The indoor and outdoor Barnsley Market is famous - a great place to meet local people. It can be found near to the Transport Interchange. The markets are generally open every Wednesday and Saturday.
The shops are open from around 9AM-5PM most days apart from Sundays. Most of the high street chains are present, along with a selection of smaller shops. The Arcade is a covered area found off Market Hill that seems to be going increasingly upmarket, with designer boutiques alongside more traditional shops. Pollyanna (http://www.pollyanna.com/) on Market Hill a few doors away from The Arcade is perhaps the best known designer boutique in the town, and also has an art gallery and coffee shop.
Frank Birds mens wear 40-44, Eldon St, on the arcade/eldon street Frank Bird sells a range of menswear and offers suits for hire. Very high quality designer menswear.
The High Street chains are located on Queen Street, which houses amongst others Marks and Spencer, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Burtons amongst others. Cheapside has, amongst others, Boots, WH Smith, The Body Shop, Superdrug, HMV and New Look. The Alhambra Centre is the main indoor shopping centre, although relatively small it houses Woolworths, Next, Primark, TK Maxx, Vodafone and Wilkinsons, as well as another 20 or more stores. Market Street used to be famous for its charity shops and was known locally as charity shop alley, although the number of these has dwindled in recent years and now offers more choice in terms of retailing. The area around May Day Green and Kendray Street is currently empty in terms of shops as this is the first part of the town centre to be demolished as part as the Remaking Barnsley scheme, as as result all but a handful of stores that were located here have relocated to other parts of town.
Just outside of town the Peel Centre is Barnsleys main retail park. It houses Currys, JJB Sports, Halfords, Focus and Pizza Hut as well as 10 more stores. Also across the roads is Comet, PC World, MFI, ASDA and McDonalds.
4 Miles out of the town centre is Pot House Hamlet (http://www.pothousehamlet...) is in the beautiful Silkstone village and has lots of shopping including Pookie womenswear, a ladies shoe shop, gift shops and lot of other amenities too.
During the Christmas holidays all the shops stay open very late and on Sundays and there is a special German Christmas Market. During this season there is usually a variety of brass bands playing. Historically, brass bands were often affiliated to local workplaces such as coal mines, or financial instituations in a similar way to other towns and cities in the UK.
