Castle Gates is a Happening Place

Castle Gates is a really happening part of the town these days. I mean, it may not always appear this way (especially if it's raining and you're in a hurry) – but look more closely and you'll see it's positively buzzing; fizzing like a shaken-up bottle of champagne.

And then occasionally, just occasionally, like last Thursday night, for example, it simply bursts into life. I'm talking high-octane Balkan folk-punk mayhem (imagine Madness playing Eastern European tunes merged with Hammer Horror tales of the supernatural). But more of that later!

Back to daytime Castle Gates . . . There can't be that many one-hundred-yard zones in which you can purchase artisan breads, unusual jams, and old-fashioned sweets, and then, in the evening, experience the aforementioned high-energy, lots-of-fun music that can make you feel 18 again even though you're actually old enough to remember Fireball XL5.

What on earth is he going on about, I hear you cry.

Well, I have in mind in particular a cluster of newish businesses that have turned Castle Gates into a thriving place, the atmosphere of which would be more readily associated with cool, student-packed areas of cities like Bristol and Edinburgh.

There's Pomona Grocery, the Shrewsbury Coffee House, the Shrewsbury Bakehouse, and Sweet Temptation.

Where to begin?

Let's start with Pomona Grocery. I stepped inside the shop the other day and it was so charming and timeless that I thought I might have accidentally stepped into a store in Harry Potter's Diagon Alley. I would not have been surprised to discover that there was a wand emporium next door, and, across the road, Gringotts Wizarding Bank, Quality Quidditch Supplies and The Leaky Cauldron pub.

I learned from a poster in the window (which includes a poem by William Morris, 1834-96, and a painting of the sexy little minx herself by Nicholas Fouche, circa 1700), that Pomona is the Queen of Apples, a goddess of fruitful abundance in ancient Roman mythology. And so – the Pomona Grocery. A perfect name for a perfect shop.

With its fruit, veg, cheeses and retro-confectionery, this is a quality grocers with the accent on local and organic – but it's so much more than that.

Just a few doors down the road at 7 Castle Gates you'll find the Shrewsbury Bakehouse, another wonderful enterprise offering hand-baked breads, 'superior flavoured and textured breads' indeed, as well as possibly the best vegetable pasty in the Northern Hemisphere.

Across the road from The Granada, meanwhile, is Sweet Sensation, a shop straight out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, specialising in old-fashioned sweets and confectionery of every kind. Brilliant!

And so to the Shrewsbury Coffee House. By the way, I was sitting in here the other day when I noticed for the first time the way in which the right hand side of The Bull's Head (directly across the road) has, over the centuries, sunk a couple of foot into the ground. Further evidence, methinks, that this is actually Diagon Alley. But I digress . . .

Yes, the Shrewsbury Coffee House – low-level lighting, scrubbed floorboards, an explosion of framed pictures covering the walls. Superb. Yes, it's noisy (no soft furnishings to absorb the sound), but it's noisy in a good way. On a typical afternoon, surprisingly unobtrusive rock 'n' roll classics play in the background and the music sort of mixes with the sound of the traffic powering its way up Castle Gates, but this all adds to the liveliness of the place. They do iced teas, coffees of every kind, tuna melt sandwiches, cakes and gateaux, chilled lagers, ciders, wine, bottled ales, savoury things.

And then last Thursday night something magical happened. The coffee house became packed (it only needed around 50 people, it's not a large place) as music fans gathered to enjoy Sheelanagig who have burst forth from the Bristol music scene with their fast-paced, tremendously rhythmic jazz-folk. Their two tremendously gifted frontmen are a scarlet-shirted flautist and a Sinatra-hatted violinist. Joining them are an equally talented trio on double-bass, drums and guitar. Together they generate enough energy to send a rocket to Mars.

For me, this amazing gig put the seal on it. Castle Gates is an extraordinary little part of Shrewsbury.