Self Storage in York

At first glance York isn’t the type of place many people would associate with the metallic elegance of modern self storage facilities. It tends to be thought of as an attractively medieval city, dominated by historic landmarks like York Minster and a street – called ‘Shambles’ after an archaic term for the meat markets that used to  fill it – that in March this year was voted Britain’s most picturesque by members of the general public.

Yet not far from the centre of York are two modern self storage facilities. How do they fit in with this image?

Why do people need self storage in York?

In actual fact, York has changed a great deal in recent years, for reasons that are both local and reflective of nationwide phenomena. Several key factors have made people in York need temporary storage space more than they used to.

One change has been the relentless shrinking of household size as people put off getting married, divorce more readily and generally spend longer living alone. Nearly a third of York’s households contain only one person (above the national average), and people on their own can often afford only very small dwellings where there isn’t enough room for all the items they own ‒ giving them a need for self storage units elsewhere to keep them in instead.

Self storage in York must also benefit from the high number of students who live there as, like many of Britain’s major cities, it now has two universities. This has been a fairly recent development: York University was founded in 1963, while York St. John University has existed only since 2006. Between them they have over 20,000 students, including a high proportion from outside the EU, who are likely to use self storage in York for their possessions during the holidays as it’s often cheaper than shipping things back home.

York also bucks its image, in that it had actually had a strong industrial sector until the 1980s, specialising in railway locomotive repair and, unusually, chocolate factories (Rowntree’s and Terry’s both had their headquarters in York, and Nestlé York still do). These have declined in recent decades, leaving behind large numbers of former factories and railway sheds, which make ideal locations for self storage facilities.

Who provides self storage in York?

Pickfords, the national removal company, have one of their four dedicated self storage centres on James Street towards the edge of York (the others are in Edinburgh, Cambridge and Bath). It occupies a modern, large warehouse building and is conveniently located for the University of York’s main campus.

Stadium Self Storage is the other dedicated self storage company in York. They occupy a similar building to Pickfords just up the road from them in the same industrial development. This is part of a larger self storage firm that also has branches in Bradford and Huddersfield.

In addition to these two dedicated self storage firms, York is also home to several removals businesses that advertise a storage or self storage service. These include Hooks Removals, and Mitchells & Pocklington Removals and Storage, and together are testament to the significant and growing demand that exists for self storage facilities in York.