Inside the new Hive Stores as beloved antiques shop adds a beautiful new cafe and bar

It’s not every day that Greater Manchester gets a new business quite as beautiful as the new bar at Hive Stores.

This fantastic local business is now operating partly as an antiques store, partly as a cafe, also selling everyday essentials, quality produce, bakery bits from Half Dozen Other, cheeseboards, and cocktails.

The new addition is a real looker, all dark wood and marble with so much character it feels like it’s been here for 100 years.

Over the years, this little building in Altrincham has been everything from a greengrocers to a bakery to an antiques shop – and now, fittingly, it’s sort of all three of those things at once.

When Steven Sherratt and Gareth Wilkins took the space over, it was with a vision to restore it back to how it would’ve looked in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as offering all the convenience it would have done in its former life but with their own personal style added in.

That means you can pick up some eggs and have an espresso martini at the same time, and the old-fashioned shelving is stocked with Italian brands as well as local produce.

They’re also hoping to bring back the traditional relationship between shopkeeper and customer, which seems to be working – everyone who comes through the door greets them by name.

Hive Stores started life in Altrincham Market as an antiques stall almost a decade ago.

But when Covid hit, Gareth and Steven shifted all their stock over to a space on Grosvenor Road.

Initially, the ramshackle building out the back was all that Hive Stores consisted of, an Aladdin’s cave jam-packed with beautiful antiques and other items from local craftsmen.

Then they added a coffee cart in the courtyard, which became a ‘haven for locals to escape the same four walls’ during lockdown.

Then several years later, the small building at the front of this plot of land became available, and Hive Stores added cafe and bar to its bow.

Following a successful Crowdfunder, they spent more than a year carefully restoring the space, adding in their favourite antiques from their collection like a wall of hand mirrors and silver plates.

Gareth said: “We’ve got antique furniture as the bar, quirky antiques adorning the walls in the dining space, and it’s kind of created that really good mix between modern and vintage.

“We wanted to create something that was timeless, so in years to come, regardless of how we change the decor in terms of mirrors or pictures or anything like that, the building itself will always be timeless.

“We’re very happy with how it’s turned out.”

Gareth continued: “We’ve got loads of people who have followed us literally since day dot in the market.

“So the regulars have been fantastic sticking with us and how we’ve transitioned our business over to what it is now. And so many new faces now too, it’s brilliant, and everyone’s been so complimentary and kind.”

Steven added: “As well as the Crowdfunder, where we raised about £13,000 from the public, we wouldn’t have been able to even start the renovations without the help of Atlantic Timber and Cheshire Marble and CTC tiles, which are all local businesses who were just so generous and supportive.”

Gareth said: “There’s no way it would’ve happened without the help of both the public and other businesses here, we’re forever in their debt.”

The new-look Hive Stores is now open in Altrincham.

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Featured image: The Manc Group