* You are viewing the archive for the ‘Regeneration’ Category

Construction work well underway at Gateshead’s Trinity Square

Graham Soult December 20, 2011 Property, Regeneration, Shopping Centres, Supermarkets No Comments

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Trinity Square, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011). Photograph by Graham Soult

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 … Continue Reading

Newcastle’s Co-op food hall to ‘cease trading’ on 31 December

Graham Soult December 03, 2011 Property, Regeneration, Retail History, Supermarkets 4 Comments

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Closing-down poster at Newgate Street Co-op, Newcastle (2 Dec 2011). Photograph by Graham Soult

Closing-down poster at Newgate Street Co-op, Newcastle (2 Dec 2011)

Newcastle city centre’s Co-op supermarket is to close down this month, bringing to an end nearly a century-and-a-half of Co-operative presence in Newgate Street. Posters in the windows and instore – which I spotted while passing by yesterday – reveal that the store will ‘cease trading as a Co-operative’ at 6pm on New Year’s Eve (31 … Continue Reading

Redcar’s ‘virtual shops’ – with added authenticity

Graham Soult May 05, 2011 Property, Regeneration, Woolworths 8 Comments

Tags: , , , , , ,

This could be you (4 May 2011). Photograph by Graham Soult

This could be you (4 May 2011)

There’s nothing like glorious weather to bring a British seaside resort to life, and Redcar, on the Tees Valley coast, had a really great buzz about it when I visited yesterday.

The streets were packed with shoppers, and there were entertainers in both the High Street and the Regent Walk shopping centre. Even Wetherspoon’s was playing host to some impromptu guitar playing from one of … Continue Reading

New Mountain Warehouse reaffirms Hexham’s status as a retail hotspot

Graham Soult January 26, 2011 Market Towns, Regeneration 3 Comments

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mountain Warehouse, Hexham (1 Jan 2011). Photograph by Graham Soult

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 … Continue Reading

Why does Stockton have so many empty shops? BBC1 tonight at 7.30 might have some answers…

Graham Soult December 06, 2010 Personal, Property, Regeneration, Shopping Centres 7 Comments

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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

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 … Continue Reading

Demolition underway – photos of Gateshead’s Get Carter car park today

Graham Soult July 26, 2010 Property, Regeneration, Supermarkets 3 Comments

Tags: , , ,

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010). Photograph by Graham Soult

Gateshead car park (26 Jul 2010)

In my blog post about Gateshead’s Get Carter car park this morning, I suggested that “…it seems hard to believe that the car park is finally going to disappear from the skyline after so many false starts.”

However, it really *is* going. Demolition began this morning, with quite a few bits nibbled out by the … Continue Reading

Demolition of Gateshead’s Get Carter car park starts today

Graham Soult July 26, 2010 Property, Regeneration, Shopping Centres, Supermarkets 6 Comments

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Hoardings promoting the new surround the old (18 Jun 2010). Photograph by Graham Soult

Hoardings promoting the new surround the old (18 Jun 2010)

Since it opened in 1969, Gateshead town centre’s Trinity Square car park has been many things to different people, but always impossible to ignore.

To some, it has been an icon of the architectural Brutalism movement; to others, an eyesore that has blighted the Tyneside skyline. It is perhaps most famous, however, as a backdrop to the 1971 film Get … Continue Reading

‘Shopjacket’ brings hope to Whitley Bay town centre

Graham Soult March 04, 2010 Property, Regeneration 3 Comments

Tags: , , , ,

The former Select store in Whitley Bay, following its 'Shopjacketting'

The former Select store in Whitley Bay, following its 'Shopjacketting'

Given the challenges that Whitley Bay town centre has faced over the last year – with a number of high-profile retail departures – it’s been great to see it at the centre of a good news story today. Sources as diverse … Continue Reading