Trinity Square, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

It may have taken over a year to get started following the Get Carter car park’s demolition, but building work at Gateshead’s Trinity Square is now proceeding apace.

Construction of the £150m development only began at the start of November, but the speed of progress has been impressive since I photographed the first section of steel frame less than two months ago (below), close to where the car park entrance ramp used to be.

Start of construction at Trinity Square, Gateshead (4 Nov 2011)

That part of the scheme now towers over the adjacent three-storey New Century House (formerly the Co-op department store; now Argos and other shops), giving a first sense of the development’s scale along West Street – what is currently, to all intents and purposes, Gateshead’s main shopping thoroughfare. As well as the steel frame, concrete floors and staircases are also starting to go in.

Trinity Square from West Street, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

Further down West Street, another section of Trinity Square is taking shape opposite the existing Iceland and Heron Foods stores.

Trinity Square from West Street, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

Overall, it’s possible to start making out the shape of the scheme on the ground in relation to the numerous artists’ impressions that the developer, Spenhill (a subsidiary of Tesco), has made available, even if the images do make West Street look unfeasibly wide. When complete, the development will include a 175,000 sq ft Tesco Extra store, an additional 170,000 sq ft of new retail and leisure space (comprising up to 42 shop units and kiosks), over 750 parking spaces, and a 993-room student village. I understand that several well-known retail names are already lined up for the scheme, though one or two are likely to be relocations from older or overrented space elsewhere in the town centre.

Artist's impression of Trinity Square from West Street. Image courtesy of Spenhill

Unsurprisingly, the Trinity Square development has both its fans and its detractors. When I blogged about the scheme back in July last year, one reader, Seamaster, lamented the demolition of Owen Luder’s iconic car park, while James lambasted my assessment that “the Tesco store is properly integrated, visually and physically, into a wider scheme that is bold and modern.”

Anyone who follows my blogs or tweets will know that I’m not always an enthusiast of Tesco. However, from the perspective of both a retail commentator and a Gateshead resident, I stand by my positive view of the development. For me, the scheme’s unashamedly modern design and scale is much more successful, for example, than the strange modern-classical hybrid adopted by Newcastle’s recent Eldon Square extension (below).

Clayton Street frontage, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010)

The potential of a monolithic Tesco development also seems to have been avoided, both in terms of physical connectivity and the mix of uses.

Jackson Street, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

With regard to the former, the plan and images show additional shops lining West Street and High Street, as well as a new store-lined street that will connect West Street to High Street via the new town square. Together with a further pedestrian link, to Jackson Street (emerging beyond Hutchinsons in the photograph above), these connections should ensure that Gateshead town centre’s existing businesses – including recent arrivals such as Poundland (in the former Woolworths) and Wetherspoon’s – benefit from the extra footfall that the development is bound to generate.

Overall, Spenhill predicts that the scheme will result in an increase in the town centre’s retail turnover potential from £74m to £160m, and that Gateshead’s RetailVision CentreRanking will “improve by over 500 places”.

New Poundland store, Gateshead (21 Sep 2010)

In terms of the mix of uses, the development also seems to get things right. In addition to the retail space, the introduction of leisure uses and a sizable student housing component should help to address two of Gateshead town centre’s other flaws – a very limited bar and restaurant offer, and next to nothing in the way of town centre housing, both of which currently create an eeriness and lack of activity at night.

Poster at Trinity Square, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

For now, however, Gateshead shoppers still have to wait a few years longer before the development is complete. The latest issue of Gateshead Council News reports that the current Tesco store will close in mid-2012, with the new store (on much of the same site) opening in spring 2013, and the student housing being completed in summer 2014. A temporary Tesco (probably in the Metro format, given the unit’s size) is expected to operate from the old Kwik Save site in the High Street in the interim.

Former Kwik Save, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

Apart from the buzz that the students on site will bring to the scheme, Trinity Square will mean that Gateshead’s other residents also finally have a town centre that is a viable place to shop and go out in, rather than always having to head to Newcastle or Metrocentre.

At a time when Mary Portas and others are encouraging us to support and regenerate our local high streets, bringing Gateshead town centre back to life – through a bold mix of retail, leisure and housing – must surely be a good thing.

Former Woolworths, Newcastle (30 Sep 2011)

Newcastle’s ex-Woolworths in Clayton Street (store #340) has been one of a dwindling number to retain its Woolies signage three years on, as more and more of the chain’s abandoned stores have been taken over by other retailers.

Now, as news of the site’s acquisition by Poundworld has emerged this week, the lettering at Newcastle’s Woolies has finally been taken down – though years of weathering have left a very visible imprint (above).

Former Woolworths, Newcastle (30 Sep 2011)

Former Woolworths, Newcastle (17 Sep 2011)

There was plenty of activity on site when I passed by this afternoon, and several extra openings have been punched into the hoardings facing Clayton Street since I last captured the scene a fortnight ago.

I also braved taking a photo of the Newgate Centre frontage for the first time, overlooked by a watchful security camera. However, given the absence of shops ahead of the centre’s demolition, there isn’t a great deal for any potential criminals to get up to – besides photographing empty Woolworths, of course.

Newgate Centre entrance to former Woolworths (30 Sep 2011)

Though McAleer & Rushe was granted permission for the centre’s redevelopment in June last year, there’s no indication of an imminent start to demolition work. While the inside of the centre is increasingly deserted, tenants including Halfords, Subway and Jessops are still trading in many of the street-facing units.

However, it seems unlikely that Poundworld will bother to do anything with the Newgate Centre side entrance of the ex-Woolies site, given that it will, before long, need to be blocked up anyway.

Nevertheless, the Woolworths lettering has been removed from this frontage too, though the rather bizarre remnants of the shop’s 2008 Christmas decorations – as well as the customary black granite stall riser – ensure that evidence of the property’s Woolies heritage won’t be disappearing just yet.

John Lewis fascia

As the vast Westfield Stratford City opens its doors today, it’s little wonder that most of Twitter’s retail commentators seem to have decamped to east London. With 300 stores (though not yet all open) and a floor area of 1.9m sq ft (177,000 sqm), the opening of “Europe’s largest urban shopping centre” would be a noteworthy occasion at any time.

As it is, the mall is the only major shopping centre to open in the UK this year. While most major new retail developments, such as Trinity Leeds or Sheffield’s Sevenstone, have been delayed as a result of the economic downturn, Westfield Stratford City has been driven by its unique status as the gateway to London’s Olympic Park.

The site intended for Sheffield's new John Lewis (18 Aug 2011)

For John Lewis, whose 260,000 sq ft store (with 155,000 sq ft of selling space) anchors Westfield Stratford City, this stalling of new shopping centre developments has put something of a brake on its plans for new full-line department stores. Stratford City is the first one to open since Cardiff’s two years ago, while there’s unlikely to be another one before Birmingham opens in 2014. New stores that should have been opening this year – such as those in Sheffield and Portsmouth – are still several years off, assuming they happen at all.

Sheffield's existing John Lewis in Barker's Pool (18 Aug 2011)

John Lewis’s response to the development hold-ups has been to introduce new, smaller formats that will work in a wider range of locations – such as the ‘At Home’ concept that I blogged about previously – as well as continuing to invest in upgrading its existing store estate. While in the Midlands and South over the last few weeks, I was able to take a look at some of what John Lewis is up to.

John Lewis Reading's Broad Street frontage (19 Aug 2011)

Down in Berkshire, John Lewis Reading is one of the chain’s longest established stores, and is currently benefiting from a £19m makeover. Occupying a prime spot in Broad Street, the town’s main shopping thoroughfare, the store was extended in 1985 but traces its origins, as Heelas, back to 1855. The John Lewis Partnership acquired the shop in 1953, though the John Lewis fascia was only adopted in 2001.

When I visited last month, work on the second phase of the comprehensive two-stage revamp was well underway. New features of the store include a recently opened new-concept technology department, where modern interior finishes and computers on long tables create a more hands-on, Apple Store-style experience than has usually been the case at John Lewis.

John Lewis at Home, Swindon (11 Sep 2011)

Forty miles or so down the M4, the £7m John Lewis at Home in Swindon represents a relatively quick and cheap way for the retailer to circumvent development delays, and to plug the gap in coverage between its existing department stores in Reading and Bristol.

At first glance, the store’s location on the slightly dowdy Mannington Retail Park – close to an existing Carpetright, Allied Carpets and a closed-down Matalan Clearance shop – doesn’t seem especially promising, and the smaller lettable units (currently empty) that form part of the new John Lewis block bring to mind the never-occupied stores adjoining Gateshead’s ill-fated M&S Lifestore/ILVA.

Fortunately, if the busyness of the store last Sunday afternoon is anything to go by, Swindon’s John Lewis should enjoy a much more positive future. At 39,000 sq ft of selling space, the store is barely a quarter of the size of the Stratford City shop, but its range of furniture, homewares, electricals and technology, spread over two floors, seemed to compare favourably with that offered by my local JL department store in Newcastle. Prominent terminals allow customers to browse and order from the wider John Lewis range, including categories like fashion, beauty and nursery that are missing from the ‘at Home’ format.

The store itself is bright and easy to navigate, and the John Lewis Partners that I encountered were friendly and keen to engage – a positive sign as the company continues to expand so rapidly. In fact, the only slight disappointment was the rather small café, which feels more like a Waitrose instore coffee shop than the more extensive restaurant offer normally found in John Lewis department stores.

John Lewis at Home, Tamworth (3 Sep 2011)

Café quibble aside, this all bodes well for the sixth John Lewis at Home store, on Tamworth’s Ventura Retail Park, which is due to open on 12 October (following the fifth, in Chester, on 28 September). Still only a steel frame when I was there in June, the store had gained its cladding, glazing and signage by the time I returned ten days ago.

Tamworth's John Lewis dominates the view from the nearby Asda (3 Sep 2011)

Though similar in size to the Swindon store, the Tamworth shop’s location – on the UK’s tenth biggest retail park by expenditure (according to CACI Retail Footprint data), and the town’s main access road to the A5 – is much better. Where Swindon’s John Lewis needs to work as a destination in its own right – which it seems to be doing – the Tamworth store dominates the view from all over the retail park, and is likely to benefit from much more passing trade as shoppers head to the nearby Sainsbury’s, Asda, M&S or multitude of other big-name stores.

Finally, one site that was supposed to house a John Lewis at Home store – but now isn’t, quite – is the former home of Debenhams in Exeter’s Sidwell Street.

Traces of the 'Debenhams' lettering are still visible (6 Sep 2011)

Nearly a year ago, John Lewis announced plans to invest £8.5m in its first town centre ‘at Home’ store, bringing back into use the landmark 1960s tower block that Debenhams vacated, in 2007, upon the opening of its new store at the nearby Princesshay development.

New Debenhams at Princesshay, Exeter (6 Sep 2011)

Instead, the company announced in July that the Exeter shop would be the first of a new ‘flexible department store concept’, occuping between 65,000 and 100,000 sq ft – larger than at ‘at Home’ store, but not as big as a traditional John Lewis department store. The range, however, will cover all John Lewis’s categories, offering “an edited collection of products across fashion, home and electronics, in an inspiring and contemporary setting”, complemented by the chain’s online operation and the ability to order items not held instore.

Work underway at John Lewis Exeter (6 Sep 2011)

The Exeter store has a planned opening date of autumn 2012, and work appeared to be well advanced when I visited last week. A major part of the scheme involves raising the single-storey entrance pavilion to the height of the adjoining four-storey slab, creating a prominent glazed frontage to the corner of Sidwell Street and Paris Street.

The existing building, it has to be said, is not Exeter’s prettiest, but there’s no disputing the way it dominates the city’s skyline and the view along the main High Street. Fortunately, 3D renders of the enlarged store show a more comprehensive revamp of the building’s exterior than had previously been planned.

I’m not clear how Debenhams feels about a major competitor opening up in its former premises, particularly as both Princesshay and the John Lewis site are owned by Land Securities. The argument, however, would be that John Lewis’s arrival will provide a significant boost to retail in Exeter as a whole, drawing in shoppers who would previously have had to travel to the JL store at Bristol’s Cribbs Causeway.

John Lewis Bristol (18 May 2010). Photograph by Mark Leaver

CACI currently ranks Plymouth (at #26 in the UK, with annual expenditure of £760m) as the South West’s second biggest retail centre after Bristol, just ahead of Exeter (at #30 with £710m), but I’d be surprised if the benefits from John Lewis don’t lift Exeter above its Devon rival.

With John Lewis having “identified at least ten locations across the UK which could support these bespoke department stores”, and further expansion planned for the ‘at Home’ format, new John Lewis stores look likely to pop up all over the country in the next few years – helping the chain to reach more of those customers who, it believes, would like to be able to access a John Lewis shop.

The challenge, however, will be ensuring that rapid expansion doesn’t compromise the high standards of training and customer service for which John Lewis is rightly renowned; and that increasing ubiquity doesn’t undermine the very cachet that has made John Lewis so popular for so long.

Former Woolworths, Victoria Street, Derby (23 Dec 2010)

Back in January I blogged about Burton upon Trent’s original Woolworths store, and promised to turn my attention in a future post to the nearby city of Derby.

Just as in Burton, another old photograph – this time from a 1938 postcard – is to thank for me finding the location of the city’s original Woolworths store at 28-33 Victoria Street (store #29). From the store number, Woolies must have opened on this site in about 1914.

1938 photograph of Victoria Street, Derby, with Woolworths on the right

The same view today (23 Dec 2010)

To avoid having to stand in the middle of the road, I hope you’ll forgive my modern equivalent shot not being from quite from the right angle. However, just as there is plenty of continuity between the two Burton photos, it’s remarkable quite how similar today’s view of Victoria Street is to the one from seventy years ago, with all the principal buildings from the old shot – including the former Woolies on the right, the Royal Buildings on the left, and the imposing HSBC at the end of the street – still in place.

Postcard of Victoria Street, c.1908

The earliest Woolworths stores tended not to occupy purpose-built premises, though many of those shops – such as Leeds (#5, opened 1911) or Leicester (#49, opened 1915) – were subsequently rebuilt in a distinctive Woolies style.

I’m not clear whether the same was true of Derby; photographs that I’ve seen from the first years of the twentieth century (such as the c.1908 image above) appear to show the site occupied by earlier buildings at that time, but the shot below – thought to date from before 1918 – has today’s familiar property in place. Unfortunately, the detail is a little too fuzzy to be certain whether the card shows Woolworths occupying those premises.

Early (pre-1918?) view of Victoria Street, Derby

...and a similar view today (23 Dec 2010)

Today, parts of it are occupied by the health and beauty chain Savers and a branch of the thriving H&T Pawnbrokers chain, while another chunk is a former Evans store. In the extensive city centre reshuffle that followed the 2007 opening of Westfield Derby, Evans moved to the previous Topshop site; meanwhile, Victoria Street is left with a distinctly downmarket offer and quite a few voids, including an 80,000 sq ft empty Debenhams following the department store’s own relocation to Westfield.

Former Debenhams, Derby (23 Dec 2010)

Of course, retailers moving from one part of Derby city centre to another is nothing new – after all, it’s what Woolies did in 1975, when it left Victoria Street and moved to the newly-built Eagle Centre. More of that in a subsequent post.

However, Debenhams moving to a bigger store in the Westfield centre has left an especially big hole, and it has to be hoped that a permanent solution for the lovely Modernist building – originally designed for Ranby’s department store in the early 1960s by Evans, Cartwright and Woollatt, but now owned by Westfield and occupied by a short-term tenant when I visited – is found soon.

St Clare's Hospice shop, Jarrow (8 Aug 2011)

While Store Twenty One is about to take over the unoccupied part of South Shields’ former Woolies, the ex-Woolworths in Jarrow – already part-occupied by Store Twenty One – has gained a new tenant for its own vacant section.

As I reported back in November, Jarrow’s old Woolworths has been divided in two, with Store Twenty One taking the largest portion (4,112 sq ft) facing the Viking Centre’s bustling Bede Precinct. In turn, what used to be the back half of Woolies, facing the much quieter Grange Road, has been split into two further shops, totalling 3,175 sq ft. The right-hand unit, empty when I last visited (below), has now been taken over by a shop for the local St Clare’s Hospice, an independent charity that provides specialist palliative care to adults living south of the Tyne.

Grange Road frontage of former Woolworths, Jarrow (10 Nov 2010)

Monday was the first time I’d seen the unit without its shutters down, and I was pleased to see all the giveaway signs of it being an ex-Woolies, with the distinctive metal-framed shopfront and black granite stall riser. Store Twenty One, of course, has installed an entirely new shopfront on its part of the building (below), meaning that the unit’s past as a Woolworths is much less obvious from the Bede Precinct side.

Store Twenty One, Jarrow (24 Jul 2010)

Before - the former Woolworths, Jarrow (16 Dec 2009)

While the carved-up former Woolworths sites in South Shields and Jarrow inch towards full occupancy, the old Woolies in North Shields looks, sadly, to be back on the market. The well-stocked and useful MIS Wallcoverings & Textiles Superstore (formerly Cramlington Textiles) in Saville Street West, which I first visited at the end of 2009, continues to trade, but with a ‘for sale or to let’ sign above the ground-floor frontage.

MIS store (former Woolworths), North Shields (8 Aug 2011)

Marketed by local property consultants A T Retail, the particulars confirm that the 5,619 sq ft unit is being offered either for lease or for sale “with vacant possession”, though there’s currently no visible sign – other than the ‘for sale’ board – of the MIS store closing down.

Former Burton, North Shields (18 Jun 2010)

The building is both attractive and a good size, but I suspect its slightly off-centre location may be the biggest hurdle to finding a new occupant. The presence of a long-vacated and much-altered Burton’s building opposite suggests that Saville Street West was once much more of a retail thoroughfare than it is now – today, much of the street is occupied by charity shops, convenience stores and empty units, as well as a couple of disused pubs. With a bit of luck, Asda’s new store on the current Netto site in Saville Street, barely 100 metres away, might help to build footfall in the vicinity and stem the current decline.

Former Woolworths and Well Worth It, Wallsend (8 Aug 2011)

Along the river, another North Tyneside town that is looking forward to the conversion of its Netto into Asda is Wallsend. Unfortunately, the Hadrian Road supermarket is a little too far from the High Street to have much positive impact on the town’s main retail centre, but the prominent vacant Woolworths site – following a brief and unsuccessful incarnation as Well Worth It – is a potent symbol of Wallsend’s current travails, stemming at least in part from Morrisons’ failure to open its promised store on the acquired Co-op supermarket site.

Plaster Piece closing down, Wallsend (8 Aug 2011)

That has already left a big hole in the town’s Forum Shopping Centre for more than two years, which isn’t set to be filled until a planned redevelopment completes at the end of 2013. Visiting Wallsend on Monday, I spotted at least two more stores in ‘closing down’ mode, including the Plaster Piece fireplace showroom, next to the old Woolworths in Station Road, and a branch of the collapsed fashion and homewares retailer Ethel Austin (aka Life & Style).

Ethel Austin closing down, Wallsend (8 Aug 2011)

Wallsend has some decent and popular retailers, both independent and multiple, but it really could do with some new stores – such as the Store Twenty Ones and B&M Bargains of the world, as well as another reasonably priced food store – to give the town centre a much-needed boost of both morale and footfall.

The modern centre promised for 2013 looks good; the danger in the meantime, however, is that indie closures and further multiples collapsing will increasingly force Wallsend’s shoppers to look elsewhere.

Welcome to Lake Bled, Slovenia (17 Jul 2011)

Coming from Tyneside, there’s little avoiding either Mike Ashley or his continually expanding Sports Direct chain.

Newcastle city centre has two large Sports Direct stores – a former Lillywhites in Eldon Square, and a former JJB in Monument Mall – while Ashley’s ownership of Newcastle United Football Club ensures that he is constantly in the news. In turn, retail and football come together in the popularly named ‘SportsDirect.com @ St. James’ Park Stadium’, which I can see right now from my office window.

Sports Direct at Newcastle's Monument Mall (14 Apr 2011)

One of the joys of overseas holidays is the opportunity to escape the familiar and enjoy some different scenery. So, arriving in Bled, in Slovenia, last month, imagine my surprise (and, I admit, an element of dismay) when one of the first things I saw was a Sports Direct billboard at the side of the main road into the resort.

Screenshot showing Sports Direct's Slovenia stores (3 Aug 2011)

Though I wasn’t aware beforehand, it turns out that Sports Direct has had a physical store presence in Slovenia since the mid-2000s, wholly owned since 2007, and currently comprising 14 stores from Koper on the coast to Murska Sobota in the Prekmurje region bordering Hungary.

Together with stores in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, these now make up a wholly-owned estate of more than sixty Sports Direct stores outside the UK, alongside others that are run either as joint ventures or through license agreements. The company also ships to more than sixty countries via its online store at SportsDirect.com.

Hala A at BTC City, Ljubljana (26 Jul 2011)

I spotted one of the Slovenian stores in the sprawling Hala A mall that forms part of the vast BTC City out-of-town shopping complex, and it certainly appeared to be busy. The store itself, as you might expect, looks much the same as those in the UK, with its garish signage and chaotic interior.

Still, who’s to gripe at the formula when it’s consistently delivered impressive pre-tax profits for the business, including £135.5m (from sales of £1.6 bn) in the most recent year to 24 April? Giving away Joey Barton on a free transfer may not make Mike Ashley flavour of the month on Tyneside, but it’s hard to argue with Sports Direct’s recent record of success – even if it does involve giving me a surprise on holiday.

Queen's Parade frontage of former Woolworths, Hartlepool (4 May 2011)

As I briefly noted last week, Middlesbrough’s ex-Woolworths store isn’t the only one on Teesside to have recently found a new occupant. At the end of March, it was reported that Hartlepool’s former Woolies (store #322) – empty since the retailer’s collapse – is set to reopen as BHS in the autumn.

Originally opened in Lynn Street on 7 July 1928 (more of which in a future post), Hartlepool’s Woolworths branch moved to the then-new Middleton Grange Shopping Centre in 1970. The store originally had a large food hall, which was removed in 1986, and the store itself was downsized in 1990. As I observed previously, the space that Woolies freed up 21 years ago now houses Peacocks, Quicksilver and the British Heart Foundation furniture store, the latter accessed from the street rather than inside the shopping centre.

British Heart Foundation store, Hartlepool (16 Nov 2010)

I’d never visited the Woolworths store when it was still open, so wasn’t entirely familiar with the unit’s internal configuration. However, the drawings accompanying BHS’s recent planning applications for the site – H/2011/0207 and H/2011/0208 – make things much clearer.

Queen's Parade frontage of former Woolworths, Hartlepool (4 May 2011)

Despite a large proportion of the ground floor being occupied by other tenants since 1990, the plans make clear that Woolworths retained almost all the first floor. In the picture of the external (Queen’s Parade) frontage above, the ex-Woolies unit stretches the full width of the first-floor level – including the whole of the section with windows – with the British Heart Foundation store occupying just a small corner of the upper level facing Victoria Road, below.

BHF's two-storey corner unit, from Victoria Road (16 Nov 2010)

Looking at the ex-Woolies from Central Square inside the mall (below), I’d always assumed that the actual sales area covered both these levels, reinforced by the fact that there was an upper level fire exit in Victoria Walk, opposite The Galleries café. However, my impression from looking at the existing floor plans is that the post-1990 Woolworths’ sales area was, in fact, restricted to the ground floor, with the first floor used only for storage and staff rooms. I’m sure someone from Hartlepool can clarify whether that was indeed the case!

Former Middleton Grange Woolworths, Hartlepool (17 Sep 2009)

Against this backdrop, BHS’s plans for the site are especially interesting. As well as retaining a 13,948 sq ft sales area on the ground floor, new escalators will connect to a further 8,073 sq ft sales area on the first floor. There will also be a 2,019 sq ft, 119-seater café, which – if I’m reading the plans correctly – will feature new glazing overlooking the mall’s Central Square.

On the downside, the plans show that there will only be a fire exit – and no public entrance – to Queen’s Parade. Before it was downsized, the Woolworths store had a prominent frontage overlooking Victory Square, and reinstating this for Peacocks and BHS would go a long way to addressing the relentlessly inward-facing feel of Middleton Grange. As it is, the tatty Peacocks frontage – with shuttered windows and old signage – is a disgrace, looking for all the world like a closed-down shop, and doing nothing to knit the store into the pedestrian routes surrounding the shopping centre.

When I visited Hartlepool last week, there were signs of work going on inside the soon-to-be-BHS store, but nothing much to see due to all the windows being blacked out. Given the omnipresence of Middleton Grange’s security, I resisted the temptation to take any further interior shots, but will do my best to sneak something once BHS actually opens.

Screenshot of BHS Hartlepool job ad (9 May 2011)

Various positions, including Store Manager and Restaurant Manager, are already being advertised on the BHS jobs website, which reveals that the “exciting new concept store” is set to open in October, and confirms that it will offer “an exciting range of products, across Fashion and Home, to inspire our customers, along with a brand new Restaurant.” This suggests that Hartlepool’s BHS may open slightly ahead of the new Northumberland Street store in Newcastle, thereby giving us a tantalising taster of what we can expect to see here on Tyneside later in the autumn.

It may have taken Hartlepool two-and-a-half years to find a new tenant for its old Woolworths, but, ironically, it’s ended up with one of the best outcomes of any town or city in the North East. Back in December, while filming in Hartlepool with the BBC, I flagged BHS as one of the obvious potential occupants for the site, and it’s great that the unit is being filled not only with a quality name, but with a 24,000 sq ft store that will actually have more retail floorspace than its predecessor. Hartlepool still lacks a proper department store such as Debenhams, Beales or House of Fraser, but BHS’s confidence and investment should give the town centre’s fortunes a welcome fillip.

Discount UK (former Woolworths), Middlesbrough (4 May 2011)

Down on Teesside last week, I’d only really planned to have a quick look around Middlesbrough while waiting for my connecting bus to Redcar. However, I was startled to notice that the ex-Woolies (and ex-Waremart) unit in the town’s Hillstreet shopping centre had acquired a new occupant – a variety store called Discount UK – which has apparently been open since 23 April.

Regular 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 variety retailer, Waremart.

The same unit in use as Waremart (17 Sep 2009)

However, by January 2010 Waremart had gone, with the unit remaining empty throughout last year.

Former Woolworths and Waremart, Middlesbrough (28 Jun 2010)

I’d never come across Discount UK before seeing it in Middlesbrough, but it seems that it’s a new multi-price fascia from Poundworld – a way, self-evidently, of allowing the single-price retailer to sell products costing more than £1, and to therefore increase the average basket size. To date, Poundworld has acquired several ex-Woolies locations for its eponymous stores, including the West Ealing branch that I visited back in November.

Poundworld store, West Ealing (24 Nov 2010)

There’s no information on store locations on Discount UK’s website holding page, but from what I can gather there are also stores in Leeds and Stevenage, with another dozen planned for 2011. The Stevenage store, opened in January this year, is apparently housed in premises that had been empty since Littlewoods left in 2005.

Screenshot of DiscountUK website (8 May 2011)

Retail Week’s article about Discount UK quotes the chain’s boss describing it as an “up-to-date Woolies, with a vibrant look and more choice and value”, and based on my visit to the Middlesbrough store it’s hard to argue with that assessment. Where Waremart was essentially camping out in a space that still looked and felt like a Woolworths, Discount UK has completely transformed it, the palette of black, white and pink giving the store a much smarter and more upmarket feel than its value competitors, such as B&M Bargains or Family Bargains (99p Stores’ own take on the multi-price format), or indeed Poundworld’s eponymous stores.

Discount UK flyer (from Hillstreet website)

Discount UK seems like a strong addition to the Primark-anchored retail offer at Hillstreet, and was certainly busy with shoppers when I visited last Wednesday morning. It’s also a great solution to the question of what to do with Middlesbrough’s old Woolworths, given that virtually all the other takers of large ex-Woolies sites – such as Peacocks, New Look, TK Maxx, TJ Hughes, Poundland, Next and Wilkinson – were represented in the town already.

Back of Hillstreet - minus its Woolies sign (4 May 2011)

...and with the sign still in place six months ago (16 Nov 2010)

One positive side-effect of the chain’s arrival is that the Woolworths sign at the rear of the store – present throughout Waremart’s stay – has finally been taken down, reinforcing the sense that Discount UK has invested in Middlesbrough for the long term.

I hope the store does well, and encourages the chain to consider further North East sites. In Discount UK, it could be that we’ve finally found the perfect candidate for the still-vacant ex-Woolies in Newcastle city centre: a business whose presence would greatly improve the appearance of that part of Clayton Street, while still being a great fit with – and footfall driver for – the street’s value credentials.

If it comes off, don’t forget that you heard it here first…

Woolworths, South Harrow (31 Dec 2008). Photograph by Barry Marshall

Though I’ve paid several visits to London over the last year, I’ve still only scratched the surface as far as photographing the capital’s ex-Woolies stores is concerned.

One that I haven’t yet made it to is the still-vacant store in Finchley Road, Swiss Cottage (store #1214) – apparently the last remaining empty Woolies site in north London. Many thanks to Geoffrey Barraclough and Alan Walker, who both dropped me a line last week to let me know of its impending takeover by the value fashion retailer Peacocks. According to Alan, the store’s rather flamboyant neon letters – pictured below not long after its closure – have now been taken down, with work already underway on the property’s transformation.

Former Woolworths, Finchley Road (16 Jan 2009). Photograph by Christine Matthews

Following up my visit to the former Harrow store (#1198) back in May, I was also pleased to receive some photographs of the nearby store in South Harrow’s Northolt Road (#697, opened in 1937), captured by London reader Barry Marshall on New Year’s Eve 2008 during the shop’s closing-down sale.

The shot at the top of the page features the familiar posters that bedecked over 800 Woolies sites at the end of 2008, including one proclaiming ’70% off’ (as also seen in my photo of the Whitley Bay store, taken five days earlier) and another announcing the store’s ‘Last 3 days’.

Against this backdrop of closure, it’s easy to forget that the stores had been decked out, prior to the chain’s collapse, in expectation of normal Christmas trading. As Barry remarks, his photograph below – taken three days before the store’s permanent closure – is “not without sad irony.”

Woolworths, South Harrow (31 Dec 2008). Photograph by Barry Marshall

Happily the site was empty for less than a year, reopening as discount store ‘£ or 2′ in November 2009. From the images I’ve seen the shop looks quite smart, and cleverly avoids the limitations of a single-price retailer by apparently selling everything “within a price range of £1 to £2.” With our high streets now full of Poundlands, 99p Stores and even a 90p Store, I’d be curious to hear of any other unusual price point stores that readers have come across on their travels.

Former Woolworths in St George's, Harrow (14 May 2010)

Barry also gave me a status update on the ex-Woolies in Harrow’s St George’s Centre, which looked set to be taken over by Peacocks and Sports Direct when I blogged about it in May last year. He tells me, however, that the site has recently reopened as a Wilkinson store, with thousands having apparently applied for the 90 permanent and 20 temporary jobs that were on offer.

Wilkinson has picked up a relatively modest number of ex-Woolies sites, presumably due to many of the stores being too small for its requirements – those it has acquired have typically been large and often on more than one level. However, with a product mix not too dissimilar to Woolworths, an expanding national presence of over 340 stores, and pre-tax profits of nearly £65m in 2009-10, Wilkinson is surely Woolies’ natural successor in all but name – a thriving, growing and profitable business occupying the very retail territory that Woolworths once called its own.

Thank you to Christine Matthews for the shot of the former Woolworths in Finchley Road, which is © Copyright Christine Matthews, and licensed for re-use under this Creative Commons Licence.

New Next, Newcastle (14 Apr 2011)

The timescale may have slipped a little from the original April target – which is still being proclaimed by the external hoardings – but I understand that Next is now expecting to open its 55,000 sq ft Newcastle flagship store on or around Thursday 12 May.

I dropped by to check on progress yesterday morning, and the biggest change from my last update in February is the addition of the Next signage to the Blackett Street elevation.

New Next, Newcastle (23 Feb 2011)

New Next, Newcastle (14 Apr 2011)

From the outside, it does still look like there’s quite a lot of work to be wrapped up over the next four weeks. However, the huge lettering means that no-one has any excuse for not being aware that Next is on its way.

Rear of former Woolworths, MetroCentre (25 Mar 2011)

I was at Metrocentre yesterday, and noted that work seems to be progressing well on Primark’s redevelopment of the former Woolworths unit.

Though Primark’s relocation from its existing ex-Littlewoods unit had been rumoured for the best part of a year, the news was only confirmed in January. The new store is set to occupy 74,500 sq ft – seemingly larger than originally suggested – incorporating the former Woolworths site, some extra adjacent space, and the new 15,000 sq ft rear extension that was granted planning permission last May.

Though there’s nothing new to be seen from the boarded-off mall side, the rear of the store looks like it’s being prepared in readiness for the extension. The old Woolies signage has gone, along with all the brick cladding, exposing the steel frame underneath.

...and a similar view three months ago (14 Dec 2011)

As far as I’m aware, no opening date for the new Primark has been confirmed. Back in November, Capital Shopping Centres’ interim management statement for the period 1 July to 3 November 2010 suggested that the then-unnamed “major value fashion anchor” on the former Woolworths site had “a target opening of July 2011″. However, given the amount of work still to do, this now seems unrealistic.

Primark’s rather rudimentary website is little help either. Though there’s a ‘Future Stores’ link from the homepage, the map that it directs to doesn’t show any future stores at all, while the site’s ‘News Stories’ section hasn’t been updated since October. Primark does have a reputation for hiding its light under a bushel as far as PR and the media is concerned, but it always surprises me that one of the UK’s most talked about retail businesses has such an underwhelming web presence.

Next’s extension and redevelopment of a slightly smaller space in Newcastle’s Eldon Square – set to open next month – has taken the best part of a year, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Primark’s target is to be open in time for Christmas 2011. Something tells me that Tyneside shoppers will flock to the store whenever it opens, regardless of how much – or little – information we’re fed in the meantime.

New Next, Newcastle (23 Feb 2011)

Work has been underway on Newcastle’s former Arcadia site for the best part of a year, as the space is transformed into a 55,000 sq ft Next store. Like the old Topshop store that it replaces, Next will have a ground-floor street frontage to Blackett Street as well as a first-floor mall entrance to Eldon Square.

The development’s completion is now close, as hoardings around the store reveal an April opening date. As well as the core Next and Next Home offers, the banners confirm that the store will also stock the Next Sport and Lipsy ranges.

Since January last year, I’ve been recording the building’s transformation in photographs, starting with a shot (below) just before Arcadia’s brands relocated to the Eldon Square extension at St Andrew’s Way.

Still trading as Topshop (30 Jan 2010)

By May (below), the Topshop signage had gone and some holes had appeared in the Newgate Street frontage, but most of the work was evidently going on inside.

Site of new Next store in Newcastle (16 May 2010)

However, the most recent views from January (below) and February this year (top) clearly show the addition of the new structure on top of the existing flat roof, which will provide extra floorspace for Next.

The large blank frontage to Newgate Street has also been nibbled away to accommodate four double-height windows – but, as far as I understand, no doors – while the existing openings to Blackett Street have also been enlarged.

Site of new Next, Newcastle (14 Jan 2011)

Reducing the amount of blank brick wall is surely an improvement, and will undoubtedly enhance the building’s appearance.

However, given the store’s prominent corner location, I am a little disappointed that the opportunity for a more radical redevelopment has been missed. Indeed, it’s a particular pity that the street entrance is set to remain around the corner in Blackett Street, instead of a bolder and more imposing entrance being created on the Newgate Street side.

As I’ve made clear before, attracting Next to open one of its largest UK stores can only be a positive thing for Eldon Square and for Newcastle’s status as a top retail destination. As it is, however, the new store’s design means that it is likely to have a very positive effect on footfall on the mall side, but a fairly limited impact as far as enlivening the street is concerned.

Compared, for example, to how Bristol’s Cabot Circus has both fostered street-level activity and improved the appearance of existing buildings incorporated within the scheme, I can’t help feeling that something more creative could have been attempted here too.

B&M fascia

Many thanks to Lee Dymond and Martin, who both emailed me about the news of B&M Bargains opening in the former Woolworths store in Burton, Staffordshire. As I mentioned last month, the 11,000 sq ft Coopers Square unit has remained empty since Woolworths’ closure more than two years ago, but this has always seemed surprising given the shop’s busy location in a relatively modern indoor mall environment.

The news merely reinforces B&M’s status as one of the real profiters from Woolworths’ collapse, having snapped up tens of ex-Woolies stores across the country, including the one in nearby Lichfield.

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

In the North East too, B&M has been rapidly expanding its presence by mopping up space that would never normally have become available, including large units in Stockton town centre, Whitley Bay and Chester-le-Street and, most recently, a portion of the old Big W at Portrack Lane.

B&M Bargains (former Woolworths), Chester-le-Street (24 Jan 2011)

Back in August, The Local Data Company suggested that 150 ex-Woolworths stores “may never be used as shops again” – a figure that, if true, would equate to almost one fifth of the former Woolies store estate.

I’ve always been slightly sceptical of these pessimistic projections, particularly given that my own research shows that 88% (45) of the 51 ex-Woolies sites across the North East, Cumbria and North Yorkshire have already been reoccupied for retail use.

Though the initial flood of new occupants for ex-Woolies sites has inevitably dwindled as the number of available sites reduces, B&M’s takeover of the Burton unit shows that demand has not yet dried up. Indeed, news reports from across the UK over the last few weeks show other discount retailers still on the ex-Woolies acquisition trail, such as The Original Factory Shop in Bargoed and the son-of-Ethel-Austin chain Life & Style in Swansea.

Former Woolworths, Clayton Street, Newcastle (27 Sep 2009)

Of the six former Woolies locations that remain empty in the North East, four – Peterlee, Wallsend, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough – already have a B&M store in the town centre or on a nearby retail park. However, with B&M Bargains not yet having a presence in Newcastle city centre, it wouldn’t surprise me if the vacant Clayton Street Woolies site was a target for the retailer in the coming months.

Despite the nearby extension of Eldon Square, and the recent arrival of some interesting independent shops and restaurants, Clayton Street remains very much a secondary, discount-led location, with Poundstretcher, charity shops, nail bars and the ubiquitous BrightHouse among its main draws.

With its in-your-face signage and minimal shop makeovers, B&M Bargains is not everyone’s first choice as a Woolies replacement. However, no-one can dispute the business’s recent success, and it’s certainly time for something to liven up a stretch of Clayton Street that has been empty and lifeless for far too long.

Trinity Leeds logo (21 Jan 2011)

During my recent visit to Leeds city centre, one of the most visible retail developments was the ongoing construction work for Trinity Leeds, with cranes towering over the adjacent 18th century church that gives the new shopping scheme its name.

After a one-year hiatus caused by the economic downturn, work on Trinity Leeds recommenced last summer, and the development is due to open in spring 2013.

Cranes over the Holy Trinity Church, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

For the most part, Trinity Leeds’ anchors seem to be revamped versions of stores that already exist on site, including M&S, Boots, BHS and H&M. However, it promises to bring some ‘wow factor’ to the currently dreary pedestrian routes around Albion Street, as well as making space, Eldon Square-style, for the obligatory Apple Store, Hollister and Superdry among its 120 shops.

Arguably the project’s most welcome feature is that it includes a full revamp of the existing Leeds Shopping Plaza, aiming to transform a shopping centre that is currently dated and cheerless.

Existing Leeds Shopping Plaza (21 Jan 2011)

Though building work is still at a very early stage, colourful hoardings around the edges of the site – bordered by Briggate, Boar Lane, Lower Basinghall Street and Commercial Street – bear the Trinity Leeds logo and the message “Your retail soulmate is coming”, ensuring that there’s no excuse for not knowing what’s happening.

Trinity Leeds hoarding, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

However, I was amused to overhear one passerby asking her friend “What’s Soulmate?” – a gentle reminder, perhaps, that marketing slogans may sometimes be too oblique for their own good.

Original Woolworths (now House of Fraser), Briggate, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

As you would expect, I used the opportunity of being in Leeds last week to check out the city centre’s former Woolies sites.

Leeds’ original Woolworths in Briggate – store #5 – was one of the very first to open in the UK, in 1911. Following a 1959 rebuild, it also became one of the largest city centre sites from which Woolworths ever traded. The black and white postcard below shows the store (the prominent white building in the centre) prior to its redevelopment, while the colour view (taken from the opposite direction of Briggate) captures the rebuilt store’s 1960s heyday. Matthias Robinson’s department store – today’s Debenhams – is visible in the foreground, while Woolworths can be seen towards the far right of the scene.

Old postcard of Briggate prior to Woolworths rebuilding

Postcard of Briggate, Leeds, c1960s. Woolworths is on the right

Just as Newcastle’s main Woolies store was sold off in 1984, so the Leeds store was also disposed of in the same year. In turn, the House of Fraser-owned department store group Schofields took over the site, in 1988, while its longstanding Headrow store – opened in 1901 on the site of today’s Core shopping centre – was redeveloped and reduced in size.

Subsequently, the temporary Schofields (rebadged as Rackhams) was retained alongside the original Schofields store. In 1996, however, the original Schofields on The Headrow was closed down – just six years after it had been rebuilt – while the Briggate store took on the House of Fraser name that it retains to this day. Even now, however, the Briggate frontage is remarkably unchanged from how it appeared as a Woolworths store more than half a century ago. 

Former Woolworths (now Home Bargains), Merrion Centre, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

Some time after the Briggate Woolworths closed, a new but much smaller Woolies (#1142) opened in the Merrion Centre at the opposite end of town. This lasted until the retailer’s collapse into administration, closing its doors for the last time on 2 January 2009. Just days later, however, Home Bargains was revealed as the new tenant of the 15,158 sq ft unit.

1970s postcard of Merrion Centre

Conscious of the hazards of shopping centre security guards, I made a point of tracking down the centre manager’s office to ask permission to take a photograph. Given the prominent signposting of the office from the mall, I imagined that the management would be accustomed to – or would even welcome – members of the public dropping in with enquiries.

Merrion Centre entrance, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

However, even once I’d explained who I was, the reception I received was rather frosty and disinterested – a pity, given that my intention was to say positive things about a centre that is, admittedly, slightly dated in ambience, but has a pretty good mix of value retailers, a strong anchor in Morrisons, and very few empty units at all.

Informed that I would have to get permission from the manager of each and every store whose shopfront I wanted to photograph, I duly set off, with some trepidation, to Home Bargains. Happily, the store manager was out and about on the shopfloor, and was delightful – warm, friendly, and pleased for me to take a photograph of his shop.

When I was filming with the BBC last year, I gained an equally positive impression of the smart and personable staff in Hartlepool’s Home Bargains store, and it all reflects well on the TJ Morris-owned business. I don’t know if ‘Secret Shopper’ Mary Portas is tackling discount variety stores as part of her current crusade “to give shoppers the service they deserve”, but my experience of Home Bargains certainly suggests that it is possible to build a growing and profitable discount business at the same time as nurturing a friendly, winning workforce.

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.

Graham filming with the BBC's Chris Jackson in Stockton High Street

Those of you in the North East and Cumbria (or anywhere else with access to Freesat), may be interested in watching BBC1 at 7.30 pm tonight (Monday 6 December)! [UPDATE: The programme is now available to watch on iPlayer.]

The regional Inside Out programme includes an interview with me as part of a feature on the state of the North East’s high streets; coincidentally, the programme also has a report (not involving me) on the transformation of Robbs of Hexham, under the new ownership of Beales.

Hexham's transformed Robbs store (4 Dec 2010)

The high street theme is running across all the regional editions of Inside Out this week – in the BBC South version, for example, Claire Robertson from Wellworths is making an appearance, talking about Dorchester’s success in maintaining a very low number of empty shops. 

The programmes’ timing deliberately coincides with the release of new research into empty shop rates that the BBC commissioned from the Local Data Company, as well as with the impending second anniversary of Woolworths’ demise – hence the BBC asking me if I’d be willing to be involved.

B&M Bargains, on the site of Stockton's old Woolworths (22 Nov 2010)

I had a really enjoyable and interesting day filming with the BBC in Stockton and Hartlepool – happily just before all the current snow and ice kicked in. The reason for filming in Stockton was its dubious honour of having nearly 30% of its town centre shops empty – one of the highest proportions of any of the 500 town centres covered by the LDC survey. My job was to provide some insight into why Stockton has such a high vacancy rate – building on my August blog post on that topic – as well as commenting on the success of those discount retailers, like B&M Bargains in Stockton, that have taken over old Woolies sites across the region.

Stockton High Street (17 Sep 2010)

As you know from my previous comments, I have rather a fondness for Stockton town centre. Its unusually wide High Street is one of the best urban spaces anywhere, and it is lined by some beautiful – if sometimes neglected – buildings.

Castlegate Shopping Centre, Stockton (28 Jun 2010)

Equally, visit the Castlegate Shopping Centre, where we started our filming, and you can also be forgiven for wondering where the LDC got its figures from. Though very much based around a value offer (including Wilkinson, Poundland and Home Bargains, as well as B&M), there are hardly any vacant units and the mall was really busy with shoppers on the Monday morning that we were there.

Wellington Square, Stockton (17 Sep 2009)

Nevertheless, walk the length of the High Street towards the empty Globe Theatre and the number of vacant units does start to add up. In Wellington Square, Stockton’s newer shopping centre, I counted at least 15 (mostly smaller) empty units, despite the presence of strong anchors such as Debenhams, New Look, H&M and (a modernised) M&S. Around the corner, in the High Street itself, one particular stretch includes only one permanent shop in a row of six units that are otherwise either empty or to let. With these kinds of numbers, the LDC findings begin to make sense.

Empty shops in Stockton High Street (22 Nov 2010)

So, why does Stockton have so many empty shops? When the BBC’s Chris Jackson asked me this question while filming in front of some of these vacant units, I suggested that it was down to a combination of factors.

While it’s easy to blame out-of-town retail, it’s certainly true that Stockton town centre has to compete with an unusually large number of out-of-town stores, both at Teesside Shopping Park and Portrack Lane. This doesn’t stop some retailers, such as M&S, having a presence both in-town and out – indeed, even B&M has just opened a Homestore in part of the old Big W at Portrack Lane, obviously seeing this as complementary to its Castlegate shop.

Marks & Spencer in Stockton (16 Nov 2010)

However, other retailers that could conceivably have a Stockton town centre presence, like Next and TK Maxx, already have stores at Teesside Shopping Park instead. Factor in the competition from Middlesbrough’s strong retail centre just four miles away, and it’s easy to frame Stockton as having a town centre that is simply too large for its current needs. Imagine that Stockton’s empty shops could be magicked away, with those that remain compressed into a smaller footprint. Without the distraction of the empty units, what you would see is a pretty strong retail offer for a place of Stockton’s size. Indeed, there are plenty of towns that would love to have both Debenhams and M&S on their high street, as Stockton still does.

Closed-down Rosebys in Stockton (16 Nov 2010)

As I explained to Chris, however, Stockton’s situation is not all down to local factors. There’s little any place can do when quite a number of its empty shops – such as a former Ethel Austin, Leveys, Rosebys, Au Naturale and Internacionale – are the consequence of weak retailers collapsing or struggling at a national level. Unfortunately, such names tend to be disproportionately represented in more secondary or less affluent retail locations rather than in major city centres, exacerbating the problem of empty shops in those places that often most need a retail fillip.

However, work already underway in Stockton provides some optimism for the future. The local council seems to recognise what needs to be done, improving the appearance of empty shops to minimise their blighting effect on the town centre, and supporting the transformation of the derelict Globe Theatre into a venue that draws people into that part of the High Street. All this is helped by the fact that Stockton High Street offers such a unique and impressive setting.

Inside Middleton Grange, Hartlepool (17 Sep 2009)

In contrast, Hartlepool’s town centre, where we filmed later in the day, suffers from having much less richness and character, due to its town centre basically being the Middleton Grange shopping centre. As with other homogeonous town centres such as Washington, this inevitably limits the options for retailers looking to enter Hartlepool, particularly those that would prefer a bustling high street location to an enclosed mall. After all, there must be some reason why Hartlepool’s large Woolworths site remains empty at the same time as many big names (and potential occupants) – such as BHS, H&M, TK Maxx and TJ Hughes – remain absent from the town.

Church Square, Hartlepool (16 Nov 2010)

Though parts of Middleton Grange are bright and busy, it suffers from being largely inward facing, and from having inadequate physical connections with the surrounding area. It is around these edges – notably in the dismal Market Walk area – where Middleton Grange seems to have its largest number of empty units.

The desolate Market Walk area of Hartlepool (16 Nov 2010)

I love the vibrancy of Hartlepool Marina, as well as the pleasing architecture and townscape of Church Square and Church Street (part of Ralph Ward Jackson’s original town centre for West Hartlepool – more of which in an upcoming post). However, getting to these places on foot from the town centre is stymied by a succession of busy roads, despite the distance not being very great. For the same reason, I suspect few of those who visit the Marina, Museum of Hartlepool or HMS Trincomalee make it over to the town centre.

The attractive Hartlepool Marina (17 Sep 2009)

Apart from making Hartlepool less hard to navigate, an important point I made on camera related to the town’s lack of a department store. Go back twenty years, and Hartlepool had Binns (House of Fraser) as well of Uptons, anchoring either end of Middleton Grange.

The outline of the former Binns logo can still be seen (16 Nov 2010)

Today, the Binns site is occupied by Wilkinson, and the old Uptons is a Co-op Home Store – basically one of Anglia Co-op’s Westgate Department Stores, but with only home-related departments and no fashions. If Hartlepool is to prevent the leakage of shoppers to centres such as Middlesbrough and Sunderland, this is a gap that really needs to be filled.

Co-op Home Store, Hartlepool (16 Nov 2010)

Having said all this, I’m not entirely sure how much of the filming is going to be used in the programme tonight – I know that the need to report on the impact of the current cold weather has meant that the retail features have, unfortunately, had to be trimmed. Let’s just hope that Inside Out doesn’t feel a late urge to report on Newcastle United sacking yet another manager earlier this afternoon…

British Heart Foundation store, Hartlepool (16 Nov 2010)

While visiting Billingham yesterday, I also managed to fit in stops in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough. In Hartlepool, there is no sign of the 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 was historically – prior to 1990 – part of the shopping centre’s Woolworths store.

When Middleton Grange opened – originally as an open-air shopping centre – Woolworths was one of its anchor tenants, with a prominent frontage to Victory Square. 100thBirthday.co.uk has a shot from 1970 that clearly shows this entrance, taken from almost the same spot as my shot above.

Victory Square, Hartlepool (16 Nov 2010)

However, just as many of the largest Woolies stores were closed or downsized in the 1980s, I understand that the Hartlepool Woolies was reduced in size in 1990, with the  British Heart Foundation and Peacocks both now occupying parts of the space that Woolworths vacated back then.

Former Woolworths and Waremart, Middlesbrough (28 Jun 2010)

Like Hartlepool, nothing seems to be happening with Middlesbrough’s old Woolies store (#1200) either. Value retailer Waremart took a temporary lease on the Hillstreet unit in April last year, and was trading from the site when I first visited back in September 2009.

However, Waremart had closed by the time I returned in January this year – presumably linked to its difficulties reported elsewhere – and the site remains empty now.

Woolworths sign at back of Hillstreet mall (16 Nov 2010)

Meanwhile, Woolworths lives on in Middlesbrough as far as the sign around the back is concerned. Given the message that the sign conveys – “here is a long empty unit we haven’t let yet” – perhaps the Hillstreet management will decide to take it down eventually?

Primark fascia

MetroCentre’s empty Woolworths site is poised to get a new occupant, according to the mall’s majority owners, and is set to be trading by the middle of next year.

Capital Shopping Centres’ interim management statement for the period 1 July to 3 November 2010, released last week, reveals that “a major value fashion anchor is close to exchange in the former Woolworths store at MetroCentre, Gateshead, with a target opening of July 2011.”

It continues: “Along with the opening in September [2010] of the first combined TK Maxx/Homesense store [as blogged about here], this would enhance CSC’s anchor store strategy for the centre.”

Former Woolworths at MetroCentre (5 Oct 2009)

The news all but confirms the rumours that Primark is set to relocate from its single-storey Cameron Walk unit – formerly Littlewoods – to the enlarged Woolworths site in Garden Walk. In May, planners approved an application from The MetroCentre Partnership for a 17,405 sq ft extension to the unit, increasing its size, across two floors, to 60,000 sq ft.

This reconfigured unit is similar in size to the upcoming Next store, in the CSC-owned Eldon Square, which the statement also reveals is “on target for a December 2010 handover enabling an Easter 2011 retail opening.”

Assuming that the Primark move is confirmed – and there are few other retailers that would fit the bill of a “major value fashion anchor” – attention will surely turn to who might take over the freed-up Primark site. However, with the expanding Swedish retailer Clas Ohlson already trading or signed up in four of CSC’s 13 shopping centres – and planning to open, in the longer term, up to 200 UK shops – a MetroCentre unit of the right size and configuration could well be on its radar.

New Poundland store, Gateshead (21 Sep 2010)

Returning home after a two-week holiday in Montenegro (more of which in due course), it seems like quite a lot has been happening within Tyneside’s retail scene while I’ve been away. 

As well as Asda’s plans for the old Byker Woolies getting the green light, and Northumberland Street seeing “exploratory digging” ahead of gaining 100 security bollards, there’s a slew of five new store openings taking place in Newcastle, Gateshead and MetroCentre yesterday, today and tomorrow – some of them known for a while, but others a little more unexpected. However, though varying in scale and relative importance, all these new arrivals are interesting in their own way, and represent positive news for their respective locations. 

TK Maxx site at MetroCentre, back in March

Yesterday (Thursday) saw the long-awaited opening of the combined TK Maxx and HomeSense at MetroCentre – previously blogged about here – which occupies a 45,000 sq ft unit on the site of the old Odeon cinema. I’m yet to pay a visit, but an investment of this scale should provide a shot in the arm for what has previously been a very tired-looking Blue Mall, despite all the pedestrian traffic that passes through on its way from the nearby Transport Interchange. 

Also yesterday, Gateshead town centre had the unusual attraction of a store opening of its own, with Poundland setting up shop in the former Woolworths. Though there were some rumours about Poundland’s imminent arrival in the last month or two, the speed with the new High Street store has been opened is pretty impressive, with no sign of anything happening on site in the week or two preceding my holiday. 

Again, it’s a great boost for a site that had previously seemed destined for long-term vacancy, and can only have been helped by the start of demolition work on the nearby Get Carter car park – a tangible sign, at last, that Gateshead town centre is moving forward. Poundland’s decision to get in now seems like a canny move, as the location is bound to benefit massively, in the longer term, from the Trinity Square redevelopment. Prior to that, the store is also, as I noted before, opposite the planned temporary Tesco that will trade once the existing supermarket is demolished. 

The new Clinton Cards site in Eldon Square, photographed last month (6 Aug 2010)

Today, Newcastle’s Eldon Square has also had a couple of notable openings, including the new combined Clinton Cards and Pure Party in Douglas Way’s old River Island unit – mentioned previously here – and yet another new Starbucks, this time in St Andrew’s Way. Visiting Eldon Square a few days ago, I noticed that the existing Clintons has indeed closed, leaving a decent-sized vacant unit in Blackettbridge. Meanwhile, the new Starbucks sits next to Debenhams, occupying the previously empty large space between the department store and the lifts. All of a sudden, the layout of that part of the mall begins to make a lot more sense.

Existing Kurt Geiger in Grainger Street, Newcastle

Given Eldon Square’s current form, the old Clinton’s is unlikely to be empty for very long. One store it won’t be housing, however, is Kurt Geiger, with work already underway on creating a flagship store for the shoe retailer within the recently closed Barratts unit in Hotspur Way. Assuming that Kurt Geiger moves from its existing location in Grainger Street, this will begin the process of freeing up the ground floor space needed for the reported three-storey Urban Outfitters store within the current Green Market building.

Existing Apple Store, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010). Photograph by Peter (aka 'Newcastle Historian')

Of all this weekend’s openings though, the most notable has to be that of the new Apple Store at MetroCentre. Though the store’s impending arrival is no surprise, having been known since May, its opening date has been kept something of a surprise. Indeed, the Chronicle only revealed the news three days ago, ahead of the store’s opening at 10am tomorrow (Saturday). Unsurprisingly, the store is located in the Debenham’s-anchored Red Mall – the most modern and attractive part of MetroCentre – occupying the unit that housed USC prior to that retailer’s recent relocation.

As the Chronicle rightly observes, it’s a real coup for MetroCentre  – and for Capital Shopping Centres – to have signed up Apple for a second Tyneside shop when there are still fewer than 30 Apple Stores in the UK, including some notable locations, such as Edinburgh and Leeds, where the retailer is not yet represented at all.

Other than here, only Bristol, Manchester and London feature Apple Stores simultaneously in both city centre and out-of-town locations – a sign, one must imagine, that the Eldon Square shop is already surpassing Apple’s expectations, and a great signal to other retailers that Tyneside retail is in pretty fine fettle right now.