Soult's Retail View

Former Woolworths, Bishop Auckland (6 Feb 2010)

When I blogged about the remaining vacant Woolies stores in the North East a few days ago, I’d failed to spot that yet another is about to be reoccupied, with Boyes – the iconic northern variety retailer – … Continue Reading

Mall plan showing Peacocks (screenshot from 4 Aug 2010)

I was interested to find out a few days ago that the fashion retailer Peacocks will soon be opening a store in my old home town of Tamworth, taking a prime spot within the town centre’s Ankerside mall.

Given that jobs in the store have been being advertised since June, and with the store … Continue Reading

Image from 'Scotland's Shops' book, courtesy of Historic Scotland

One of the nice things about running my own architecture subject gateway, Sapling.info, is that I get the opportunity to read about plenty of interesting buildings and places. 

Earlier this week I paid a visit to the attractive and information-packed website of Historic Scotland, ahead of updating Sapling.info’s review … Continue Reading

Former Woolworths (now Heron Foods), New Washington (Concord) (17 Jun 2010)

Back in February, I blogged about the former Woolworths store in Sunderland’s Fawcett Street, which closed in 2004 following its acquisition by Primark.

At the time, I noted the curious lack of Woolies stores left on Wearside … Continue Reading

Former Woolworths, Peterlee (12 March 2010)

Only counting the (33) North East Woolworths stores that closed down following the company’s 2008 administration, my quest to photograph the full set is nearing completion – with five more new ones featured in this post, only Berwick, Billingham and Stockton’s Portrack Lane are left to get.

However, the ever-expanding list of … Continue Reading

Former Linthorpe Road Woolworths, Middlesbrough

Last week’s blog post about the long-closed former Woolworths in Benwell seems to have opened the floodgates to lots of comments and insights about other nearly-forgotten Woolies in the North East – many thanks indeed for all your contributions!

While Seamaster … Continue Reading

Copies of The New Bond

One of the things I most love about researching retail history is the way that interesting stories can emerge from the tiniest leads. 

As a Woolworths enthusiast, I’ve recently discovered that a fantastic starting point for retail history nuggets of a Woolies nature is The New Bond, the ‘house journal’ of F. W. Woolworth & Co. Ltd that was published between 1935 … Continue Reading

Grey Street, Newcastle (16 Feb 2010)

Though Shambles in York has understandably garnered much of the attention for being named “Britain’s most picturesque street” in the Google Street View Awards, it’s a pleasure to see Newcastle’s Grey Street coming up in third place – if only for no other reason than giving me an excuse to use some nice … Continue Reading

Former Woolworths (now Primark), Sunderland (21 Nov 2009)

In an earlier post, I talked about some of the large, city centre Woolworths stores – such as the branches on Newcastle’s Northumberland Street and Sheffield’s Haymarket – that were closed down in the 1980s as the retailer trimmed its ranges and focused on generally smaller shops.  

However, one flagship Woolies that lasted … Continue Reading

Former Zavvi, Newcastle (27 Sep 2010)

Well, that’s a surprise! I’ve only just discovered that I’ve been photographing and blogging about a former Woolworths store – here, and more recently here – without even realising it. 

While I was vaguely aware that there had been a Woolies in Newcastle’s … Continue Reading

Next, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (5 Feb 2010)

Following the apparent confirmation of earlier rumours about Next planning to open a new store in Newcastle’s Eldon Square shopping centre next year, it seems timely to take a look at the retailer’s current Northumberland Street premises, shown above.

It’s quite a handsome building when … Continue Reading

1950s scene showing Maurice Gerald in Newcastle's Bigg Market

Given my interest in both retail history and local history more generally, it’s always a pleasure when people drop me a line to share their memories – especially when it concerns something that up until then I know very little about.  

I was intrigued therefore to receive an email from Norman Gerald – prompted by my … Continue Reading

139-153 Grainger Street, Newcastle (22 Jan 2010)

As someone with an appetite for retail news stories, I like to occasionally visit Newcastle City Council’s planning applications website. Often, planning applications are where interesting developments in the world of retail first come to light, or can be useful in confirming speculation that such-and-such a retailer is indeed … Continue Reading

Is this an old Woolies?

Here’s a retail history question for you – was this building (above), in Shields Road in Byker, once a Woolworths? 

I spotted it back in September when I was paying a visit to the more recently closed Woolworths at Byker’s Newcastle Shopping Park. As you can see, the building could definitely use some TLC, suffering … Continue Reading

Just the fourth in a history of Middlesbrough's Woolies

I’m always delighted when people comment on my blog posts, and a recent contribution from Gareth Hill has proved particularly interesting in shedding light on the history of Woolworths’ presence in Middlesbrough, following on from my … Continue Reading

Shot from 1998 'Woolies Winter Wonderland' TV ad

 …That was the theme of Woolworths’ 1998 Christmas TV advertisement, in the heady, Tellytubby days when, as the ad reminds us, everyone wanted a Talking Po.  

This festive season, the incessant snow and ice has certainly made it a Winter Wonderland in the various town centres that I visited. However, 2009 has, of course, … Continue Reading

Sheffield Co-op in 1997

I’ve been sorting through some of my old photos recently – for old, read ’1990s’. Very few of them have much interest from a retail point of view, but then it was generally more usual in those days for me to take pictures of historic buildings and attractive landscapes, rather than of shops.

However, I did come across a couple of shots of Castle House, the now-closed Sheffield Co-op department store in Angel Street (click on the … Continue Reading

Waitrose fascia

In recent weeks, hardly a day has gone by without some good news involving Waitrose – if it isn’t stellar sales figures, it’s been news about stocking 100% British own-brand dairy products, snapping up Duchy Originals, … Continue Reading

Back of the WHSmith store in Redcar (17 Sep 2009)

Visiting Redcar today, I was amused to spot a little throwback to the past in the form of an old WHSmith fascia, featuring the once familiar cube of ‘W’, ‘H’ and ‘S’ letters. 

Curiously, the main frontage of the store in Redcar High Street features the more up-to-date blue … Continue Reading

Fascia of former George Rye store, Newcastle

Walking through Newcastle’s Bigg Market last Sunday, I was interested to see that part of the William Hill bookmaker’s fascia appeared to have dropped off, exposing some much earlier signage underneath (above).

I was also curious to note how the height of the fascia had evidently been increased from what it was previously, with the top portion of the adjacent doorway concealed as a result.

The uncovered ‘Geor’ … Continue Reading

Union Street frontage of former Esslemont & Macintosh store, Aberdeen

When I wrote about Vergo Retail’s recent acquisitions a few days ago, it brought to mind the photographs that I took back in February this year of the former Esslemont & Macintosh (E&M) department store in Aberdeen’s Union Street.

When Owen Owen fell … Continue Reading

John Lewis Bristol. Photograph by Mattbuck4950

Perhaps it’s a reflection of my status as a retail nerd that one of the first things I usually do on Friday mornings is check out the John Lewis Partnership’s ‘Weekly Figures’.

These weekly stats are strangely compelling in that – probably uniquely for a major UK retailer – John Lewis publishes a store-by-store breakdown for its eponymous department … Continue Reading

Co-op Department Store, Great Yarmouth, prior to Vergo Retail's takeover. Photograph by Stephen McKay

In the last couple of weeks, one interesting news story that has been easy to miss is the takeover of the East of England Co-op’s department store business by Vergo … Continue Reading