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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Channel Street, Galashiels (27 Dec 2011)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Former Almstrongs department store, Hawick (29 May 2011)

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

High Street, Hawick (29 May 2011)

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

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

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

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

Former Woolworths, Felling (17 Jun 2010)

This is my 200th blog post since starting Soult’s Retail View back in July 2009, so it seems only appropriate for it to bring together two of my favourite topics – Woolworths and Tyneside!

Regular readers will recall that I’ve written about all 33 of the North East Woolworths stores that closed following the chain’s 2008 collapse, but I’ve also tracked down many of those sites that Woolies had already vacated in the years before.

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

Among these are the ex-Woolworths in Crook (#529, closed in about 1972) and Seaham (#649, closed in the mid-1980s), both in County Durham, as well as the Wearside branches at New Washington (#1014, closed in 1984) and Sunderland (#144, closed 2004).

Within the Newcastle city boundaries, I’ve also covered the original Byker Woolworths (#276, closed on 1 June 1985), which occupied two different sites in Shields Road during its lifetime, and the Benwell store in Adelaide Terrace (#905), converted from a former cinema.

Former Woolworths in Benwell (28 May 2010)

For today’s post, I want to look at two more long-gone Woolies stores on Tyneside – one in the Gateshead suburb of Felling, and the other in the Arndale Centre on Newcastle’s North Kenton estate. In both cases, the information I’ve got following my visits last year is quite sketchy, with no definitive opening or closing dates, and no Woolies store number – neither gets a mention in any of the copies of The New Bond that I’ve acquired to date. Not to worry, though – let’s take a look at what we do know so far.

Felling High Street (10 Nov 2010)

Just a couple of miles from the centre of Gateshead, and only a handful of Metro stops from Newcastle, Felling’s High Street has suffered a slow decline in recent years. At the end of 2008, an article in the local paper highlighted the extent of the problem, famously revealing that the High Street had just “three shops” left – technically true, but slightly overplaying the level of vacancy by seemingly not counting those premises occupied by takeaways, betting shops or other ‘non-retail’ uses.

Former Kwik Save, Felling (17 Jun 2010)

While some big names – including Woolworths, and a branch of the Gateshead department store institution, Shephards – disappeared from Felling years ago, there’s no doubt that the collapse of Kwik Save, in 2007, was a major recent blow. Located towards the bottom of the hill, its closure has meant that there’s no longer much reason to venture down the High Street – past other (former) shops – from the main shopping precinct at Felling Square.

Shops at Felling Square (10 Nov 2010)

It would be wrong, however, to frame Felling as a completely failed retail location. Just beyond the High Street itself, the Felling Square area has been reasonably busy both times that I’ve visited, no doubt assisted by its proximity to local bus routes. The presence of some decent chains – including The Co-operative Food, Boots, Heron Foods and Greggs – a post office, newsagents and complementary indie stores ensures that Felling’s retail centre continues to have a role in meeting the area’s everyday shopping needs.

Former Woolworths, Felling (10 Nov 2010)

So what of the old Woolies? It was located at 98-104 High Street, in a building whose current occupant – William Hill, the bookmakers – is perhaps illustrative of the way in which the street’s fortunes have declined. Someone suggested to me, via Twitter, that Woolworths had previously occupied the site of today’s Heron Foods in nearby Felling Square – presumably in an earlier building – but I’m yet to find any other evidence to confirm this.

Heron Foods, Felling (10 Nov 2011)

The bland, redbrick, flat-roofed property at 98-104 High Street is rather typical of the stores that Woolworths was constructing in the 1950s and 60s, and my suspicion is that Woolies’ presence in Felling probably dates from the 1950s rather than the 1930s or earlier.

By 1953, Woolworths’ store count was already up to more than 800, and the rapid expansion at that time – with store #1000 opened just five years later, in May 1958 – meant that the chain was, frankly, rather scratching around for viable locations in which it wasn’t already represented. It’s no coincidence that many of the stores opened at this time were among the first ones to be closed again once Woolies began downsizing in the ’70s and ’80s.

A busy shot from April 1966, below – taken from a 1990 publication called Gateshead in Focus – shows that Woolworths was certainly in place by then.

April 1966 view of Woolworths, Felling. From 'Gateshead in Focus' book

From what I can gather, Felling’s Woolworths was one of the casualties of the aforementioned ’70s and ’80s downsizing, with one source pointing to a late 1980s closure date. An interesting photograph on the iSee Gateshead site from 1986 shows the store’s ‘F W Woolworth & Co. Ltd’ lettering still in situ, which is an usually late survival – by this time, most stores had long ago adopted the 1970s red and white ‘Woolworth’ fascia, as recently seen at the back of the Burton-upon-Trent store. The shop itself looks empty, so I suspect that this particular view may have been taken not long after its permanent closure.

In a slightly earlier shot, from 1985, below, the store has its shutters down, so it’s difficult again to be certain whether the store was still trading at that time.

1985 view of Felling Woolworths

Though never a particularly attractive building, the Felling Woolies was certainly more appealing before its first-floor windows were blocked up. In my photo at the top of the page, the original position of two narrow windows either side of a central wider one is apparent from the colouring of the infill brickwork. For whatever reason, four new (and less symmetrical) windows were at some point inserted in place of the originals; these, in turn, were also boarded up, giving the property as it appears today a derelict-looking upper floor above an uncongruously shiny and modern shopfront.

Rear of former Woolworths, Felling (10 Nov 2010)

Viewed from the back, above, the property is similarly unattractive. Interestingly, however, it is much bigger than it looks from the High Street – a feature typical of many former Woolworths stores – and it’s hard to imagine that today’s William Hill branch makes use of all the available space.

North Kenton shops (10 Nov 2010)

On the opposite side of the Tyne, there are many parallels between the ex-Woolies at Felling and the one at North Kenton, but even less documentary evidence about its existence.

Situated at the corner of Halewood Avenue and Kirkwood Drive, the Arndale Shopping Centre was built along with the neighbouring North Kenton housing estate in the 1950s, suggesting that the area’s Woolworths store was fairly contemporary with the one in Felling. As Britain built its postwar housing estates, it was quite common for Woolworths to be the anchor store on those developments’ shopping precincts. In the North East alone, for example, new Woolies stores opened at the Pennywell estate in Sunderland in 1953, and at Longbenton, North Tyneside, in 1959 – both of which will be covered in future posts.

Former Woolworths (now Nisa), North Kenton (10 Nov 2010)

Often – as in New Washington – Woolworths seems to have occupied premises that stood out architecturally from the rest of the parade, and that was also case in North Kenton. Though I’ve seen no photographs of the building in use as Woolworths, I understand from someone who grew up in North Kenton that Woolies occupied the prominent, projecting unit that now houses Nisa and Boots. It was apparently still there in 1966, but departed at some point in the 1970s or 80s.

North Kenton shops (10 Nov 2010)

As in Felling, there’s no doubt that the North Kenton shopping centre continues to perform a valuable function for the community that it serves. Again as in Felling, however, the large number of empty units creates a depressing and slightly unsettling feel, and a sense of a shopping centre that is simply bigger than it needs to be.

This lack of fitness for modern purpose is the reason, indeed, why so many similar postwar suburban shopping precincts – including those in Pennywell and Longbenton – have subsequently been demolished and replaced by new, more compact retail centres that are better able to accommodate their communities’ current, everyday needs.

In hindsight, Woolworths’ departure from such locations, all those years ago, feels like an inevitable part of that suburban retail evolution.

Former Woolworths (now Boots), the Strand (6 Apr 2011)

With most of Woolworths’ stores in central London closed down by the 1980s, it’s easy to forget that the value-focused chain once rubbed shoulders with some of the Strand’s most upmarket and iconic names.

Opened in May 1925, Woolworths in the Strand (store #188) lasted for nearly sixty years before closing in 1983. The ever-useful 100thBirthday.co.uk site gives some background on the store’s development during this period, noting that it survived World War II intact before being “used for concept development in the 1950s”, when it received a “new wooden floor and self-service grocery counters in 1951 and an extended range of foods.”

According to the site, “the learnings from The Strand were rolled out widely across the estate from the mid-1950s until 1970″, followed by further modernisation in the 1970s and the introduction of an upstairs Harvester Restaurant.

Former Woolworths (now Boots), the Strand (6 Apr 2011)

With a fuzzy 1930s photograph from 100thBirthday.co.uk to go on, and the knowledge that the store was now occupied by Boots, I set out to identify the building in question during my visit to London last week.

In the end it wasn’t too difficult to locate, given that the block – opposite the Strand Palace Hotel, and next to Simpson’s restaurant and the Savoy Buildings – is remarkably unchanged, and highly distinctive with its imposing six-storey frontage.

Postcard from c1930, with Woolworths store in the centre

Another 1930s view, above, which I dug out following my visit, shows the Woolworths block and its neighbours in their full glory. Based on what we know, Woolworths must be located in the centre of the picture, just to the right of the awning, though the level of detail is insufficient to make out the store’s actual signage. However, the canopy of the famous Simpson’s in the Strand restaurant is a common feature visible in both the 1930s shot and (in the distance) in my modern view, below.

Former Woolworths (now Boots), the Strand (6 Apr 2011)

It’s worth observing that Woolworths on the Strand was one of a succession of large central London branches to open in the space of a year during the period 1924-25, following on from those that I’ve already blogged about previously: Oxford Street (#161) and Kensington High Street (#162), which opened in August 1924, and High Holborn (#173) and Tottenham Court Road (#175), opened in November that year.

The sheer scale of that achievement – with many of those stores housed in purpose-built premises – gives a real sense of an ambitious business at the top of its game, and is surely an accomplishment that many modern retailers would envy.

Former Woolworths (now Poundland), Warrington (27 Dec 2010). Photograph by Beth Anderson

With Woolworths having occupied something like 1,400 UK sites over the years, the chances of any one person having the time (or inclination) to track them all down is pretty slim. So, I’m always pleased when friends and colleagues help me out by snapping the occasional ex-Woolies that they spot while out on their travels. Happily, the M62 corridor provides a convenient thread for linking together the latest three (otherwise fairly unconnected) submissions.

First up, Beth Anderson (from the excellent Newcastle upon Tyne Daily Photo blog) recently sent me some shots of the former Woolworths store in Warrington’s Sankey Street (store #22), which has already had two new occupants since Woolies’ demise.

The premises reopened in December 2009, to much fanfare, as the first in a planned chain of Asco-branded supermarkets, with the new venture’s bosses promising that Asco would offer a “real alternative” to the major grocers. Less than five months later, however, the business had “temporarily closed”, reportedly leaving both suppliers and staff out of pocket.

In May, the newspaper Crains Manchester Business – now itself sadly defunct – reported that Asco Stores Ltd had “been wound up following pressure from creditors”, after “five companies owed a total of £53,620 joined a petition against the company at Liverpool District Registry last week.”

Former Woolworths (now Poundland), Warrington (27 Dec 2010). Photograph by Beth Anderson

The site has subsequently been taken over by Poundland, adding to the company’s ever-growing roster of former Woolworths locations. However, unlike many of Poundland’s other ex-Woolies sites – such as those in Scarborough, South Shields or Cannock – the rather beautiful and ornate property was not purpose-built for Woolies, but was constructed, as its datestone testifies, in 1861. The initials ‘RG’ stand for Robert Garnett, the Warrington cabinet maker and local benefactor who built the property as his showroom, and whose impressive but disused Cabinet Works also survive.

Former Woolworths (now Poundland), Warrington (27 Dec 2010). Photograph by Beth Anderson

Heading east from Warrington along the M62 brings us to Batley in West Yorkshire, where Seamaster tweeted me this photo of the town’s ex-Woolies store (#472) in Commercial Street.

Former Woolworths (now JBM Bargains), Batley (5 Nov 2010). Photograph by Seamaster

Pictured at Flickr in its former guise, the Woolworths store on the site closed on 2 January 2009, and is now a discount store called JBM Bargains. There seems to be very little information out there about the business, though it appears that the owners also have a branch in nearby Otley that was until recently branded Captain Value. Dating from 1932, the building, of course, is classic Woolies, its wide frontage very similar in composition and materials to the slightly later (1937) store in Berwick upon Tweed.

Former Woolworths (now Boots), Beverley (5 Feb 2011). Photograph by Jon Carling

Final stop, at the far end of the motorway in the East Riding of Yorkshire, is the market town of Beverley, where Jon Carling recently captured this phone pic of the former Woolworths (store #444) at 43-45 Toll Gavel. Again, the building looks every inch an old Woolies, with a frontage that is particularly reminiscent of the Bishop Auckland store.

Since closing as a Woolworths on 2 January 2009, the store has prompted something of a retail reshuffle in Beverley. Boots took over the site in July that year, combining its three previous smaller stores in the town, with Heron Foods relocating in turn to the largest of the former Boots sites at 15-17 Toll Gavel. Meanwhile, the old Heron Foods at 10 Toll Gavel appears to have become an Oxfam Bookshop, and the old Boots Opticians at no. 12 a branch of Vision Express.

Browns' iconic York store (17 Jul 2010)

Though these various movements may not have brought in the big new names, such as Next, that were wished for immediately after Woolies’ demise, it’s impressive that Beverley seems to have such a buoyant and fast-moving retail property market, capped off by the iconic York-based retailer Browns opening a £2m department store in the town last March. With lots of retail activity, and what looks like an attractive and lively historic centre, I think I’d better add Beverley to my list of interesting places to visit.

Meanwhile, do feel free to keep sending in your pictures of former Woolworths! You can email an attachment using the contact form, or send a link to your picture via Twitter to @soult, and I’ll feature as many as I can in future posts.

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.

Ashbourne town centre. Photograph by Roger Cornfoot

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

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

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

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

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

Buxton Road, Ashbourne town centre. Photograph by Roger Cornfoot

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Postcard of Ashbourne Market Place (c1930s)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Former Woolworths (now Boots), Crook (6 Nov 2010)

Imagine a small town whose Woolworths opened in the 1930s, closed in the 1970s, and is now occupied by Boots.

A town where, even all those years later, the building is instantly recognisable as a former Woolies.

A place where, in 2010, discount retailer The Original Factory Shop has to some extent assumed Woolies’ place as a variety store at the heart of the town.

The Original Factory Shop, Crook (6 Nov 2010)

No, it’s not a rerun of my earlier blog post about the former Woolworths in Horley, Surrey, but the small County Durham town of Crook – along with Seaham, one of two urban centres in the county that had lost its Woolies many years before the retailer collapsed.

Crook Market Place, 1904. Image courtesy of C&DLHS

Between the 1830s and the end of the 19th century, the village of Crook blossomed into a town, its population growing from 200 to more than 12,000 on the back of the coal mining industry. The area around the Market Place grew into an important shopping centre for the town, with the imposing premises of the Crook Industrial Co-operative Society opening in North Terrace in 1876 – dominating the right-hand half of the early 20th century photograph below, but now demolished, and replaced by the town’s council offices.

Pre-1910 view of Crook Market Place. Image courtesy of C&DLHS

Comparison of the photographs above and below shows that Crook’s purpose-built Woolworths store was slotted in between the existing buildings, replacing what is shown in the earlier shot as the two-storey premises of Isaac Wilson.

Post-Woolies view of Crook Market Place. Image courtesy of C&DLHS

Edward Lloyd’s 1916 account of the History of the Crook and Neighbourhood Co-operative Corn Mill, Flour & Provision Society Limited – available in a full electronic version at the Open Library – reveals Isaac Wilson to be a ‘druggist’ which, as Tas remarked in a previous comment, “makes Boots’ [current] use of the site quite appropriate.”

Unsure of when exactly Woolworths in Crook had opened, I turned to the Crook & District Local History Society, to see if anyone local could shed some light on the subject. The familar architecture of Crook’s Woolies store, and the fact that Crook was unlikely to have been a particularly early Woolies opening, had suggested to me the early 1930s, an assessment that proved correct.

How the store looks today (6 Nov 2010)

Usefully, the C&DLHS has recently published a new 64-page book about Crook’s history, in which one of the ‘did you know?’ facts relates to the opening of the town’s Woolies store. It appears that the shop opened – for viewing only – on 1 December 1933, before officially opening the following day to the accompaniment of “an élite band playing melodies.”

This could well mean that the Crook branch was Woolies store #529, as that’s the only store opened between late 1933 (520 Alloa) and mid 1934 (536 Fareham) for which I have a number but no name. 

1950s postcard of Crook Market Place

Go forward to the 1950s, and the Woolies store is clearly visible, with its awning, on the left-hand side of the postcard above. Beyond it, the tall buildings of the Co-op store still dominate the town’s Market Place.

By the end of the 1960s, however, Crook was experiencing significant changes, with the mines all closed, the railway gone, and its population declining. Against this backdrop, and with the much larger Bishop Auckland Woolworths just six miles away, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Crook’s Woolies was one of the first in the North East to be closed.

However, compared to the detail that we know of the store’s opening, pinning down exactly when it closed is more challenging. It seems pretty certain that it was the 1970s – this is the C&DLHS’s best guess (with one member suggesting – but not certain – that it was 1972), and it confirms the account of Lorna Robson in Derek Phillips’ enjoyable The Wonder of Woolies book. Recalling her memories of working in the Crook store, she writes that “I left in 1968 and I believe the store closed in the 1970s.”

I understand that the store became Boots straight after Woolworths vacated it, with the chemist moving from its existing premises elsewhere in the town. So working out when Boots opened on that site could be an alternative way of narrowing down the date when Woolies closed. [UPDATE, 5 January 2011: So it proved! Brenda Smith from C&DLHS tells me that she has "finally found out that Crook Woolworths closed in 1973. This is reliable info - came from someone who worked for Boots at the time."]

With previous Woolies blog posts, Soult’s Retail View readers have done a fine job of filling in the knowledge gaps. Can you rise to the challenge again this time?

Many thanks to Crook & District Local History Society – and particularly to Brenda Smith and Harry Brook – for letting me use its historic photographs of Crook Market Place, and for providing the answer to the question of when the town’s Woolies store opened.

Façade of Woolworths' former Oxford Street flagship (24 Nov 2010)

Visiting London again this week, I was able to capture another clutch of locations that used to house Woolies stores more than a quarter of a century ago.

Last time I was in London, at the end of September, I photographed – and blogged about – the former Woolworths in Kensington High Street (#162), which was sold off in 1980 and is now occupied by Uniqlo.

Former Woolworths (now Uniqlo), Kensington High Street (23 Nov 2010)

However, in the drizzle and fading light I hadn’t managed to spot the earlier Woolworths property, further along the street, from which the retailer had relocated in the 1960s. This time, happily, I managed to locate it.

Original Woolworths premises, Kensington High Street (23 Nov 2010)

100thBirthday.co.uk reveals that Kensington’s Woolworths opened on its original site in August 1924, with the purpose-built property, pictured here in the 1920s, boasting “a large cinema frontage finished in glazed cream marble brickwork.” 

From the 1920s until its disposal, the address also housed Woolworths’ Kensington regional office, overseeing the chain’s stores in the South West, parts of East Anglia, and the suburbs of north west London.

Given that Woolworths moved out half a century ago, I should barely have been surprised that the building today looks somewhat different from that earlier photograph. Nevertheless, it is sad to see the property carved up into separate units (for Robert Dyas, Sony Centre and JD), with a cacaphony of clashing shopfronts and different height fascias that have little in common with each other, let alone with the ornate detail and proportions of the upper floors. At some point, the top of the building also lost its pediment and cornice, giving it a strangely unfinished look.

Former Woolworths (now Uniqlo), Oxford Street (24 Nov 2010)

Over in Oxford Street, the former Woolies flagship (#161) – which opened in August 1924, but had apparently “never been profitable” – was sold off at the same time as the relocated Kensington High Street store, with the proceeds used to help pay for F W Woolworth & Co. Ltd’s purchase, in 1980, of the DIY chain B&Q. In a prime spot opposite John Lewis and House of Fraser, it too – coincidentally – now houses a branch of Uniqlo.

Oxford Street, with former Woolies on the left (24 Nov 2010)

100thBirthday.co.uk reports that prior to its closure, store 161 “included a big restaurant in the basement, a dedicated food hall with wines and spirits on the first floor and a huge range of toiletries, tourist items and jewellery on the ground salesfloor.” Like the original Kensington store, Oxford Street also housed one of Woolworths’ regional offices – the Metropolitan – on its upper floors.

Oxford Street store prior to closure. Source: Woolworths Virtual Museum

This was not the only store in Oxford Street – another (store #463), opened in 1932 and was sold off at the same time as the aforementioned Kensington High Street and Oxford Street shops. I haven’t been able to source any images of this second store, however, and I’m not not clear whereabouts in Oxford Street it was. Perhaps someone who remembers it from thirty or more years ago can help fill in the gaps?

Former Woolworths (now Boots), Brompton Road (23 Nov 2010)

Another old Woolies that was apparently more for show than profitmaking was the one in Brompton Road (#391), not far from Harrods. This store was relatively short-lived compared to most Woolworths stores, opening in March 1930 and closing in 1970 as part of a major trading review. At that time, the sale of this and other prominent stores released funds that could be used to convert other stores in the estate to both decimal currency and self service. Today, the portion of the building that housed Woolworths is occupied by a branch of Boots.

Finally to High Holborn (store #173, closed in 1984), and the type of former Woolies site that is hardest to identify: one where the building that housed the store has subsequently been demolished. For once, 100thBirthday.co.uk isn’t so helpful, referring a little vaguely to the former store “facing the old houses in High Holborn” (the Tudor Staple Inn perhaps?), and mistakenly illustrating its piece with a picture of Oxford Street 161 instead.

However, through a bit of detective work and Google Street Viewing, I think I’ve managed to identify the correct location, adjacent to the Chancery Lane Tube station entrance towards High Holborn’s eastern end.

Former Woolworths site (?), High Holborn (24 Nov 2010)

The building looks about the right age (1980s), houses several small shops including a former Clinton Cards (now Holland & Barrett), as mentioned by 100thBirthday.co.uk, and is almost directly opposite the Staple Inn. Again, if anyone can shed any more light on the former High Holborn Woolies – and can confirm whether or not I’ve got the location right – please feel free to share what you know!

Former Woolworths, Whitby (16 Aug 2010)

As well as comprehensively exploring the North East, and making the occasional excursion into Cumbria or Scotland, I’ve also clocked a few of North Yorkshire’s former Woolworths stores over the last few months. 

Assuming I haven’t missed any, the county still had nine Woolworths stores at the time of the retailer’s collapse – in Harrogate (#131), Malton (#591), Northallerton (#847), Richmond (#641), Ripon (#492), Scarborough (#165), Selby (#663), Skipton (#579) and Whitby (#384) – three of which I’ve visited to date. 

One store not on that list – Knaresborough (#686; not visited yet) – came within a whisker of surviving until the bitter end. Following the sale of its lease to Tesco, the store had already closed down on 15 November 2008, just 11 days before the whole Woolworths business fell into administration.

Former Woolworths (now Boots), York (17 Jul 2010)

Another casualty from earlier in 2008 was the flagship store in York’s Spurriergate (#171), which closed in January of that year. Originally opened on 25 October 1924, the store was significantly extended and remodelled over the years. The site has now been taken over by Boots, with TK Maxx recently opening up in the smaller Coney Street premises that Boots vacated. Elsewhere in the county, Boots has also taken over the old Woolworths premises in Harrogate, relocating from a smaller unit across the street.

Former Woolworths (now Poundland), Scarborough (16 Aug 2010)

Over on the Yorkshire coast, the old Woolies in Scarborough and Whitby have both acquired new occupants in recent months.  

On the face of it, Scarborough’s branch in Westborough looks like an integral part of the town’s  Brunswick Shopping Centre, opened in 1990, with its modern redbrick appearance.  

In fact, a Woolworths store first opened on the site on 13 September 1924, and its current frontage is merely a 1990 skin on the front of what is basically a 1960s building. Go around the side, and the unmodernised Vernon Road frontage is quintessential postwar Woolies, with more than a passing resemblance to the contemporaneous Linthorpe Road store in Middlesbrough.

Vernon St frontage, former Woolworths, Scarborough (16 Aug 2010)

After remaining empty for more than twelve months, Poundland opened on the site in February this year – to the dismay of some. Indeed, where Facebook has tended to be full of groups advocating the arrival of one retailer or another in their town, Scarborough’s Poundland has prompted 2,800 members to join a group called ‘Scarborough Woolworths should not be a Poundland!’. While it’s good that the site is no longer empty, it is hard to argue with the view that Poundland trading from only one of Woolies’ two floors is rather a waste of the building’s potential.

Happily, the new occupant of Whitby’s former Woolies seems to have prompted less controversy. Scottish-based Outdoor World opened two outdoor leisurewear stores there in June: The Wilderness, trading from the upper level facing Flowergate; and Pine Valley, on the ground floor with access from St Anne’s Staith. When I visited, the stores’ layout, ranges and overall feel reminded me of Mountain Warehouse, another expanding discount outdoor retailer.

Former Woolworths, Whitby - Flowergate frontage (16 Aug 2010)

The building’s unusual configuration, built into a steep slope, allows both floors of the 1930 building to be independently accessed from opposite streets, as well as creating two interesting frontages that hardly seem to bear any relation to one another.

The Flowergate side has all the typical features of a purpose-built Woolies from the era – the five bays, central pediment, etc. – but with an extra storey compared to usual. Sitting at the bottom of Flowergate, this is a fine and imposing frontage that really dominates the street.

Former Woolworths, Whitby - St Annes Staith frontage (16 Aug 2010)

Around the other side, the property is no less impressive, towering over the buildings around it. Here, logic dictates, the building is four storeys high, but the clever use of a deep fascia gives the illusion of it still being three. The overall effect is slightly quirky – almost a typical Woolies façade, but one that has been vertically stretched. Certainly, with its position overlooking the harbour, there can be few old Woolies stores that occupy a more picturesque spot.

Former Woolworths (now Heron Foods), Richmond, Yorkshire (12 Mar 2010)

North Yorkshire’s remaining Woolies sites host the usual range of expanding discount retailers. The store in Richmond – much more of which in a future post – is now Heron Foods, Northallerton’s is Wilkinson, and Ripon’s is