Cloth closes doors after over 40 years

By Milly Moore

The news was reported from a paper notice on the front door informing customers of the closure, reading “Sadly, Cloth closes today for good, thank you for your custom and best wishes for the future”.

Sadly, Cloth closes today for good, thank you for your custom and best wishes for the future.

The news was made public on Facebook on 22nd January 2026, with Durham customers expressing their disappointment and gratuity for the years of retail it’s owner Paul Ford had provided.

The shop, located in the basement at 27 Silver Street, Durham city, opened for the first time in the mid-1980s.

Cloth was a unique costume shop that provided Durham with a wide variety of vintage clothing, fabrics and party supplies. Often described as “quirky” by reviewers and customers it housed a curated selection of items for student’s fancy dress as well as sewers and vintage-lovers.

While beginning as a fabric shop it has become more affectionately known as a fancy-dress shop for loyal student customers.

Palatinate did a Profile interview on Paul in 2019 in which he explained when he moved his shop from Sunderland to Durham, Cloth began as a fabric shop in which Paul used to make “four to five ball gowns a week” and “everything was black tie thirty years ago, there was no fancy dress”.

As the years went on, he recalled students making requests for fancy dress for sports socials and nights-out. Even though he looked back fondly at times before the demand for fancy-dress, he remarked to Palatinate that “Selling just fancy dress is far easier”.

In this interview he remarked the weird and wonderful costume requests students would give him over the years fondly commenting “the weirder the better”. He recalled one of his most unusual requests: “Now this is a bit rude, but I had a girl who wanted to be a giant penis, then you get the usual handcuff stuff you know”.

The closing of the beloved shop caused customers to remark on their fond memories of the shop and its owner Paul in the Facebook comments that rushed in, only a day after the news breaking. One commenting “Fabulous shop and owner”, another saying, “always so helpful”, and many more commenting “a shame, a lovely man”, “loved it in there” along with many more tributes to Cloth’s legacy.

While it was rumoured that the closure would be imminent in Michaelmas term, the final closure still caught customers off-guard with speculation surrounding the state of Durham’s high street retail economy being potentially cited for Cloth’s shutdown.

One commenter in Facebook remarked his disappointment, commenting “Another shop gone. It’s depressing the state of our beautiful Durham.”

Another shop gone. It’s depressing the state of our beautiful Durham.

The author of the Facebook post announcing the news commented “As a retail worker of Durham, it’s become commonplace to mourn the loss of a fellow lovely retail worker” with others commenting “yet another business gone” pointing towards a broader speculation of the changing landscape for Durham’s high street.

This harks back to worries on the state of Durham’s retail in early 2022, when The Northern Echo published a report by historian David Simpson, “who was saddened by the state of the historic road” of Silver Street in Durham City, referencing an increase in boarded up shops.

While the specific reason for the shops closure is still unknown, it is clear from historical interviews and disappointed customers, that Durham’s Cloth will be missed.

Image: John Sutton via Wikimedia Commons