Shops in St. George's which failed to open during Friday night's annual Christmas walkabout missed out on a golden opportunity to do business, the Chamber of Commerce said yesterday.

Diane Gordon, the Chamber's executive vice-president, said the Old Town was extremely busy for the National Trust walk, but only a handful of the shops were open.

Restaurants did a roaring trade, with most booked out three weeks in advance she said, but she only saw about eight shops open.

There was a mixed picture from some of those shops which were open on Friday night. A spokeswoman for the English Sports Shop said: "We got absolutely nothing from the walk. We didn't have a sale after 5.30 p.m."

However a spokeswoman at Frangipani said: "We were very busy with a lot of people walking about and we got quite good sales."

The annual walk allows people to get access to many private heritage houses and buildings such as the State House, which are normally closed to the public.

"I was very disappointed not to have seen many retail stores open. I'm not sure if the retailers decided that themselves, but I'm disappointed to see some of the smaller businesses shut up," Mrs. Gordon told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

"It was a wonderful opportunity for them not just to be able to highlight the National Trust walk, but an ideal opportunity for the retailers to be open.

"Despite them having a couple of late night shopping nights coming up, this would have been an ideal opportunity for them to be open, and those that were open were very busy.

"I was delighted to see the Old Town looking so beautiful, and the Corporation, the St. George's Foundation and the National Trust did a fabulous job."

St. George's town manager Lance Furbert said some of overseas advisory committee to the St. George's Foundation were in the Old Town on Friday night and were impressed with the way it is looking.

"It was an absolutely splendid night. I don't think we could have asked for a better night and I know the Foundation was very pleased with the turnout," he said.

"We had some of the overseas advisory council to the Foundation and they all commented on how wonderful they thought the site was.

"People were encouraged to come down and walk around and see places that are not normally open like the State House and some private houses."