble-like paving blocks and balanced mixture of conventional style shops. These include The Kitchen Range Cookshop - selling superb quality items from Kitchen utensils to gas cookers and fires, Bates - traditional country style butcher and K & G Roskrow - opticians. If you are feeling lucky, try a £1 stake on the Irish Lottery at Done Bookmakers! Good views of the church can be had whilst having a cup of coffee and a bite to eat at Aldin's on the corner of the street near Church Square.

On the outskirts of town

If you're visiting Harborough by car, there are several shops out of town worth visiting before you leave. These include Harborough Home Stores in Clarence Street, which is a discount warehouse crammed full of bargains from floor to ceiling, and along the Farndon Road is Farndon Fields Farm Shop who always have an excellent selection of locally produced fruit & vegetables and other local produce. Cut-price Supermarkets like Lidl and Aldi are also not too far from the town centre.

Shopping in Market Harborough

Market Harborough provides both a modern and attractive place to shop in South Leicestershire. With a population of 20,000 and rising, the town has attracted many nationwide chains such as Sainsbury, Argos and Homebase to open stores here.
Both visitors and local people are adequately catered for with a Railway Station, Bus Station and a multitude of low cost car parks situated at convenient points around the town centre.

Hassle-free shopping in Saint Mary's Place

Saint Mary's Place, built in the early 90's, is the latest shopping area to be added to the town. A pedestrianised environment provides hassle-free shopping here. From the Peacock Inn at the north end, a good selection of shops like Mercury News, Partners, Rosebys and Boots line the route south up to the river Welland. Here the Riverside Walk crosses our path as we continue south past the Indoor Market, Argos, Wilkinson, Coombs and on to the Sainsbury supermarket. Plenty of benches are close at hand throughout the route for the weary or those who like to sit and take in the shopping atmosphere, or just sit and feed the ducks on the river!

'Traditional' - Manor Walk

Built in the 80's, is another pedestrianised area with a distinctly traditional feel, and a good variety of smaller shops. It has the advantage of an entrance directly from the Commons car park, where you enter under an archway by the Veneto Pizzeria. If you've time for a coffee, then just inside, there's the New Horizons Coffee Shop in the Centenary Hall run by members of the Baptist Church. Walking down past Holland & Barrett and Time to Time, brings you onto the Coventry Road entrance, where there is a Loros Charity Shop to browse round just a few yards from the town centre.

Eating Out in the High Street

The High Street starts at the Congregational Church and meanders it's way down to the Square at the junction of Coventry Road. The picture (right) shows the view north from the Town Hall. On sunny days, you really can eat out, literally, when the tables are placed out on the pavement at Joules Eating House!
A little further along is Frank Gilberts - a very popular hardware shop with friendly, over the counter service, which at one time won the Harborough Mail's Premier Service award for three consecutive years. Next to Joules Eating House there is a little jitty-way which leads to Quinn's Book Shop - a real 'olde-worlde' type book shop to browse around. The big name shops further south of the High Street are - WHSmiths, Burtons, Dorothy Perkins, Greenwoods and Stead & Simpson, whilst on the Square there are branches of Woolworth, Super Drug, Tesco, Lunn Poly, Ladbrokes and Granada.
Amongst some of the smaller shops are Whitmores - selling superb quality pottery, crystal glass etc., as well as the more unusual like Classic Teddy Bears. Amongst many of the restaurants and takeaways in the High Street is The Sugarloaf public house/restaurant where there is an all day menu. For the nations favourite takeaway, there's the Trident Fish Bar, and no town would be complete without Chinese cuisine, supplied here by Top Wok.