by rls | Aug 18, 2022 | News
The Magic Wingdom, an independent chicken restaurant on Dormer Place in Leamington Spa has scooped the top spot in both of the Judge’s awards ‘Best Buffalo’ & ‘Best Wild Wing’ at The World’s largest Wing Festival, Wingfest.
The festival, which stipulates vendors may only sell 2 flavours of wing took place in Digbeth, Birmingham last weekend. The Wingdom went on to come second in the same categories of ‘The People’s Choice Award’.
There were 21 of the countries best ‘Wingslingers’ competing at the event including ‘Poor Boys’ & ‘Griedy’s Wings & Strips’.
The Magic Wingdom restaurant opened in 2021 and this was its second ever foray into a street food event.
You can visit The Wingdom Tuesday – Friday 5.30-9.30pm & Saturdays 12-9.30pm and they will be winging their way to Leamington’s Food Festival on September 10th & 11th, the highlight of town’s food calendar.
Owners Sam Cornwall-Jones & Frankie Griffiths are both “blown away” by the win and hope to promote this success over the coming months.
“It’s great to have such national recognition during such a difficult time for hospitality and it will hopefully raise our profile in the town”
The Magic Wingdom is the third site from Great British Pub Award Winners, ‘The Drawing Board’ alongside ‘The DB Bottle Shop & Tap Room’ all in Leamington Spa.
by rls | Jul 29, 2022 | News
If you are in town you may notice some changes to the frontage of the former House of Fraser store. This is part of a vibrant campaign to bring unused high street windows to life in Royal Leamington Spa which is now underway. This idea follows the lead of other UK towns and cities by transforming the windows of empty business premises on high streets.
The eye-catching images have been developed by taking photographs of cut-glass vessels in the Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum to capture the town’s sparkle. The photographs of these beautiful historic assets have then been transformed into high-quality vinyl graphics to be placed in the windows of empty stores to enhance the welcome for visitors to our town centre.
One of the premises where this can be seen is the ground floor of the former House of Fraser store in Parade. The property is being refurbished into high-quality office and design studios in preparation for expanding video gaming company Sumo Digital to occupy the first and second floors.
We hope you agree that this is a significant improvement on what it replaces.
Please return to this website soon, for a more detailed explanation of the inspiring story behind this beautiful collaborative project.
by rls | Jul 28, 2022 | News
Visitors to Royal Leamington Spa and local residents are invited to enjoy a fantastic range of events, trails, offers and entertainment as the town centre is transformed to accommodate the Commonwealth Games and other events this summer.
Over the next two weeks, the town is expecting an increase in visitors as people come to enjoy the Lawn Bowls and Para Lawn Bowls competitions in Victoria Park and the festival site with a giant screen in the Royal Pump Room Gardens.
BID Leamington has created a range of memorable initiatives to welcome and support visitors and residents, and encourage them to explore and enjoy town centre businesses while they are in Royal Leamington Spa.
The Great Leamington Flag Trail involves trailblazers finding up to 64 flags representing the Commonwealth countries and nations which will be placed outside different businesses in the town centre.
Once a minimum of eight flags have been located and named on the entry form, participants can enter a draw to win fantastic prizes donated by local businesses. As an added bonus, naming additional sets of eight flags counts as additional entries, and fully completed forms will be entered into the grand prize draw for a £100 ‘foods of the world’ hamper.
Trail Forms
Trail forms are available from the upper level of the Royal Priors Shopping Centre, the festival site at the Pump Room Gardens and you can download the PDF form HERE. The closing date for entries is August 10.
The Little Book of Offers is also now available in Royal Priors Shopping Centre, the festival site at the Pump Room Gardens, and the Visitor Information Centre and is packed with 60 money-saving coupons at a wide range of independent and high street businesses throughout Leamington Spa town centre.
BID Leamington has also produced a ‘Taste Leamington’ Guide listing all of the fabulous palaces to eat in town, and the town’s ‘butterfly hosts’ will be back with #LoveLeam cotton shopping bags to distribute at key times.
Pedi-bikes are returning to Leamington Spa after their success in 2021 from Saturday, July 30. Two bikes will be based at the Pump Rooms and surrounds to help visitors access the town centre and offer a different experience of seeing and exploring the town’s offer.
In preparing for Art in the Park on August 13 and 14, an updated Art in the Spa Guide and Street Art Trail are now available to encourage visitors to call into the town’s amazing art galleries and explore the wider creative offer throughout the town.
Making the Summer Memorable
Stephanie Kerr, executive director at BID Leamington, said the initiatives had been organised to make everyone’s visit to the town throughout the summer as memorable and enjoyable as possible.
She said: “We wanted to enhance the Commonwealth Games experience for Warwickshire and West Midlands residents and visitors from across the world who are coming to Leamington Spa maybe for the first time.
“The generosity of town centre businesses never fails to surprise me and their support for the Great Leamington Flag Trail and the Little Book of Offers has been fantastic.
“We know the pedi-bikes are popular and aid mobility for some visitors to town whilst providing an opportunity for us to promote the town as they glide around.
“The Art in the Spa Guide has also been launched to coincide with Art in the Park as well as the Commonwealth Games to encourage visitors to the town and the community to pop into our art galleries as well as enjoy the Street Art Trail.
“This promises to be an unforgettable few weeks for those connected with Leamington Spa and the BID Leamington team has been working hard to enrich the experiences of everyone who visits – and hopefully there will be plenty of return visits in the future as a legacy of the Commonwealth Games!”
by rls | Jun 9, 2022 | News
Shoppers can show their love for their favourite Leamington town centre businesses in a regional lifestyle award – but time is running out!
There is under a week remaining until voting closes in the Muddy Stilettos Awards 2022 which are being held in association with Healthily and local partner Birmingham Airport.
Leamington Spa has an amazing 15 town centre businesses shortlisted among the Warwickshire and West Midlands finalists in seven different categories.
And there is one area – Park Street – which is proving particularly popular where six shortlisted independent businesses are based.
BID Leamington Executive Director Stephanie Kerr said the Muddy Stilettos Awards 2022 are a perfect opportunity for shoppers to show their appreciation for the 15 finalists from Leamington town centre.
“We always love to celebrate the many and varied businesses that we have in Leamington town centre and it is fantastic to have 15 recognised at this stage of the competition,” she said.
“The Muddy Stilettos Awards 2022 are a great way for people to show their support as businesses in all sectors recover from the pandemic as well as celebrate Leamington town centre and all the wonderful, creative business owners that we have.
“Some of the finalists have been part of the fabric of Leamington town centre for many years and others have only just joined us, so we also urge everyone to rediscover our town centre also.
“There’s isn’t long left since voting closes on Wednesday and it would be great to have some of our Leamington town centre businesses win Regional Awards.”
Leamington Finalists
The Leamington town centre businesses who are among the Warwickshire and West Midlands finalists are:
Bar
House Leamington in Parade
Fizzy Moon in Regent Street
HART+CO in Augusta Place
Beauty Salon
Nanny June’s in Regent Street
Hair Salon
Hair @ 51 in Park Street
New Lifestyle Startup
Henderson Hound in Park Street
Ikigai in Spencer Street
Waf Waf Waffle in Warwick Street
Women’s Fashion Store
Mou in Park Street
Bridal Store
The White Boutique in Park Street
Tilly Trotter’s Brides in Park Street
Day Spa
The Spa on Clarendon Avenue
Lifestyle Store
Berylune on the corner of Warwick Street and Park Street
Sustainable Business
Positive Outlook Clothing in the Royal Priors Shopping Centre
Zero Store in Russell Street
Image Caption: Claire Watkins, Co-owner of Henderson Hound and Kary Hunt, owner of MOU, both in Park Street celebrate their nomination.
by rls | May 23, 2022 | News
One of the Midland’s most exciting independent fashion boutiques has opened a new store in Leamington Spa.
Domino Style, owned and run by Abigail Edmunds, has been wowing its customers in Stratford for more than 20 years.
It is now set to do the same in Leamington Spa with its new opening in Regent Street.
Although Domino Style has opened their doors to the public they are set to have a formal opening on 9th June 2022.
Domino Style features an eclectic, funky and exciting range of more than 40 fashion labels from the UK, Europe and the US, including Essential Antwerp, Ba&sh, Rails, Dea Kudibal, Stine Goya, Vilagallo, Maison Scotch, Baum und Pferdgarten, Lily and Lionel, Resume, Barbour X House of Hackney and Stella Nova.
The shop will also feature the premium jeans brands Paige, Frame and 7 For All Mankind as well as a smart selection of basics from the likes of Rails, American Vintage and Maison Labiche.
The opening night is set to be an evening of fashion, fizz and fun with everything from Food by Trailer Trash to a raffle being held in aid of Myton Hospice.
Raffle prizes include a luxury sleeping bag from Peapod London, a pair of sandals from Woden, a Mishky bracelet and eight cocktails from house plus many more.
While there is an emphasis on style, colour and fun are at the heart of each collection which is carefully chosen and hand picked by Abigail and her team. Alongside the clothes, the shop will include jewellery brands including Enamel Copenhagen, Chambers and Beau and Anna Beck and a well put together selection of shoes from companies such as Shoe the Bear, Woden, Alpe and DATE.
With more than 20 years working within the fashion and retail industries, Abigail said she was excited to be bringing Domino Style to Leamington.
She said: “Domino Style and Leamington were meant to be together. Both are young at heart, happy, vibrant and full of colour and I’m delighted to be sharing our amazing brands in this wonderful town.
“It’s been a dream of mine to expand the business and I’m thrilled to be able to do it now. The past two years have been tough, but hard work, determination, my wonderful staff and most importantly my amazing customers have allowed me to do this and I can’t wait to showcase all our fabulous brands to Leamington.
“We will have incredible clothes, fabulous shoes, and gorgeous jewellery all brought to you with the best customer service by this amazing team.”
As well as the shops, Domino Style has an online presence with Abigail regularly showcasing fashion edits and styling advice videos on Instagram and Facebook.
It was this which got her noticed by Drapers, the fashion industry bible, and subsequently nominated, and becoming a finalist in their Independent Awards for Best Use of Social Media in 2021.
Domino Style has also featured in Drapers’ 100 most inspirational independent retailers and was also included in Grazia magazine’s list of the best independent boutiques in the UK in 2021.
