Our Bury St Edmunds Festive Window Winner

Staff at a Bury St Edmunds boutique, which celebrated 30 years in Abbeygate Street this year, were given more Christmas cheer today after Javelin won the annual Our Bury St Edmunds Best Dressed Christmas Window competition.   Their fairground-inspired Winter Wonderland display was described by the judge as reminiscent of the famous Galeries Lafayette displays in Paris.
 
 
 
A different judge is invited to choose the winner each year in the competition organised by Our Bury St Edmunds, which runs the Business Improvement District (BID).  This year Wil Bryant, who is deputy Chairman of the BID, selected a winner and two runners up from what he described as a very competitive shortlist.  Highly Commended runners-up were Beautiful Beers in St Johns Street and collectively the town’s twice-weekly Market.
 
 
 
Mr Bryant revealed that choosing a winner had been incredibly difficult.  He said:  â€œThe standards were so high in pretty much every type of business from cafes to florists, art galleries to estate agents.  I ended up with about a dozen different windows on my ‘shortlist’.  However, Javelin’s window is interesting, it has moving parts, and clearly a lot of thought and effort has gone into it. As well as that, there were people stopping to look at it the whole time I was there.”
 
 
 
The winning window shows a Christmas fairground complete with a rotating ferris wheel.  Jeremy Clayton who owns Javelin said: “We always make a special effort with our Christmas window and have been fortunate enough to have won once before, five years ago, as well as being runner-up a couple of times.  With this year being our 30 th anniversary though, we really went to town on the display and it’s wonderful to see that work recognised by winning the trophy.”
 
 
 
Javelin will now hold the prestigious Our Bury St Edmunds shield for a year.  It was presented this morning by the organisation’s Chief Executive Mark Cordell and Wil Bryant.  Mark commented:  “I very much appreciate how much time Wil put into selecting his winner and runners up.  Congratulations to the team at Javelin for producing a really eye-catching festive window, but all the businesses in Bury St Edmunds make a huge effort with their windows and the competition gets stronger every year.  It’s great to see Beautiful Beers in St Johns Street recognised too and Wil’s other runner up, the market, really encapsulates the whole experience of Christmas shopping in a fabulous market town.”
 
 
 
Rene van der Oort who owns Beautiful Beers said: “The shop window is so important to attract customers inside, I’m delighted that our festive efforts have been appreciated.” And
 
Cllr Peter Stevens, West Suffolk Council Cabinet Member responsible for the market, commented: “The Wednesday and Saturday markets are an important part of the Bury St Edmunds experience and although it’s one of the busiest months of the year the traders make a real effort to decorate their individual stalls.  I know they will all be thrilled at this recognition of their efforts.”  
 
 
 
For more information visit www.ourburystedmunds.com. .