Last Man Standing has fallen in Bradford, UK.

[wahiba]

After 90 years BCE or Bradford Camera Exchange has closed. It was a great place for all photographic stuff and colour processing. Not sure if it was a decline in business or another reason.

for the record Bradford in the UK is the home of the National Media Museum which now houses the Kodak UK camera collection, alng with many other photographic, film radio and TV artefacts. There are three cinemas, an IMAX screen, a 100 seater named after Cubby Brocolli and the main cinema which still has analogue film projectors and the ability to project Cinerama.

 

[AgX]

To get some idea what this shop was about:

Fears for future of much-loved shop - a Bradford 'institution' for 85 years

FEARS have emerged that one of Bradford's most established retailers is facing an uncertain future.

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk

 

[mshchem]

So sad, I wish we could save these places. Same thing happened here.

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

Sad. We had a 90 year old camera store in the city where I live that closed a few years ago. It was also the last remaining camera store in the city. The owner was in his 70s and wanted to retire and no one wanted to buy the business.

 

[Sirius Glass]

This is so sad. The last two decades, local photography stores have gone out of business and internet stores do not completely fill the need for the local stores.

 

[wahiba]

To get some idea what this shop was about:

Fears for future of much-loved shop - a Bradford 'institution' for 85 years

FEARS have emerged that one of Bradford's most established retailers is facing an uncertain future.

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk

That is all I could find too. I live about 15 miles from the centre where the shop is and have not been in since February and missed that article so only found out today when I went in to get a couple of films processed. Actually there is another photographic shop nearer, in Ilkley but I do not think they do processing themselves. Ilkley is also where there are plenty of other interesting independent shops. Not all of Yorkshire is dark satanic mills!

 

[pentaxuser]

Wahiba, I had no idea that there was even a Bradford Camera Exchange but have visited the National Media Museum on a couple of occasions. It's a really great place as is Bradford as a city. It's a great place to use as a base for scenic West Yorkshire

Is the small camera/film shop still going in Keighley? All I can recall is finding it near the centre of the town and buying some Pan F film for my excursion to Bolton Abbey . It was 2003 so 19 years ago but it was well stocked

I cannot for the life of me recall its name

Some of the best bits are dark Satanic mills like Saltaire

pentaxuser

 

[Down Under]

Sadly, this is happening everywhere. In Melbourne (Australia), several of our better camera shops have closed in the past year. The two I miss the most are Michael's Camera, which had probably the best stocks of darkroom supplies in the city central area and also did color and B&W processing. Now no more.

Michael's collection of old cameras, collected over the years as customers traded in their old gear for new and the owner held on to those trade-ins for his collection, was very disorganised and on display more as clutter than any organised system, but it was a fascinating place, well worth an hour or so browsing the many types of cameras amateurs and pros alike in Australia tended to use over the past century. The collection is now being catalogued and will be sold at auction, some time in the future. A sad loss indeed.

The second best shop in the city center was, for me, Camera Lane, which also folded up its tent but didn't close, just fled to the outer suburbs where rents are much cheaper and more space available for the money. The owners have told me they intend to stay in the trade - Alan Lane intends to be "the last man left standing in the secondhand trade" and they seem to have a lot of good stock in both film and digital gear, so chances are good. Vanbars in Fitzroy are still there, but their darkroom supplies look to be running down a little, and some customers are finding a lot of outdated chemistry on the shelves, so caution may be the best word if/when buying there. Service continues to be excellent and staff are good with advice on all aspects of photography, so it's still a good place to shop.

The problem here seems to be almost everybody is getting out of film and into digital. Going by the great mounds of 'D' equipment on the shop shelves and the dwindling supplies of 'analog' gear.

All things change in time. I would prefer it the changes to be slowly rather than quickly, but we can only wait and see how it goes. This is after all the 21st century.

 

[wahiba]

Wahiba, I had no idea that there was even a Bradford Camera Exchange but have visited the National Media Museum on a couple of occasions. It's a really great place as is Bradford as a city. It's a great place to use as a base for scenic West Yorkshire

Is the small camera/film shop still going in Keighley? All I can recall is finding it near the centre of the town and buying some Pan F film for my excursion to Bolton Abbey . It was 2003 so 19 years ago but it was well stocked

I cannot for the life of me recall its name

Some of the best bits are dark Satanic mills like Saltaire

pentaxuser

The shop in Keighley closed a couple of years back. There is still a place in Ilkley. Skipton no longer has anywhere and I am not sure about Harrogate. Leeds has West Yorkshire Cameras https://wycameras.com/ and I think there is a professional dealer somewhere. There are a few relatively local mail order places for processing. I think i might go down the DIY colour route. It was only my support for BCE that stopped me in the past.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks Wahiba. Lasting from 2003 to a couple of years back is not bad going when you think what happened in intervening years to film sales

pentaxuser