Former Woolworths (now Farmfoods), Hawick (29 May 2011)

With a visit to Edinburgh imminent – which will no doubt involve at least one or two Woolies-spotting detours – I figured it was time to do something with some previous Scottish photographs that I’ve had lurking in my archive.

The focus, then, of this post is the Scottish Borders – an area more than twice the size of County Durham, but one that offers fairly slim pickings as far as former Woolworths sites are concerned.

As far as I’m aware, only the county’s two largest towns ever had a Woolies store. Hawick (store #413), opened at 46 High Street in about 1930, followed by Galashiels (store #486) on 22 October 1932; both lasted until the chain’s eventual collapse in 2008. In contrast, settlements such as Selkirk, Kelso and Peebles seem to have missed out, even though Woolworths did, at various times, have stores in similar-sized small towns elsewhere (such as Launceston and Barnard Castle).

As you might expect, given its age, the Hawick store’s appearance is typical of the purpose-built 1930s small-town Woolworths, with all the usual features – symmetrical frontage, five bays, central pediment – present and correct. Indeed, as you can see from comparing the two shots below, the frontage is almost identical in scale and style to that of the contemporaneous Penrith store (#416).

Former Woolworths (now Farmfoods), Hawick (29 May 2011)

Former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains), Penrith (19 Jun 2010)

As is normally the case, however, the Hawick store’s elegant original shopfront – shown in the 1931 photograph, below – was replaced with the latterday Woolies one in the 1960s, recognisable across the country by its black granite stall riser and metal-framed doors and glazing. At some point, the original brick and stonework was also covered with a not especially appealing coat of cream-coloured paint.

Woolworths, Hawick, in 1931. Photograph courtesy of Ettrick Graphics

Like many of the value retailers that have taken over former Woolworths locations, the new occupant, Farmfoods, has chosen to keep the existing shopfront as it is, ensuring that it will still look like an old Woolies for some time to come!

Former Woolworths (now Farmfoods), Hawick (29 May 2011)

Galashiels’ store at 25 Channel Street, from a couple of years later, is similarly typical of the ‘stretched’ frontage that was used for larger stores in the 1930s.

Former Woolworths (now Home Bargains), Galashiels (27 Dec 2011)

Here, however, the incoming tenant – value retailer Home Bargains – has adopted its usual approach of installing a brand-new dark-grey shopfront, echoing the investment that it’s made in other former Woolies sites such as Tamworth, Berwick-upon-Tweed (below) and Prestatyn.

Former Woolworths (now Home Bargains), Berwick-upon-Tweed (24 Aug 2010)

However, whereas those stores all feature Home Bargains’ toned-down ‘heritage’ signage in burgundy and grey, Galashiels gets the standard red and pale blue version – and the fascia lights up, too. A contact at Home Bargains once told me that the more discreet signage is used when local planners are unhappy with the more garish alternative; one can only imagine that the planners in Galashiels didn’t make as much fuss as the others, as Channel Street certainly has as much historic character – and probably more – than Tamworth’s George Street.

Channel Street, Galashiels (27 Dec 2011)

The fading light when I visited last month meant that I only spent a short time in Galashiels, but my impression of Channel Street was of quite a handsome thoroughfare. It was only let down, I felt, by the steady stream of buses (a slightly curious experience, given that the road surface was more akin to that of a pedestrianised street), and by the proliferation of rather second-rate retail names.

Galashiels does have some big-name stores – among them Next, M&S Simply Food, Boots and New Look – but these are located slightly away from the centre at the fairly new Gala Water Retail Park. There’s also a large Asda behind the retail park, opened at the same time, and a longer-established Tesco that includes a pedestrian link between the new developments and the original town centre.

Taken together, there’s no doubt that Galashiels has a reasonably strong retail offer for a town of its size, but I couldn’t help thinking that Channel Street felt like a hotchpotch of shops that were left over – a high street without an anchor, and that no longer felt like an obvious destination.

When even Boots has left Channel Street to move over to the retail park, there’s clearly a job to do in reassessing and reinventing what Galashiels’ traditional town centre is for. Perhaps the reopening of the Waverley Line as the new Borders Railway – scheduled for December 2014 – will, as Transport Scotland hopes, “inject a new lease of life into an area that has not been served by a mainline railway for over 40 years”.

High Street and Town Hall, Hawick (29 May 2011)

Hawick, in contrast, will only get its train service back if the reopened Borders Railway is ever extended beyond the present intended terminus at Tweedbank. Compared to Galashiels, however, it has less of an issue with out-of-town retail, and a high street that is packed with character and lovely buildings – most notably the fabulous Town Hall in the Scots baronial style.

Former Almstrongs department store, Hawick (29 May 2011)

Visiting last May, however, I was struck by the number of empty shops – including Almstrongs, a closed-down independent department store – and by the high street’s overall quietness on a Bank Holiday Sunday. Even finding a place to eat was quite a challenge, with the local cafés (not open on Sunday) losing out on our cash to the ubiquitous Wetherspoon’s.

High Street, Hawick (29 May 2011)

Yet, of all the country’s high streets, Hawick is fortunate in having a fantastic sense of place, with fine buildings, a rich history, and a great heritage (continuing today) as a centre for knitwear production. Overall, it felt like a town that could be doing a lot more, Hexham-or Barnard-Castle-style, to capitalise on its assets: promoting independent retailers, and developing and marketing itself to both locals and potential tourists as an attractive destination to shop, eat and linger.

On my retail-related travels over the last three years, I’ve visited more than 150 town centres across the country – and some of those start from a position of having few historic assets, or are saddled with a dreary and soulless 1960s shopping precinct that only demolition will remedy.

It’s time that the powers-that-be in our more characterful centres – like Galashiels and Hawick – realised what fantastic potential those places have, and showed creativity, innovation and foresight in creating a modern and distinctive high street that can still thrive in an age of online and Internet retailing.

Many thanks to Ettrick Graphics for giving me permission to reproduce the 1931 photograph of Hawick Woolworths.

Poundland, Hexham (19 Nov 2011)

Poundland opened the doors of its new Hexham store last Thursday (17 November) – and I understand that another Northumberland Poundland will be opening in Ashington soon.

The new Hexham store was having a ‘family fun day’ when I visited on Saturday, with the result that every child in Hexham town centre seemed to be carrying a Poundland balloon.

Looking beyond the initial razzmattazz, I suspect that the store will still do very well. It’s very visible, carries a good range in a decent-sized space, and lacks much in the way of competition. Though Hexham has a well-stocked but careworn Poundstretcher, the town is relatively unusual for the North East in having neither Wilkinson nor Home Bargains.

Poundland, Hexham (19 Nov 2011)

Meanwhile, having only had one Northumberland store (in Cramlington) prior to Hexham’s opening last week, Poundland is set to quickly add a third. I understand that the retailer has taken over the old Ethel Austin premises in Ashington, with contractors already on site and jobs being advertised. Given the quick turnaround in Hexham, we can surely expect the Ashington store to be opening well before Christmas.

Coming hot on the heels of recent new stores in Peterlee (in the former Woolworths – which I obviously need to visit!), Bishop Auckland (another ex-Ethel Austin) and Durham’s Arnison Retail Centre (previously Bensons for Beds and Ponden Home), Poundland’s expansion in the North East certainly shows no sign of letting up just yet.

With a UK store count now at more than 360 and rising, Poundland’s estate has increased by an astonishing 200 shops in the last three years. However, there must surely become a point – in just a few years’ time at the current rate of expansion – where Poundland has stores in almost all the places where it wants them.

Little wonder then that Poundland has recently launched a new fascia, Dealz, that it can potentially roll out across the eurozone, starting in Ireland. It’s a canny move that should ensure Poundland’s continued expansion, even once its domestic market is saturated.

Poundland fascia

One of the few empty shops in Hexham will soon be occupied again, with Poundland set to move into the former Heron Foods site in Priestpopple.

Though no opening date has been confirmed yet, store jobs have been advertised and a planning application submitted for “one internally illuminated fascia sign and one internally illuminated hanging sign”. Drawings of the signage attached to the application confirm Poundland as the retailer in question. [UPDATE, 14 Nov 2011: The opening has now been confirmed for this coming Thursday, 17 November.]

The move is significant in that it’s outside Hexham’s main pedestrianised thoroughfare of Fore Street, where multiple retailers have tended to cluster. That street, however, is consistently fully let, with Mountain Warehouse (in the former Stead & Simpson) and Iceland (in the old Woolworths) among the recent arrivals.

Priestpopple, Hexham (4 Dec 2010)

Priestpopple and Market Street, in contrast, have tended to have a higher proportion of independent stores. Nevertheless, the former Heron site is in a good location – close to the bus station, opposite the side entrance to Beales department store (formerly Robbs), and on the way to the hidden Marks & Spencer in Maidens Walk – and Poundland’s arrival is likely to drive footfall further.

Beales' side entrance, Hexham (18 Sep 2011)

Hexham’s shop vacancy rate is traditionally in the low single figures, and this letting again confirms the Northumberland town’s attractiveness to retailers – as well as Poundland’s continued foray into more upmarket locations. The joy of Hexham as a shopping destination is that it combines a good mix of chains with some superb independent shops and cafés, such as Dillies (flower, chocolate and wine shop) in Market Street, and the delightful Artful gallery and Cornmill Coffee Shop in St Mary’s Chare.

Dillies, Hexham (19 Aug 2010)

As I’ve noted before, however, tentative plans for the relocation and redevelopment of Hexham’s bus station need to be progressed if the town is to capitalise on all those big-name retail space requirements that currently cannot be met.

Wellworth It! in Ledbury (8 Oct 2011)

Dorchester’s famous Wellworths may have had to change its name to Wellchester at Shop Direct’s behest, but a store in the Herefordshire town of Ledbury is still evoking the memory of Woolworths in both name and visual identity.

Ledbury’s Woolworths (store #696) opened at 6-8 The Homend on 9 July 1937, and went on to serve the historic market town – famous for its timber-framed buildings – for more than 70 years until the chain’s 2008 collapse. Its replacement, Wellworth It!, opened in March last year, and – like any good ‘son of Woolies’ store – stocks a familiar and well-priced mix of homewares, garden tools, cleaning products, stationery, greetings cards, toys and the like.

Wellworth It! in Ledbury (8 Oct 2011)

What’s most interesting about the store, however, is its branding. Where previous attempts to reinvent the Woolies formula have played on the name but not the imagery – be it the blue and orange of Claire Robertson’s Wellworths, the purple of the now-defunct Alworths chain, or the black and yellow of the short-lived Well Worth It (no relation) in Wallsend – Wellworth It!’s red frontage is unashamedly ‘inspired’ by that of Woolworths. Indeed, the fascia even uses the old Woolies font (below).

Pre-collapse Woolworths logo (top) and Shop Direct's version since 2009 (bottom)

Fortunately, Shop Direct has adopted a slightly different logo (above) since reinventing Woolworths online, as Woolworths.co.uk, in 2009; otherwise, you suspect that the home shopping giant would have had something to say about happenings in Ledbury.

With the Woolworths connection so apparent in the store’s current frontage, it’s fitting that the building itself is hard to mistake for anything else. Though the property features the five-bayed symmetrical frontage that typifies Woolworths’ stores of the period, the architectural detail – including the addition of quoins (decorative cornerstones) and window pediments – is a little more ornate than usual. Indeed, the design is almost identical to that of Sidmouth, below (#729): opened about a year after Ledbury, and a store that I visited last month but have yet to blog about.

Former Woolworths (now M&Co), Sidmouth (7 Sep 2011)

At Sidmouth, the pediment of the central window extends above the parapet, giving the frontage a sense of being properly finished off. A similar feature is visible at Ledbury, too, in the c1970s postcards below, but must at some point subsequently have been levelled off when the parapet was replaced. A minor niggle, perhaps, but something that studying architecture at university for six years makes hard not to notice!

Postcard of Ledbury Woolworths in the 1970s (?)

Postcard of Ledbury Woolworths, sent in 1975

Once inside Wellworth It!, however, the store feels surprisingly unlike a former Woolworths, and has much more of the character of an independent hardware store, rather like Proper Job on Clevedon’s old Woolies site (#992). The carpet throughout gives a different feel to the traditional Woolworths wooden floor – which is still in place at Wellchester and many of the other taken-over stores – while the storeroom and warehouse at the rear of the shop has been transformed into additional selling space. When I visited, garden furniture seemed to be giving way to Christmas ranges.

On the downside, I’d like Wellworth It! to do something about the ‘unwelcoming signs’ that are, as I noted last year, so rightly frowned upon by The Retail Doctor, Bob Phibbs.

Everywhere I went in the store, I felt like I was being told off – ‘do not open the packaging’, ‘all breakages must be paid for’, or occasionally both messages at the same time. Perhaps most bizarrely, the ramp leading down to the former stockroom area had a large notice along the lines of ‘this ramp is strictly for use by wheelchairs only’; woe betide any mother with a pushchair that tried to use it instead.

In a small town like Ledbury, there’s no doubt that Wellworth It! performs a valuable role in selling a bit of everything, and ensuring that the local community doesn’t have to travel out of town for everyday items. However, if Wellworth It! is to evoke the warmth and personality of the old Woolies brand – and not just the visual imagery – then it could do worse than toning down the negative messaging.

Former Woolworths, Hitchin (22 Sep 2011). Photograph by Steve Hack

Earlier in the week I mentioned how the former Woolworths in Newquay had been divided up between Poundland and Peacocks. Now the same process is underway in Hitchin (store #452).

Steve Hack sent me this photograph that he took in the historic Hertfordshire town yesterday, showing the development of both stores well underway. While Peacocks has a poster on the hoardings announcing its arrival, Poundland’s impending opening – set for Thursday next week (29 September) – is given away by the distinctive turquoise paintwork that now adorns the other half of the property.

Poster at Peacocks, Hitchin (22 Sep 2011). Photograph by Steve Hack

Though I’ve never visited Hitchin, my understanding is that it’s rather an upmarket town, with lots of independent shops and cafés and a low number of empty stores.

As Poundland continues to widen its target demographic and approaches a store count of 350 – double the number that existed just three years ago – it’s clear that the chain’s juggernaut of growth shows no sign of slowing down yet.

Former Woolworths (now Superdrug), Redruth (19 Feb 2011)

In my last post I mentioned my February visit to Cornwall, writing about one of the county’s former Woolworths – in Launceston (store #812) – that had closed down many years prior to the chain’s collapse.

When Woolies folded in 2008, Cornwall still had ten trading stores. Most of these – in St Austell (#291), Camborne (#304), Falmouth (#306), Bodmin (#569), Liskeard (#623), Penzance (#651) and Newquay (#730) – had opened during Woolworths’ golden age of the 1920s and 30s, with a further trio – Truro (#836), St Ives (#863) and Helston (#920) – added in the mid-1950s. I visited and photographed several of these stores, which I will feature in future posts.

Besides Launceston, I’m only aware of two other long-closed Cornish Woolworths stores. Intriguingly, both belonged to the historic former copper mining town of Redruth – though I didn’t actually know this until after I’d already paid my flying visit.

Fore Street, Redruth (19 Feb 2011)

Though I had no evidence at the time, I rather assumed that a town the size of Redruth (12,000 people) would have had a Woolworths at some point, so my task while visiting was to identify its likely location. Happily, one of my guesses – and photographs – was the right one.

Redruth’s original Woolworths was located at 72 Fore Street, in rather handsome premises occupied today by Superdrug. I don’t yet have a Woolies store number, but the fact that the 1870s former Trounson’s building predates Woolworths’ occupation suggests a 1950s opening. As I’ve noted before, Woolworths’ prewar town centre stores tended to be housed in purpose-built premises, and those afterwards in existing properties. [UPDATE, 12 September 2011: The 'New Bond' from December 1960 mentions the Redruth store number as 813, which would give an opening date of 1953 - making it contemporary with store #812 in Launceston.]

By way of proof, the ‘F W Woolworth & Co Ltd’ fascia can be made out in a c.1955 shot on the Francis Frith website, while the postcards below show the same building and street, pre-Woolies, during the first half of the 20th century.

Old postcard showing 72 Fore Street, c.1907

Postcard of Fore Street, Redruth, c.1915

Postcard of Fore Street, Redruth, c.1931

As far as a closure date is concerned, one source cites the 1980s. This makes sense, as the latter years of the decade were a time when Kingfisher, who by then owned both Woolworths and (since 1987) Superdrug, switched a significant number of smaller Woolies stores over to its recently acquired health and beauty fascia – hence my speculative photo of what I hoped was the former Woolworths location. The property’s record at the Cornwall Council planning website lists several applications for new signage in 1987 and 1988 (but gives no further details), which would fit with that scenario.

Fore Street, Redruth (19 Feb 2011)

Little more than a decade later, in November 2000, Redruth was – as I only realised after my visit – one of the first places in the country to gain a branch of Big W, located on the outskirts of the town at Station Road in Pool. Kingfisher’s new superstore format brought together ranges from across its fascias – Woolworths, obviously, as well as Comet, B&Q and Superdrug. However, the demerger of Woolworths Group plc from the rest of Kingfisher, on 28 August 2001, rather undermined the Big W concept, rendering the stores as very large Woolworths branches in all but name.

The store lasted barely four years before its closure – with the loss of 133 jobs – was announced in January 2005. Where 14 of the 21 Big W stores – such as those in Stockton and Tamworth – were downsized and rebranded as Woolworths, the seven with permission for food retailing were sold to Asda and Tesco, with the latter picking up the Redruth site. The store shut as Big W on 4 February 2005, opened as Tesco Extra later that year, and continues to trade today. A photo, I’m afraid, will have to follow next time I’m in that part of Cornwall.

You can quibble whether Redruth’s Big W really counts as an ex-Woolworths, given that it never traded under that fascia. However, I wonder whether there are any other localities that can claim to have had two different Woolies shops open and close over the last century, without still having a store in place at the time of the chain’s 2008 collapse? Answers on a postcard please…

Former Woolworths, Launceston (21 Feb 2011)

The hazard of doing so much travelling around interesting towns is that I end up with more retail-related photographs – and topics to blog about – than I ever have time to cover. Back in February I spent a lovely (but occasionally wet) few days in the South West, managing to combine sightseeing around beautiful Cornwall and buzzing Bristol with visits to no fewer than 11 ex-Woolies.

I plan to blog about all of these over the coming weeks, but first up is one of the most historically interesting former Woolworths sites I’ve come across – the one in the delightful town of Launceston (pronounced ‘Lanson’), in Cornwall (store #812), which opened as Woolies in 1953 but closed twenty years later.

Former Woolworths, Launceston (21 Feb 2011)

Regular readers will know that many of the Woolworths I’ve blogged about in the past feature the distinctive architecture that characterised the chain’s purpose-built stores of the 1920s and 30s. This is barely surprising, given that between the opening of Redcar (#275, and one of the early examples of the design) in 1927 and Belper (#725, and one of the last) in 1938, Woolworths’ store count grew by 450 shops – an astonishing rate of growth, even by modern standards.

After the war, however, it was the 1950s before Woolworths really started to grow again, adding another 250 or so shops during that decade. By this time, Woolies stores were tending to occupy modern premises in new towns and shopping precincts – such as Brentford (#829, opened March 1954) or Peterlee (#987, opened c.1958) – alongside some infilling in smaller market towns that had missed out during the first wave of expansion.

Former Woolworths (now M&Co), Alnwick (23 Jan 2010)

In contrast to the pre-war, new-build approach, new stores in these locations – like Launceston, Alnwick (#822, above) or Hexham (#931) – tended to occupy existing buildings. However, prior to Woolworths moving in, few properties can have had such a rich and notable history as the one at 5-7 Southgate Street in Launceston.

Built as a large town house and shop by Mr King, a ‘clothier’, in the early- to mid-eighteenth century, I understand that the property was subsequently occupied by a Mr Nicolls – selling clothing and groceries – and later by Cookes stores, prior to Woolworths’ arrival.

Recognising its architectural and historic importance, the building’s Grade II* Listing today places it among the top 8% of protected buildings in England. However, I understand from local historian Jim Edwards that this very status was what caused Woolworths to pull out from the site, finally closing the doors to its store on Saturday 9 June 1973.

It seems that the poor condition of the building, and Woolworths’ inability to secure Listed Building Consent for the modernisations that it wished to make, simply rendered the store too much trouble to keep open. Its twenty-year lifespan as a Woolies makes it, on the scale of things, one of the chain’s shorter-lived stores. Like all Woolworths, however, its presence in the town is fondly remembered. Indeed, when I phoned Launceston Library for further information, the very nice woman who answered revealed that she had – by pure coincidence – worked there herself as a schoolgirl, 43 years ago.

One upside of Woolworths’ departure is that the building retains more of its original fabric, both inside and out, than might otherwise have been the case. According to the Listing record, its extant original features include the hornless sashes with thick glazing bars on the front elevation, and original cornices, ceilings and panelling internally. However, ceilings that were still decorated when Woolworths moved in were apparently lost during subsequent modifications.

The elegant transomed shopfront, dating from the early 20th century, is also intact, though the discordant modern treatment of the restaurant and shop parts – one section green, the other blue – makes it less easy to appreciate. The same shopfront is clearly shown in a c.1960 Francis Frith view, when the store was trading as Woolworths.

Indeed, the iconic view towards Launceston’s medieval Southgate Arch is one that has changed little over the decades, as comparison of the two similar images below shows. Again, the Frith site features an almost identical view from the 1960s.

Postcard of Southgate Street, Launceston, c.1908

Southgate Street, Launceston (21 Feb 2011)

The Grade II Listed black and white pub – today’s Baker’s Arms, but formerly the King’s Arms, built on what was originally 5-7′s garden – is clearly visible in both views above, as is the building on the corner of Broad Street (today’s Oxfam), also Grade II listed, with its distinctive slate-hung façade.

The building on the far left of both shots – today’s Halifax – is also the same, even if it has been rather modified since its days as an ‘Aertex Cellular Depot’. Though the name on the fascia is too faint to make out in the c.1908 view, it was, I believe, a business called Procter and Kent. Perhaps unwisely, the business kept gunpowder, oil and paint on the upper floors; when the upstairs caught fire on one occasion, I’m told that the people of Launceston were treated to an unplanned firework display!

The main change between the two views is the replacement of the redbrick building at no. 3 in the top shot, on the site of the present-day Wroes department store. Still present in Frith’s 1960s view, the old building projected further out into the street than its replacement, which is why the property at nos. 5-7 beyond is almost entirely obscured. For any small market town, having a successful independent department store is an incredible asset; it’s just a pity that the building – which presumably predates Wroes’ arrival in 1992 – is so much drearier than the one that it replaced, and rather out of keeping with the surrounding street scene.

Back to nos. 5-7, however, and for all that the property is architecturally important, it is also significant as the birthplace – on 23 April 1758 – of Captain Philip Gidley King RN, one of Launceston’s most famous sons. This fact is commemorated by both a blue plaque on the front façade and another plaque attached to the shopfront.

Commemorative blue plaque, 5-7 Southgate Street, Launceston (21 Feb 2011)

Commemorative plaque, 5-7 Southgate Street, Launceston (21 Feb 2011)

The son of the Mr King who had built the house, Gidley King was the founder of the first European settlement on Norfolk Island, serving as its Lieutenant Governor. Later, in 1800, he became the third Governor of New South Wales, supporting the establishment of settlements in Van Diemen’s Land (today’s Tasmania), including Launceston – named in honour of his birthplace.

Today, Tasmania’s Launceston has over 100,000 inhabitants, having far outgrown the 7,000-strong population of its Cornish namesake. Ironically, the city also accommodates several branches of the Australian Woolworths – a supermarket business that has no link whatsoever to the US and UK chain, other than copying its name when, in 1924, “it was discovered that F.W. Woolworths hadn’t registered the name in Australia and had no plans to open in Australia.”

Screenshot of Moores Furnishing website (17 May 2011)

When I visited Launceston (UK), I was expecting to find the old Woolworths building occupied by Moore’s Furnishings, a business that was – and, in fact, still is – advertising its Southgate Street shop as “the finest furniture and bed store in Launceston.”

Instead, however, I found the property vacant and ‘to let’ (through Kivells), and seemingly in the midst of redecoration. Meanwhile, the Italian restaurant, Roberto’s, that occupies the rest of the street frontage and all of the basement level is also up for sale.

I understand that Moore’s had occupied the site for just a few years, following on from other post-Woolies occupants including the Castle Café, which took over the site after Woolies closed, and a clothing and furniture store.

Jim Edwards tells me that, as far as he’s aware, there are no specific plans for the building’s future use. One way or another, however, it looks like this fascinating and historically rich building will soon be starting yet another phase of its evolution as it nears its 300th birthday.

Many thanks to Jim Edwards and to Sandra from Launceston Library for their help in filling in some of the gaps in the story of 5-7 Southgate Street.

Mountain Warehouse, Hexham (1 Jan 2011)

Visiting Hexham on New Year’s Day, I was interested to see that a new branch of Mountain Warehouse had sprung up since I was previously in the town, barely a month earlier.

The expanding outdoor retailer – which opened its 100th store earlier in 2010 – has taken over the Fore Street premises previously occupied by a tired Stead & Simpson shop, in a move that confirms Hexham’s status as a highly desirable location for retailers. Interestingly, both Mountain Warehouse and the nearby Millets were happily trading on New Year’s Day, with Beales’ decision to open up Robbs department store on the public holiday seemingly giving impetus to other stores nearby.

Fore Street, Hexham (1 Jan 2011)

The recent LDC research commissioned by the BBC’s Inside Out programme flagged Hexham as having the lowest proportion of vacant shops (just 5%) among the North East towns surveyed, and it’s certainly true that there are virtually no empty units in the town’s main shopping streets. In turn, those units that do become vacant – such as this one, or Hexham’s former Woolworths site (now Iceland) – tend to be reoccupied very swiftly.

Iceland, Hexham (1 Jan 2011)

The danger for Hexham is that if it fails to provide new space to meet this pent-up demand, top retailers seeking a south Northumberland location will continue to flock instead to Morpeth’s Sanderson Arcade. Opened at the end of 2009, that development is of very high quality, and has been well designed in a way that provides new routes between the town’s bus station, its main shopping thoroughfare (Bridge Street), and the largest supermarket (Morrisons).

These ingredients have allowed it to attract an impressive raft of top-notch retailers including M&S, Laura Ashley, Fat Face, Crew Clothing and Waterstone’s, soon to be joined by Northumberland’s first branch of Monsoon.

Beales-owned Robbs of Hexham (1 Jan 2011)

Hexham’s main opportunity for town centre retail development is the current bus station on Priestpopple, a place that is presently a rather miserable environment for bus passengers at the same time as blocking what ought to be a natural route between Robbs and the Marks & Spencer store in Maidens Walk.

The former Co-op supermarket, which traded from the M&S site for ten years until 2006, reportedly opened its store on the basis that a link with the town centre would be created – fifteen years later, the people of Hexham are still waiting for that physical connection to be made. Though the compact M&S store always seems surprisingly busy with shoppers, there must be a significant number of visitors to Hexham who arrive and depart the town without ever realising that it exists.

Making sure that 2011 is the year when the bus station redevelopment finally gets off the drawing board should ensure that M&S’s continued presence in Hexham is secured, at the same time as giving some hope to all those other big-name retailers that are still queuing up for space.

Ashbourne town centre. Photograph by Roger Cornfoot

While the 807 stores that closed down following Woolworths’ 2008 collapse are well documented and relatively easy to find on the ground, tracking down stores that shut many years ago can be more challenging.

While some buildings, such as those in Crook, Seaham or Horley, are immediately recognisable as former Woolies, many others – especially early stores, or those opened after the 1920s and 30s heyday – bear few, if any, clues to their retail past.

Recently, Soult’s Retail View reader Adam Walton alerted me to another of these long-gone and nearly-forgotten Woolworths stores, in the Derbyshire market town of Ashbourne:

There was a store in Ashbourne – I’m trying to find the photo of it, but to no avail. Google indicates a Listed former Woolworth building at number 44 St John’s Street (this is now a Vision Express store). I have asked someone I work with about this and they reckon the store in Ashbourne closed mid 1980s?

Though it’s close to my family roots in Derbyshire, and only 12 miles from Belper, where I visited a couple of weeks ago, I’ve no recollection of ever visiting Ashbourne. However, it’s definitely on my list for a future jaunt, with a town centre that seems to be packed with interesting shops and eateries, lovely historic buildings and overall charm.

Buxton Road, Ashbourne town centre. Photograph by Roger Cornfoot

In the meantime, as someone always up for a challenge, I set about trying to piece together any information I could find online about Ashbourne’s former Woolworths.

Googling “ashbourne woolworths” quickly brings up the page of Listed Buildings in Ashbourne – at the British Listed Buildings online database – that Adam had already highlighted, with the record for 44 St John’s Street here:

No 42 (Boots, Chemists); No 44 (Woolworths). C18 house – much altered. Red brick, modillion eaves cornice, tiled roof. 3 storeys, 7 windows, sashes without glazing bars. Central Venetian window with tripartite semi-circular window above. Modern shop fronts, Woolworth’s cutting into 1st floor. No 2 and 6 to 44 (even) form a group.

Given the apparent references, in the present tense, to the building’s use as a Woolworths store, my impression is that the online record that we see there would have been created at the time of the building’s listing on 25 September 1973. As you can see, the record also makes reference to there being a Boots store – now relocated to the nearby Horse & Jockey Yard – next door at number 42.

Present-day Boots, Horse & Jockey Yard, Ashbourne. Photograph by Roger Cornfoot

Having established that Woolworths was still in place in 1973, the next step was to try and find a photograph of the actual store. Frustratingly, a trawl of the excellent Picture the Past resource brought up no shot of the old Woolies, despite featuring more than 400 old photographs of Ashbourne.

One view, apparently from the 1970s, has the Boots store – with its distinctive logo – clearly visible at the bottom of the Market Place, in a composition similar to the much earlier 1930s postcard below.

Postcard of Ashbourne Market Place (c1930s)

However, the best photo I came across, described as “late 20th century”, looks to me like a 1980s shot. It is clearly post-Woolies, and shows Boots where today’s Vision Express is and Dewhurst butchers in the unit that is currently a Mind charity shop. It appears therefore (confirmed by more Google searches) that number 44 (i.e. former Woolworths) is actually the Dewhurst/Mind unit rather than Boots, which would have made it quite a small, narrow shop.

This is corroborated by the Listed Buildings record which suggests that Boots and Woolworths were both in place at the same time, and, more imnportantly, by the record’s reference to “Modern shop fronts, Woolworth’s cutting into 1st floor.” If you look again at the 1980s shot, you’ll see that this is the case with the Dewhurst shopfront, with the result that the three first-floor windows to the left of the central Venetian window are out of line with the three on the right.

In today’s view, however – as captured by Google Street View – it is clear that the original window positions have subsequently been restored. View the building from the other direction and you can see how new brickwork has been inserted (or the old perhaps cleaned up) where the height of the Mind shopfront has been lowered to match that of the building’s other bays.

So, another fascinating old Woolies building – but it would be great to uncover more details of the building’s history as a Woolworths, or to find an image of when it was still in use as a Woolies.

As always then, it’s over to you – are there any Soult’s Retail View readers out there who can help to fill the gaps?

Thank you to Roger Cornfoot for the photographs of Ashbourne town centre, which are © Copyright Roger Cornfoot, and licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Licence.

Former Woolworths (now Sports Direct), Stafford (30 Sep 2010)

The more former Woolworths stores I blog about, the more predictable it gets that I’ll be mentioning now-familiar discount names such as B&M Bargains, Home Bargains, Poundland or Sports Direct. 

Previously in Staffordshire, I’ve reported on the new occupants of Tamworth’s old Woolworths stores in the town centre (now Home Bargains) and at Ventura Park, and twice visited the old Woolies in Burton’s Cooper’s Square mall – still empty when I returned last month.  

Old Market Hall, Rugeley (30 Sep 2010)

Back in September I was able to mop up a few more old Woolworths stores in Staffordshire, kicking off with the historic market town of Rugeley. Despite spending my childhood in Tamworth, barely 15 miles away, I’d never paid a proper visit to Rugeley before. Though the dreary bus station barely leaves a good initial impression, Rugeley’s compact town centre is quite pleasant, with more interesting buildings – including the gorgeous old Market Hall – than you might expect. 

Former Woolworths (now Peacocks), Rugeley (30 Sep 2010)

Rugeley’s old Woolworths in Lower Brook Street (store #586) – pictured here in its former guise - is right at the heart of the town centre, and has been occupied by the fashion retailer Peacocks since early last year. 

Up the road, shopping in the county town of Stafford is centred around the attractive, pedestrianised Gaolgate Street, where I was pleased to see a Co-op department store still going strong. 

Co-op department store, Stafford (30 Sep 2010)

Stafford’s Co-op is owned by the Midlands Co-operative Society, which is now the second largest retail Co-op in the country (after the Co-operative Group), and has maintained a significant non-food operation at the same time as other co-ops have closed down all their department stores. 

The Stafford store’s viability is surely helped by its prominent location, a ‘Stafford Department Store’ brand that cannily emphasises its localness (seemingly a Midland’s Co-op trait, as I noted previously that the Coalville store adopts a similar approach), and the absence of any department store competition in the town. 

Though the nearby indoor mall – the Guildhall Shopping Centre – hosts more than 40 shops, I was struck by its curious lack of a major anchor store, the nearest thing being the large but oddly laid-out JJB store on the first floor. I know Debenhams is perhaps becoming too ubiquitous across the UK, but the Guildhall did feel to me like a shopping centre missing a Debenhams. 

Former Woolworths (now Sports Direct), Stafford (30 Sep 2010)

At the other end of the town, the open-air Gaolgate Place shopping precinct is very much based around a discount offer, and this is where Stafford’s former Woolworths (store #320) can be found. Sports Direct is the new occupant, though only on a short lease judging from the seemingly temporary signs stuck over the original Woolworths ones.

Market Place, Cannock (30 Sep 2010)

The nearby town of Cannock was another place that I’d never visited before. Though the part-covered Cannock Shopping Centre lacks character, I liked the busy and appealing Market Place, which had the feel of being the town’s real heart.

Former Woolworths (now Poundland), Cannock (30 Sep 2010)

Facing the Market Place, Cannock’s old Woolies (store #609) is yet another site that has been picked up by Poundland. As in Scarborough, it seems that not everyone was happy about Poundland taking over one of the town’s largest units, though the one million sales registered in the shop’s first three months would seem to tell a different story.

Rear of former Woolworths (now Poundland), Cannock (30 Sep 2010)

I previously mentioned Lichfield when the URL for Newcastle’s Monument Mall shopping centre was erroneously pointing at the site for Lichfield’s Three Spires. I’ve been to Lichfield many times before, and its very attractive city centre – packed with quaint streets and lovely buildings – always makes for an enjoyable visit.

Former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains), Lichfield (30 Sep 2010)

Unfortunately, Lichfield’s old Woolworths store (#376) is not one of the city centre’s most attractive buildings, but the arrival of B&M Bargains in 2009 at least ensured that it wasn’t empty for very long.

Rear of former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains), Lichfield (19 Mar 2010)

The more modern Three Spires shopping centre houses Lichfield’s only department store, TJ Hughes, though the city is set to gain a Debenhams if the delayed Friarsgate development ever gets off the ground. The latest design changes to the £100m scheme – reflecting the “changing market conditions” – are set to go on show to the public later this month, which perhaps bodes well for work finally getting underway before the current expiration of the planning consent in December next year.

In the coming months, any movement on mothballed retailed schemes such as Friarsgate will certainly be an important indicator of whether – and how quickly – the economy and the commercial property market is recovering after its last couple of years in the doldrums.

Former Woolworths (now Iceland), Belper (23 Dec 2010)

Following on from my 2009 visit to Alfreton, Heanor and Ripley in Derbyshire, I was able to pay a fleeting visit this festive season to the nearby town of Belper – famous for its history of textile making, and today part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.

Conveniently, the town’s former Woolies (store #725) is right next to the bus station where I arrived, and is not hard to spot. Opened on 20 May 1938, its frontage is almost identical to that of the Alfreton Woolworths (#684), which opened a year earlier.

Side view of former Woolworths (now Iceland), Belper (23 Dec 2010)

Like the North East Woolies sites in Hexham and Morpeth, Belper was one of the first stores to be taken over by another retailer, as part of the package of 51 sites acquired by Iceland just three days after the final Woolworths stores closed down. For a town with a compact centre and a population of little more than 20,000, this does mean that Belper has four decent-sized supermarkets – Iceland, Haldanes, Midlands Co-op and a large Morrisons – within a short distance of one another. On this basis, you do have to question – as campaigners already are doing – whether the town’s potential 80,000 sq ft edge-of-centre Tesco superstore is really necessary.

Haldanes, Belper (23 Dec 2010)

With Haldanes’ fledgling chain – currently comprised entirely of former Co-op/Somerfield sites – stalled for the moment at