Soult's Retail View

Former Woolworths (now BHS), Queen Street, Cardiff (17 Aug 2012)

Paying my first visit to Cardiff in twenty years last week, I couldn’t resist tracking down the city centre’s former Woolworths locations – despite the torrential rain making conditions for photography somewhat challenging.

Cardiff still had several Woolworths branches outside the centre at the time of Woolworths’ collapse, in Cowbridge Road East (store … Continue Reading

New entrance at Primark, Newcastle (27 Jul 2012)

Going away for a summer holiday is usually a prompt for interesting retail things to happen in my absence, and this month has been no exception.

I’ve been charting the development of … Continue Reading

Leslie Jones Architecture’s render of Eldon Square’s Northumberland Street entrance

Plans to be officially unveiled later this week reveal that the Northumberland Street entrance to Newcastle’s Eldon Square shopping centre is set to undergo a massive makeover.

The planning application for the … Continue Reading

BHS, Newcastle (20 Apr 2012)

Given my extensive coverage of the build up to Newcastle’s new BHS store in Northumberland Street, you won’t be surprised to learn that I’ve paid a couple of visits since it opened its doors on 19 April. So, what’s it like?

From the outside, it’s hard to be anything but impressed. The new glazed frontage … Continue Reading

Monument Mall, Newcastle (16 Apr 2012)

Work started yesterday (16 April) on Hammerson’s much-anticipated redevelopment of the Monument Mall shopping centre in Newcastle, which will see the mall’s circulation spaces infilled and new full-depth, street-facing shop and restaurant units created in their place.

The recent departure of … Continue Reading

Thorntons, Grainger Street, Newcastle (9 Apr 2012)

While Newcastle’s BHS prepares for its imminent opening, new departures elsewhere in the city are set to open up other opportunities for incoming retailers.

As … Continue Reading

New BHS, Newcastle (9 Apr 2012)

As I suspected when I blogged last week, the scaffolding around Newcastle’s new BHS has now been taken down ahead of its opening in ten days’ time.

Though there are still some finishing touches to be made … Continue Reading

New Primark, Newcastle (30 Mar 2012)

Back at the start of the year, I promised that 2012 was going to be an eventful year for Newcastle city centre in terms of interesting retail developments and new store openings. As we approach Easter, it’s probably time for an update on how things are progressing, both in … Continue Reading

BHS fascia

Newcastle’s new BHS store in Northumberland Street will open on 19 April, I can reveal.

Work on site has been going on since last summer, as BHS transforms the former Next premises into a four-storey flagship store. As reported previously, the shop is expected to … Continue Reading

Primark site, Newcastle (5 Mar 2012)

Whatever you might think about the rise of the fashion retailer Primark, there’s no disputing that it’s one of the big retail success stories right now. Just here in the North East, Primark opened its new 58,700 sq ft Metrocentre store (which I’m still yet to check … Continue Reading

Poundworld and Discount UK store, Swindon (2 Mar 2012). Photograph by Lee Sartin

Many thanks to Soult’s Retail View reader Lee Sartin, who has sent in a picture of the dual-fascia Poundworld and Discount UK store that opened in Swindon a week ago.

He … Continue Reading

Discount UK fascia

Multi-price value retailer Discount UK is to open its 30th store, in Swindon, this week – under a dual fascia with its Yorkshire-based parent brand, Poundworld.

The news, flagged up by Soult’s Retail View reader Lee Sartin, links nicely to several of my earlier blog posts. I’ve previously written about Discount UK in the … Continue Reading

La Senza closing down in Newcastle (2 Jan 2012)

Since this is my first post of 2012, I must begin by wishing all Soult’s Retail View readers a very Happy New Year! Thank you to everyone who has commented, emailed, tweeted or visited during 2011, and I hope you will find many more posts to spark your interest during 2012.

As we enter 2012, the retail picture … Continue Reading

New BHS Newcastle site (28 Dec 2011)

Work on the new BHS store in Newcastle has been underway for more than six months, though the lack of any mention of BHS on site meant that anyone passing by would have been none the wiser about what exactly was happening. This always seemed … Continue Reading

Soon-to-open Superdry, Durham (16 Nov 2011)

Superdry – the SuperGroup-owned fashion chain of the moment – is gearing up to open its new store in Durham’s Silver Street at 9am this coming Friday (18 November), though the shop was still under wraps when I went past this morning.

By opening in the midst of the Durham Lumiere festival – which runs from 17-20 November, and attracts … Continue Reading

Former Woolworths (now temporary BHS), Swindon (11 Sep 2011)

If you saw my earlier post about the shiny new BHS in Swindon, you might be wondering what happened to the retailer during the 18-month period that its old store was being redeveloped. Well, rather … Continue Reading

New BHS, Swindon (11 Sep 2011)

While visiting Swindon’s out-of-town John Lewis at Home, I also managed to spent some time exploring the town centre.

The open-air Parade shopping centre has the distinction of hosting one of the UK’s few (as … Continue Reading

3DReid's proposal for the remodelled Primark/ex-BHS building

Interesting retail things always seem to happen on Tyneside while I’m on holiday! This time, I returned from Slovenia yesterday – hence the lack of recent blog posts – to find that the planning application for Newcastle’s new Primark flagship has been submitted while I’ve been away.

While the news of Primark’s … Continue Reading

How the new BHS will look. Image by Dalziel & Pow

Plans for Northumberland Street’s new BHS store have been submitted to Newcastle City Council, and propose a more radical than expected transformation of the … Continue Reading

New Next, Newcastle (10 May 2011)

I had a quick wander around Newcastle city centre today, where the new Next flagship store is gearing up for its opening at 11am this Thursday (12 May).

Barriers around the outside of the building mean that it’s still quite difficult to get a look inside. However, all the new glazing and … Continue Reading