How many former Woolworths can Graham visit in one day?

Graham Soult

Retail consultant, writer, blogger; helping retailers via CannyInsights.com and CannySites.com. Say hello on Twitter at @soult!

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15 Responses

  1. Steve Oliver says:

    I thought that the Waremart store in Middlesbrough captured the Woolworths vibe a lot better than Redcar did. The shopping centre only recently took the Woolworths signage down from outside, which I complained about. For the sake of English heritage we should have left reminders. M’bro now has a cheap shop which doesn’t look, feel or smell like a Woolworths, and so the vibe has gone. I have written about Woolworths on these occasions:
    http://thesteveoliverblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/panic-buying-pick-n-mix.html

    http://thesteveoliverblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/like-stepping-back-in-time.html

    http://thesteveoliverblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/destroying-legacy.html

  2. Graham Soult says:

    That’s fascinating Gareth – many thanks! I’ll have to keep an eye out next time I visit Stockton and Middlesbrough again.

  3. Gareth Hill says:

    Having been to Stockton and Middlesbrough,the former Woolworths stores you visited, were not the original stores in these towns. Firstly in Stockton, up until the opening of the Castle Centre, Woolworths was at the other end of the High Street between M&S and Debenhams, it is now a YMCA charity shop near the corner of what is left of Wellington Street. When Woolworths moved to the Castle Centre, the then North Eastern Co-Operative Society acquired the store to connect to their Wellington Street Department Store which gave them a some high street frontage. The store closed in the early 90s and sadly the impressive Wellington Street Building was demolished to make way for the bland Wellington Square Shopping development. In Middlesbrough the former Woolworths in the Hill Street centre was actually Woolworths’ fourth store in Middlesbrough. The first was on Linthorpe Road, opposite the Sony Centre. In the 1950s they moved a few doors up Linthorpe Road to a new Department Store, just before Binns corner. This was one of the many larger stores which had large food halls which closed in the early 80s when the British arm of the business was sold. This building was split into three separate units. For a few years there was no Woolworths presence in Middlesbrough. Then in about 1990 there was a short-lived Woolworths Music & Video store in a corner unit diagonally opposite the store you visited. You may therefore have visited a further three former Woolworths.

  1. October 13, 2009

    […] I can’t claim to make a habit of visiting six old Woolies stores in the same day (including Houghton-le-Spring, above), I have managed to build up a pretty good collection of […]

  2. November 19, 2009

    […] I can’t claim to make a habit of visiting six old Woolies stores in the same day (including Whitley Bay, above), I have managed to build up a pretty good collection of former […]

  3. December 16, 2009

    […] in September, you might recall me trumpeting the fact that I’d visited six old Woolworths in a day. Today, however, I must confess to […]

  4. January 4, 2010

    […] always delighted when people comment on my blog posts, and a recent contribution from Gareth Hill has proved particularly interesting in shedding light on the history of Woolworths’ […]

  5. August 20, 2010

    […] missed Stockton-on-Tees’ original Woolworths when I first visited the town nearly a year ago, I’ve been keen to go back and capture a photograph of it for the […]

  6. November 2, 2010

    […] like the archaic WHSmith logo that I happened upon in Redcar, it’s an interesting example of a retailer rebranding but forgetting – or just not bothering […]

  7. November 17, 2010

    […] large empty Woolies site in Middleton Grange’s Central Square (store #322) – previously photographed here – being reoccupied. However, a British Heart Foundation furniture shop has opened up in what […]

  8. November 18, 2010

    […] the south of the county, the former Woolworths in both Selby and Skipton have – like the one in Redcar – been taken over by the Yorkshire Trading […]

  9. May 5, 2011

    […] only been to Redcar once before, back in September 2009, but I took an immediate liking to the place. The wide, pedestrianised High Street is a pleasing […]

  10. May 5, 2011

    […] One of my main motivations for visiting Redcar yesterday was to get a photo of the town’s original former Woolworths at 19 High Street, above, which – inexplicably – I’d failed to spot when I was there the previous time. […]

  11. May 8, 2011

    […] readers will recall that when I first visited Middlesbrough in September 2009, the large ex-Woolworths site (store #1200) was occupied, on a short-term lease, by a discount […]

  12. January 10, 2012

    […] my first visit to Middlesbrough’s most recent former Woolworths – the site of today’s Discount UK – back in September 2009, Soult’s Retail […]

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