Sainsbury's Local (formerly Woolworths), Hessle Road, Hull (11 Oct 2011)

While tearing around Barnsley and Hull visiting UGO supermarkets last month, I was pleased to be able to work in an unexpected ex-Woolworths. Not knowing Hull very well at all beforehand, I hadn’t realised that the UGO supermarket in Hull’s Eton Street was close to Hessle Road, where numbers 306-310 – today’s Sainsbury’s Local – once housed a Woolies store. The property’s blank upper-floor windows and ground-floor vinyls do present a rather disappointing face to the street, but the Sainsbury’s store itself seems popular enough.

I believe Hull had as many as five Woolworths stores in the past, but only one of these survived until the retailer’s demise in 2008-09. The large city centre Woolies at 4-5 Whitefriargate was one of the first in the country (store #6), opened in 1911 but closed down on 7 April 1984. Today, the building houses the fashion retailer Peacocks.

Sainsbury's Local (formerly Woolworths), Hessle Road, Hull (11 Oct 2011)

Hessle Road (#169), above, opened next, in about 1924, followed by Holderness Road (#710) around 1938, and another city centre store, at 59 King Edward Street (#919), in 1956. Hull’s final Woolworths, in Anlaby Road (#957), opened in 1957.

However, while the King Edward Street shop survived until the end, the three other stores all seem to have closed by the late 1980s. The store at 455-457 Anlaby Road is also now a Sainsbury’s Local, while the landmark premises at 272-284 Holderness Road are divided between Heron Foods and a branch of Lloyds TSB.

Staff of Hessle Road Woolworths in 'The New Bond', October 1937

As elsewhere, the relatively early closure of the Hessle Road Woolworths seems to reflect the street’s changing status as a shopping destination. Rather like Byker’s Shields Road, which also lost its Woolies in the 1980s, my understanding is that Hessle Road was once one of Hull’s prime out-of-town retail thoroughfares. Today, like Shields Road, it’s no longer the major draw that it was, but it continues to play an important role in meeting the retail needs of its local community. Most notably, the northern variety store institution Boyes continues to trade from the site at 226-234 Hessle Road where it first opened a drapery shop in 1920.

Sometime after Woolworths closed, 306-310 Hessle Road hosted a branch of the Hull-based convenience chain Jacksons Stores, part of the same long-established company that had boasted at least six grocery or bakery shops in Hessle Road by 1936. Following the sale of the business to Sainsbury’s in 2004, Jacksons’ 114 stores, including Hessle Road, initially became Sainsbury’s at Jacksons, before later being rebranded to Sainsbury’s Local.

Woolies at 306-310 Hessle Road may be long gone, but today’s occupant is, in its own way, just as much a part of the area’s long retail history.

Former Woolworths (now Store Twenty One), South Shields (22 Sep 2011)

Store Twenty One has opened its doors in South Shields today, meaning that the whole of the former Woolworths unit at 100-108 King Street (store number #104) is now back in retail use. While Poundland has occupied its part of the building since 2009, Store Twenty One’s portion had previously remained empty since Woolworths’ 2008 collapse.

I happened to be passing by yesterday, when the finishing touches were being applied to the store’s interior. As with the North East’s other ex-Woolies Store Twenty One shops – in Stanley, Houghton-le-Spring, Jarrow and the original (pre-1955) Woolworths site in Redcar – the store’s shopfront and fitout, inside and out, is of a very high quality. All it needs now, as I’ve observed before, is for the business to start making a profit.

Former Woolworths (now Store Twenty One and Poundland), South Shields (22 Sep 2011)

Elsewhere on Tyneside yesterday, I spotted positive developments at two other local ex-Woolworths sites. Regular readers will recall that the former Woolworths at 63 Shields Road in Byker (#276) closed on 1 June 1985, and then housed painting and decorating retailer Decorflair until the start of this year.

Former Woolworths (now YMCA), Byker (22 Sep 2011)

Until yesterday I’d never seen the building without its shutters down, so I was pleased to see it now open again and housing a YMCA charity shop. As always, the black granite stall riser of the typical 1960s Woolworths shopfront is present and correct, despite the property not having housed a Woolies branch for over a quarter of a century.

Former Woolworths (now YMCA), Byker (22 Sep 2011)

Inside, the shopfloor features some surprisingly ornate wrought iron columns, which suggests that the property is older than its rather featureless exterior would imply.

The store is also very spacious, and it’s easy to see how it would have made an impressive Woolworths when it moved there, from its old premises at nos. 47-49, sometime around 1960 – a time when Shields Road was still one of the city’s prime retail destinations. Today, a combination of independents and multiples (such as Morrisons, Wilkinson, Ethel Austin, Boots and Iceland) ensure that Shields Road still performs an important function locally, but the days of it attracting shoppers from across the city are surely gone.

Against this backdrop of the street’s illustrious past, the arrival of yet another charity shop is perhaps nothing to get too excited about, but at least it brings the building back into use while the lease continues to be marketed.

Former Woolworths and Well Worth It, Wallsend (22 Sep 2011)

Meanwhile, down the road in Wallsend, the former Woolworths (#351) and shortlived Well Worth It store at 2-4 High Street East has gained a ‘let agreed’ sign since I last passed by six weeks ago, suggesting that a new occupant is imminent.

I can’t find any reference to who might be taking the site over, and there’s no planning application as yet – always a good source of early information, given the need for retailers to obtain advertisement consent whenever they wish to erect new signage.

I note, however, that an advertisement has gone live this evening for a Store Manager for an unspecified ”Tyne & Wear” branch of Store Twenty One. Could the expanding fashion retailer be about to take over yet another North East ex-Woolies site, as I mooted last month? If it is, you heard it here first…

Former Safeway, Byker (6 Jun 2011)

It’s amazing how a throwaway remark can prompt an entire discussion on something unexpected…

In my January post about the divvying up of Netto’s North East store estate following the chain’s acquisition by Asda, I made passing reference to Birtley’s former Safeway – a store which Morrisons sold to Somerfield in 2004, bought back in 2009, but has then failed to reopen, leaving Netto as the town’s only supermarket.

My observation subsequently encouraged a whole thread of comments on the fate of former Safeways, highlighting a surprisingly large number of stores that Morrisons initially disposed of but has since reacquired following the Co-op’s takeover of Somerfield – a reflection of Morrisons’ new-found readiness to run more compact supermarkets than had traditionally been the case.

While a fair few ex-Safeways have therefore changed hands as many as three times in the last eight years, the former store in Raby Street, Byker – which I passed by a couple of days ago – is one whose retail use ended with Morrisons’ takeover.

Morrisons, Byker (6 Jun 2011)

With Morrisons having opened a large superstore in Shields Road in 2002, it was always inevitable that the nearby Safeway would be on the OFT’s list of stores – 52 in total – that Morrisons was required to divest. While other Newcastle and North East stores were promptly acquired by other grocers – Heaton and Team Valley by Sainsbury’s, for example – no offers were forthcoming for the Byker Safeway, despite its location close to the Byker Metro station and a parade of smaller shops.

Former Safeway, Byker, with parade of shops opposite (6 Jun 2011)

In December 2004, the OFT reported that:

Morrisons has sought bids for the Byker store. However, to date, no suitable bids have been received, whether from grocery operators or non-grocery operators and whether above open market value or not. Having consulted with Morrisons, the OFT is minded to direct that Morrisons may retain the store at Raby St, Byker…

With Morrisons clearly having no interest in operating a second branch so close to its first, the store – once famous for selling fewer sprouts than any other UK Safeway store – was duly closed.

The property remained empty, I believe, until 2007, when it was bought for £2m – not by another retailer, but by the expanding North East business Winn Solicitors, a company specialising in accident compensation, personal injury claims, and irritatingly catchy local radio jingles.

Rear of former Safeway, Byker (6 Jun 2011)

As you might expect, the property appears to have had some extra windows punched in, to make it suitable for office use, but it still looks for all the world like an abandoned Safeway – complete with clock tower, loading bay, distinctive green paintwork, and a space where the trolleys ought to be.

Side of former Safeway, Byker (6 Jun 2011)

Of course, with Asda set to open a new full-line store in the former Woolworths at Newcastle Shopping Park, Byker residents’ food shopping habits are set to evolve yet again in the coming months.

Morrisons’ arrival on Shields Road, nearly a decade ago, gave a much-needed fillip to a shopping centre that was, arguably, then underserved by its relatively compact, and expensive, Safeway store. It remains to be seen, however, how far the new Asda – with its easy access and edge-of-centre location – will undo those gains.

Original former Woolworths (now Store Twenty One), Redcar (4 May 2011)

One of my main motivations for visiting Redcar yesterday was to get a photo of the town’s original former Woolworths at 19 High Street, above, which – inexplicably – I’d failed to spot when I was there the previous time.

I should have known from the store number of the Redcar Woolworths – 275, giving an opening date of 1929 – that the more modern building at 39-43 High Street, now occupied by the Yorkshire Trading Company, below, couldn’t have housed Redcar Woolies since the beginning.

...and its 1950s (?) replacement (4 May 2011)

Redcar’s original Woolworths, as regular readers will expect by now, is classic interwar Woolies architecture, with all the usual features – redbrick and white render, with small windows either side of a three-bay-wide pedimented section. Curiously, there are two additional bays on the right-hand side, suggesting that it was at some point extended – rather like the store in Llandudno.

Original former Woolworths (now Store Twenty One), Redcar (4 May 2011)

The design of the main section, interestingly, is almost identical to the original Woolworths in Byker’s Shields Road, below, though Redcar’s is in a generally better state of repair. This similarity is unsurprising – Byker was store number 276 to Redcar’s 275, meaning that the two stores would have been built and opened within just a few weeks of one another.

Original Woolworths, Byker (27 Sep 2009)

The old postcard, below, shows a yet-to-be-pedestrianised Redcar High Street in what I think is the 1950s, with the Woolworths store visible, in its original location, on the far right.

Old postcard of Redcar High Street, c.1950s

If you click on the image above to enlarge it, you can see that the Woolworths store has its upstairs windows open, revealing an art deco design very similar to those shown in the photo of the Byker store. Sadly, I understand that the Byker ex-Woolies’ original windows have been ripped out and replaced in just the last few months.

One piece of information I’m not clear about is when exactly Redcar’s Woolworths moved from its original location to the new site. My hunch, however, is that it may have been in the late 1950s, given that the replacement store still has in place its distinctive 1960s Woolworths shopfront, complete with shiny black stall riser.

Former Woolworths, Redcar (17 Sep 2009)

Bringing this post nicely full circle with the previous one, about Redcar’s ‘virtual shops’, the town’s original Woolies site happens to be a property that has only recently acquired a new occupant after years of standing empty. The expanding fashion retailer Store Twenty One opened its new store there only a few weeks ago, reunifying the two parts of the building that had previously housed a McDonalds restaurant and a card shop.

This makes Redcar the fourth Store Twenty One branch in the North East to have a Woolworths history, following the chain’s recently opened stores in Stanley, Jarrow and Houghton-le-Spring (pictured below) – all sites vacated following Woolworths’ 2008 collapse. Just as elsewhere, the retailer’s new Redcar store is surprisingly smart and appealing for a value chain, and certainly makes a positive impression on the streetscape.

Store Twenty One, Jarrow (24 Jul 2010)

Former Woolworths (now Store Twenty One), Houghton-le-Spring (1 Mar 2011)

Former Woolworths (now Store Twenty One), Stanley (12 April 2010)

Owned since 2006 by Indian textiles group Alok, Store Twenty One may not be an especially well-known retail name, but its aggressive expansion in the last few years has certainly played an important role in regenerating North East high streets – often in locations that other retailers might have overlooked.

The downside, of course, is the restructured business’s failure, as yet, to make a profit, though pre-tax losses for the group (including QS, as well as Store Twenty One) have fallen from a peak of £27.5m in 2007 to ‘only’ £6.4m in 2010. With the owners promising a “definite” profit for the year ending March 2011, it has to be hoped that Alok’s investment in new and improved stores comes good before too much longer.

With the ex-Woolies in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough now in new tenants’ hands (as BHS and Discount UK repectively – more on that in a future post), my reckoning is that of the 33 North East stores closed following Woolworths’ collapse, just four remain empty – in Wallsend, Peterlee, Newton Aycliffe and Newcastle. Coincidentally, none of these are locations where Store Twenty One currently has a presence.

With Alok reportedly seeking to double its UK store numbers from the current 200+, perhaps it could yet snap up the lot? Whenever it happens – and it may not be too much longer – the North East achieving a 100% hit rate of Woolies reoccupations will certainly be a cause for celebration, reinforcing the sense that even in the midst of an economic downturn there are still plenty of expanding retailers seeking out the right space.

Around the Stores (The New Bond, August 1949)

I’ve mentioned Woolies’ old ‘house journal’, The New Bond, almost as often as I’ve written about the history of Byker’s Woolworths stores, so I was pleased to find a reference to the latter in a recently acquired edition of the former.

Under the heading ‘Byker, 276′, the ‘Around the Stores’ section of the August 1949 issue includes a “snapshot taken on the roof of the Store during the lunch hour”, featuring “Mr. Corson, the Manager” and several other cheerful-looking members of his team – quaintly described (and capitalised) as “the Staff Supervisor, the Cook in the Staff Canteen and three other members of the Staff.”

Byker Woolworths staff members (From The New Bond, August 1949)

Based on what we know of the Byker Woolies timeline, the photograph must have been taken at the original store, at 47-49 Shields Road, a decade or so before the branch relocated to number 63.

It’s a pity that none of the other staff members are named, but perhaps there are some readers out there who recognise or even knew the ladies featured in this 62-year-old photograph?

Mr Corson, of course, previously cropped up in the April 1941 ’Forces Souvenir Issue’ of The New Bond that I blogged about back in October, where he was pictured in his guise as an AC2 (Aircraftman Second Class) along with many other Woolworths colleagues who had gone to war.

AC2 S. Corson from Byker 276, The New Bond, April 1941

It’s good to know that not only did he make it back safely, but that he subsequently returned to work at his previous Woolies branch.

Cover of The New Bond, August 1949

As I’ve suggested before, old issues of The New Bond provide a fascinating and incredibly detailed record of the Woolworths business at the height of its success, highlighting the obvious affection with which staff and employer held each other. For the time, they are also incredibly well-produced publications, printed on glossy paper, packed with photographs, and always featuring a beautifully illustrated colour cover, often by the in-house artist Gervase.

In the case of this particular issue, the star of the cover is a Woolies member of staff: 17-year-old “‘Miss Sheila Cockman, of Witham, 592, in Essex”, who it appears was the winner of the magazine’s ‘Cover Competition’. Inside, the Editor gushes about Sheila’s attributes, remarking upon her “eyes of blue-grey and hair the colour of ripening corn, which combined with a fair and rosy-cheeked complexion gives her a distinctive appeal.”

To modern eyes, of course, it’s all delightfully old-fashioned. Something tells me won’t be seeing anything similar in the John Lewis Partnership’s Gazette.

The building in question

Since I first blogged about it just over a year ago under the heading ‘Is this shop in Shields Road, Byker an old Woolies?’, the history of the building in question at 47-49 Shields Road (pictured above) has prompted quite a discussion – but, until now, no definitive answer.

In the course of the discussions, we have already established that Byker *did* have a Woolworths prior to the most recent incarnation (store #1256) at Newcastle Shopping Park. However, this was located further up Shields Road at number 63, in premises occupied by Decorflair until just a few weeks ago.

Former Woolworths (now Decorflair), Shields Road, Byker

Through reader contributions, we knew that Woolies had traded from that site since at least 1963, while an old newspaper cutting from Newcastle’s Local Studies Library revealed that the store closed on 1 June 1985.

How the Chronicle broke the news

However, none of this explained Byker Woolworths’ store number being 276. As I’ve noted before, each new Woolies store had a unique store number, with the first store (Liverpool, in 1910) given the number 1, and subsequent numbers allocated (usually) in chronological order. On this basis, 276 suggested an opening date of August or September 1927, raising the question of whether Byker’s Woolies had indeed occupied a different site prior to the Decorflair building.

Now, Brian E Clark seems to have come up with the answer:

Your question… (was this a Woolies shop) It certainly was! I am 70 years old, and spent the first 23 years of my life living in the Old Byker of 178 Kendal Street. I can remember that the shop front was re-set back from the building line on the left side of the frontage 3 or 4 feet… The shop moved further up Shields Road as you know, but this must have been in the late 50s early 60s. I do not remember it having an upstairs for the public.

So, there we have it – confirmation, it would seem, that the building at 47-49 Shields Road was indeed a purpose-built Woolworths, probably moving to the new location at number 63 sometime between the late 1950s and 1963.

Many thanks indeed to Brian for providing the missing piece of information, and to everyone else who has contributed to this particular discussion so far. Thanks to George Tullin and Peter, we already have a shot of number 63 in use as a Woolworths; all we need now is to find an old photograph depicting the original (47-49 Shields Road) Byker Woolies in all its glory – something that has, as yet, eluded me.

Shuttered Ethel Austin store

As variety chain Alworths celebrates its first birthday today, the opening of stores in Newark and Maidenhead has now been confirmed for later this month – and both will be in former Ethel Austin premises. 

While a rump of 90 Ethel Austin stores were saved in April, and are gradually being converted to a new ’Life & Style’ fascia, this is just a fraction of the 300 Ethel Austin shops that existed at the start of the year. Though not given anywhere near the same media attention as Woolworths, when it folded, Ethel Austin’s disappearance from the high street will nonetheless go down in history as one of the major retail collapses of this recession.

Indeed, with most Ethel Austin stores occupying secondary or small-town locations, the chain’s closure has, in many places, compounded the loss of Woolworths a year earlier, with Stockton among the shut-down Ethel Austin sites in the North East.

Former Ethel Austin, Stockton-on-Tees (28 Jun 2010)

If there’s a slight silver lining, it’s that the appearance of 200+ former Ethel Austin units on the market – just as the number of vacant Woolies dwindles – is apparently providing Alworths with a new source of potential store locations. The first, in Alloa, opened in July, and it seems unlikely that Newark and Maidenhead will be the last.

Snapping up Ethel Austin sites will allow Alworths to open up in locations where the old Woolies store is already occupied by somebody else, or even in places where there was never a Woolies in the first place, as well as conveying the important message that the retailer’s more than just a Woolies offshoot. Indeed, I was quite surprised to hear from Alworths that of the 237 members of staff that it employs, only 68 – less than a third – are ex-Woolies.

In the meantime, however, Alworths’ third confirmed opening for November – in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire – sticks to the old formula for the moment by opening up in former Woolworths premises.

Summing up Alworths’ first year, MD Andy Latham told Soult’s Retail View:

“It’s been an extremely busy 12 months. Many people questioned opening a new retail chain during very difficult economic times; however, it has proved to be a good year to launch a variety retailer into market towns.

“Local councils have welcomed us with open arms, as we’ve helped inject new life into many high streets where shops were shutting down. Landlords have been keen to do deals with us in order to fill the mounting number of empty shops, and best of all our customers have been delighted that they can buy music, DVDs, console games, home items, pic ‘n’ mix and children’s toys all in one store, on their local high street again.

“Ultimately, Alworths stores are for children and families and we go out of our way to cater for these markets. If we’re missing anything, we actively encourage our customers to tell us what we should be stocking – we don’t want to stand still and we appreciate that adapting to our customers’ needs is crucial to maintaining our presence on the high street. Over the past year the stores have exceeded our expectations – serving over 1 million customers and selling over 27,778,766 products – and we’re looking forward to trading 17 stores in the run up to Christmas, an extremely important time for us.” 

While Alworths’ long term strategy is to have a chain of 200 stores, there’s no confirmation, as yet, of the speculated about new shop in Lanark. However, the experience of the last year shows that local newspaper stories revealing potential new Alworths stores tend to have some truth in them – so expect an official announcement in the coming weeks…

Former Woolworths in Shields Road. Photo from Newcastle City Council, P&T Image Archive

Since I first wrote about back it in January, we’re still yet to establish whether the A&S Discount Store building in Byker’s Shields Road (below) was ever an old Woolies.

It’s not for want of trying, though – with 16 comments and rising, my initial blog about the property has attracted more reaction than any other to date.

An old Woolies? Maybe, maybe not

However, thanks to everyone’s comments and a bit of digging around of my own, we can piece together a fair bit about the building in Shields Road that definitely was a former Woolworths – the present Decorflair property at number 63, next to the old Beavan’s department store. (Incidentally, someone who knows better than I do told me off last week for mispronouncing Beavan’s – apparently its name was pronounced as ‘Be-vans’, not as ‘Bee-vans’. Sorry!)

Previous accounts from Mike and Peter had indicated that the Woolies store was certainly around on that site in about 1963, and was still there in the early 1980s. Now, the simultaneous unearthing of an old photo (above) by both Peter and George Tullin, shows the store in what was presumably its 1950s or 60s heyday. Here’s a cropped version of the image, showing the Woolworths store closer up, with its gold signage and carmine fascia clearly discernable – even in black and white:

Closer up view of former Woolworths in Shields Road. Photo from Newcastle City Council, P&T Image Archive

Peter also flagged up another shot of the store – this time in colour, and taken from the opposite direction – that is probably from a few years later.

Fifty years or so on, it’s remarkable how similar the building looked then to how it does now – even down to the blocked-off first-floor windows. As is the case with most old Woolies, however, the historic shopfront and fascia are long gone, replaced with something much more ordinary:

Former Woolworths (now Decorflair), Shields Road, Byker

Previously I wrote about how an old copy of the Woolies staff magazine, The New Bond, had alerted me to the presence of an old Woolworths site in Benwell, another Newcastle suburb. I’m pleased to report that The New Bond once again proved a useful source here, with an issue that I recently acquired shedding just a little more light onto Woolworths’ presence in Byker.

Cover of The New Bond, April 1941

Published in April 1941, this particular 122-page issue of The New Bond is rather moving. Badged as a ‘Forces Souvenir Issue’, it features news, letters and photographs from those staff members engaged in the British forces or civilian defence. The final page includes a list of those promoted, commissioned, missing or killed in action, as well as a lovely, surpringly cheerful letter from Pte Terence Hannan, sent from a German POW camp, with the name of his former store – South Shields, 104 – underneath.

Terence Hannan's letter (click to enlarge)

The reference to Byker, however, is on page 92, where the caption beneath a photograph of AC2 (Aircraftman Second Class) S. Corson, from the RAF, shows that he was previously engaged at ‘Byker, 276′.

AC2 S. Corson from Byker 276

As I explained before, each Woolies had a unique store number, usually allocated sequentially from the earliest (1, in Liverpool) to the newest (e.g. 1256 for Byker’s Newcastle Shopping Park store, only opened in 2004). However, prior to spotting this reference in The New Bond, I hadn’t known the store number of the old Byker branch.

Helpfully, the store numbering system means that even if you don’t know the opening date of a particular store, knowing its store number allows you to make a very good estimate, simply by finding out when the stores either side of it opened. By referring to the useful (but incomplete) store list at 100thBirthday.co.uk, we can establish that store #274, in Rochdale, opened on 23 July 1927, and store #280, in North Finchley, on 17 September 1927.

This suggests that the Byker store opened in August or September 1927 – once again raising the possibility that the  Decorflair building (which, admittedly, is hard to date due to the lack of architectural features) may not have been Woolies’ original site in Byker.

After all, the 1920s and 30s was when the distinctive Woolies architectural style was prevalent in the chain’s newly built stores. Take a look, for example, at the old London Road Woolworths in Brighton - store #288 – which opened on 29 October 1927 (long since demolished, sadly, and replaced by a building that now houses Aldi). It may just be coincidence, but the property’s architectural similarity to Byker’s A&S Discount Store building is uncanny.

Is this an old Woolies? The jury's still out

So, we have an opening date – but what about when the store closed? Well, there’s progress on that front too.

Visiting Newcastle’s excellent Local Studies Library a few months ago, I was searching through old retail-related cuttings for something else entirely, but spotted an article – from the Evening Chronicle on 30 April 1985 – about the closure announcement of the Byker Woolworths.

How the Chronicle broke the news

Under the heading ‘Another Woolies to close’ (the ‘another’ referring, presumably, to the flagship Northumberland Street store (#27) which had closed down in, I believe, 1984), the article read as follows:

Another Tyneside Woolworth store has been sold and starts its closing down sale tomorrow. The store in Shields Road, Byker, Newcastle, will finally close on June 1, with the loss of 22 jobs.

This is another blow to Shields Road as a shopping centre. Mr Brian Blackburn, who has been managing the store for 14 months and with Woolworth for 12 years, said: “It is a very sad day.”

The premises have been sold to J. T. Clough whose registered office is in Blyth, but it is not yet known what the site will operate as. Of the 22 jobs to go, eight are full time and 14 are part time.

Mr Blackburn, 31, said: “The company will be making arrangements to try to find alternative employment for the permanent staff in other branches.”

Woolworth had given the store a short extension to its life in the hope overheads could be reduced and store profits increased.

The last big store closure to hit Shields Road was in last July when the J. T. Parrish department store closed. However, it was leased to rival company Michael Parrish Ltd., who started trading in September.

So there we have it – Byker’s Woolies seemingly opened in 1927, and closed on 1 June 1985 – though the unanswered question of whether it occupied the same site for all that time looks like it will run and run…

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.

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 reminisced about the old Woolies in Seaham – closed in the 1980s – TAS was able to confirm that the long-departed store in Crook was, indeed, in the building that now houses Boots. Meanwhile, Peter shared his memories of buying film brochures from the former Byker Woolies in Shields Road (another ’80s casualty), while John from Gateshead alerted me, via Twitter, to a former Woolworths in Felling that I never knew existed – another one to add to the visiting list!

Former Woolworths (now Decorflair), Shields Road, Byker

Given this present flurry of archive delving, I figured it might be a good moment to recap the known locations of old Woolworths stores in the North East. First, here are the 33 Woolworths that kept going until the bitter end, and only closed down in December 2008 and January 2009 following Woolworths’ administration:

• Alnwick (#822)
• Ashington (#229)
• Barnard Castle (#534)
• Berwick-upon-Tweed (#232)
• Billingham (#820)
• Bishop Auckland (#116)
• Blyth (#544)
• Byker (Newcastle Shopping Park) (#1256)
• Chester-le-Street (#267)
• Consett (#388)
• Darlington (#28)
• Durham (#321)
• Gateshead (#154)
• Gosforth (#716)
• Hartlepool (#322)
• Hexham (#931)
• Houghton-le-Spring (#488)
• Jarrow (#434)
• MetroCentre (#1238)
• Middlesbrough (#1200)
• Morpeth (#439)
• Newcastle upon Tyne (Clayton Street) (#340)
• Newton Aycliffe (#1007)
• North Shields (#426)
• Peterlee (#987)
• Redcar (#275)
• South Shields (#104)
• Spennymoor (#278)
• Stanley (#873)
• Stockton-on-Tees (Castlegate) (#336)
• Stockton-on-Tees (Portrack Lane) (#1232)
• Wallsend (#351)
• Whitley Bay (#277)

Photographs and links to previous blog posts about those stores are given on the ‘Old Woolies’ page.

Next, these are the 16 19 North East stores, that I know of, that had closed down prior to Woolworths’ administration. As far as I’m aware, these are all stores that closed down years ago (i.e. the 1980s or earlier), with the exception of the Middlesbrough Music & Video shop (which reportedly shut in the early 1990s), and of course the large Sunderland store that only bit the dust in 2004:

• Benwell (#905)
• Blaydon
• Byker (63 Shields Road) [EDIT: Store # (276) sourced, 29 Oct 2010] 
• Crook
• Felling
• Killingworth (Woolco)
• Linthorpe Village
• Longbenton [EDIT: Added to list, 21 Jun 2010]
• Middlesbrough (Linthorpe Road) (#8)
• Middlesbrough (Music & Video, Hillstreet)
• New Washington (#1014) [EDIT: Added to list, 3 Jun 2010]
• Newcastle upon Tyne (Northumberland Street) (#27)
• North Kenton [EDIT: Added to list, 28 Jul 2010]
• Pennywell, Sunderland (#817)
• Seaham
• Stockton-on-Tees (High Street)
• Sunderland (Fawcett Street) (#144)
• Thornaby (Woolco)
• Washington Galleries (Woolco) (#2007)

Former Woolworths (now Primark), Sunderland

Former Woolworths, Benwell

In both the lists above, I’ve included the store numbers in brackets where I have them. Within the Woolworths business, these numbers provided each store with a unique identifier, and are repeatedly used in old editions of The New Bond, when referring to particular branches. They were still in use right until the end, however, as highlighted in this useful 2007 PDF.

Stores seem to have kept the same number throughout their lifetimes – South Shields, for example, is referred to as store number 104 in the 2007 list, just as it was in an issue of The New Bond from fifty years earlier.

As far as I am aware, the store numbers also correspond to the order in which those shops were opened – hence the original UK Woolworths in Liverpool being #1; new stores mentioned in the February 1956 edition of The New Bond ranging from #913 (Kingsbridge) to #921 (Warminster); and the most recent Big W sites (such as Byker) having store numbers in the 1200s.

Where a store was rebuilt or relocated – Stockton-on-Tees’ #336, for example – it seems to have kept its original number; however, a new store opening up in a town that had had a Woolworths in the past (such as Middlesbrough), seems to have been allocated a new number (hence the modern Hillstreet branch being #1200, rather than taking over the former #8).

I’d be interested to know if there’s a complete list of store numbers these out there; I certainly haven’t come across one as yet, though it is possible to find the number for many stores by searching or browsing at Woolworths Reunited and 100thBirthday.co.uk.

Equally, if you know of any old Woolies in the North East that are missing from the list above, please add a comment below. I very much doubt that the list is comprehensive, and suspect that there may well be further examples, similar to Stockton, where an earlier store was replaced by a new one elsewhere in the same town.

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 and 1972. I’ve picked up a few editions from eBay – all from between 1956 and 1960 – and each one gives a fascinating snapshot of the business at the time. 

Dinkie - "famous the world over for curlers and hairgrips"

Photographs of award presentations for long-serving staff sit alongside news of new stores, latest fashion patterns, recent staff weddings, articles and ‘appreciations’, all interspersed with colourful adverts for Dinkie curlers and Polythene Food Bags. The tone is all very quaint and paternalistic, of course, but some of today’s retailers could do worse than picking up some tips from how Woolies communicated and engaged with its staff half a century ago. 

This jacket would apparently be "ideal for travel and sight-seeing"

From a historical point of view, one of the most useful things about The New Bond is the way in which it immortalises Woolworths stores that had already closed many, many years before the whole business finally collapsed in 2008 – shops such as those in Ripley (now Amber Value) or Byker (now Decorflair), for instance, that shut down in the 80s or 90s. In many case, little detail of these stores being old Woolworths can be found on the web (or on site), meaning that written testimony (such as The New Bond), old photographs and postcards, and the memories of those old enough to remember become the main sources of evidence. 

Here in the North East, I’m still using such sources to come across former Woolworths stores that I never knew existed, including ones in Blaydon (long demolished, and which I’m still planning to blog about), Sunderland’s Pennywell estate, and Crook in County Durham. I’m yet to do any research into the Crook store, but a quick look at Google Street View makes me think that it was more than likely in the premises currently occupied by Boots – a building that has all the usual architectural attributes of a purpose-built Woolies.

Reference to Benwell Woolworths

On that topic, I was intrigued to come across a reference in the June 1960 edition of The New Bond to a Woolworths store – number 905 – in the Newcastle suburb of Benwell. It crops up twice under the ‘Changes and Appointments’ column for ‘Liverpool District’, listing Mr W D Johnson, Manager, who had left Benwell to go and manage a new store (1034) in Stretford, and who was replaced by Mr T R Pearson, previously Deputy Manager of the Durham shop (321). Needless to say, I was completely unaware that Benwell had ever had a Woolworths, and was determined to find out more. 

Fortunately, the obvious Google search for ‘Woolworths Benwell’ struck gold, bringing up a fascinating local heritage guide to Benwell’s Adelaide Terrace shops, including a photograph labelled “Looking west along the Terrace from Woolworths which was originally the Adelaide Cinema, c.1969″. As you might expect, I was now even more fascinated, given that there can’t be very many Woolworths that ever opened up in former cinemas.

Adelaide Terrace from Woolworths, Benwell, c.1969. Photograph from 'Along the Terrace'

Searching the web for anything to do with the Adelaide Cinema brought up very little of use, so I turned to my trusty Cinemas of Newcastle book by Frank Manders in the hope that it would enlighten me. Sure enough, the two-page spread about the ‘Adelaide Picture Hall’ added some detail to the story, revealing that it opened, as Benwell’s first cinema, in 1910; around a decade later, a two-storey stone-faced annexe was built in order to create a new foyer.

Adelaide Cinema, Benwell, c.1937. Photograph from 'Cinemas of Newcastle'

Manders reports, however, that the cinema only lasted another twenty or so years, officially closing on 1 February 1943. After use as a depot for Pathe, the book confirms that the the property became a Woolworths store, and, at the time of writing (1991), was “now a discount autoparts shop, recognisable as a former cinema from the side and rear.”  After another Google Street View excursion, followed by a visit in person, we duly have a photograph of Benwell’s old Woolies – still in use, indeed, as a discount autoparts shop.

The same view today (28 May 2010)

The chimneys may have gone, and windows and a shopfront have been punched into the old auditorium, but it’s remarkable quite how similar the building still looks to how it did in 1937. Viewed from the side, Manders is absolutely right about the building’s past role as a cinema being easy to spot.

Former Woolworths in Benwell (28 May 2010)

As always, however, there is still lots more to find out. For example, what year did the Woolworths store open, and when did it close? Do photographs exist of the building when it was in use as a Woolworths? And what memories do local people still have of shopping or working at the store? Knowing the contributions that readers to this blog have made in the past, I suspect it may not be too long before we have some answers!

Still not sure if this is an old Woolies or not... (7 Mar 2010)

Back in January I posted a shot of what is now the A&S Discount store in Byker’s Shields Road, questioning whether it had ever been a Woolworths store, given its architectural similarities to many of the other former Woolies that I’d visited. [UPDATE: We now know it WAS - see

Since then, I’ve received many welcome comments and observations, visited even more old Woolies that look very similar to the said building in Byker, and trawled through quite a few old photographs of Byker (such as this lot) to try and find some evidence of the property’s past.

...but most people seem to agree that it *does* look like one (7 Mar 2010)

Though I’m little closer to identifying whether the building once was a Woolworths or not, information from Mike and his mother – both from Byker – suggests that it certainly hasn’t been a Woolies for 45 years or more. While Mike and his mum do remember a Woolworths on Shields Road, that store occupied a different building all together to the one that I blogged about:

Woolworths on Shields Road was further up where the Decorflair store is now. I confirmed this with a reliable source… my mother! (we are from Byker!) It goes back at least 1965 and probably a lot earlier… I can just remember going there as a kid in the 80’s. Not sure when it exactly closed, but it must have been the mid to late 80’s…

I took a photo of the Decorflair store today (below), though it’s difficult to see much of the shopfront when the shutters are down. Happily, Google Street View comes to the rescue, showing a frontage that certainly retains the appearance of a 1960s Woolworths store.

Former Woolworths (now Decorflair), Shields Road, Byker, with the former Beavan's department store in the background (7 Mar 2010)

Needless to say, if anyone has any further information about either the Decorflair-definite-Woolies or the A&S-possible-Woolies I’d be delighted to hear from you. Did the Decorflair Woolworths indeed supersede the A&S one, perhaps sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s? And do any old photos of that stretch of Shields Road exist – perhaps shots of the splendid former Beavan’s department store, showing glimpses of the two buildings in question either side of it?

Before I finish, it would be remiss of me not to update on yet another Byker Woolworths – the most recent incarnation, at Newcastle Shopping Park, which opened in 2004 and closed following the retailer’s administration. There’s not much to report though – it’s still empty, and looks no different to how it did back in September.

Former Woolworths, Newcastle Shopping Park, Byker (7 Mar 2010)

Given that it’s 95,000 sq ft anchor store remains vacant, Newcastle Shopping Park seems to be managing surprisingly well. The car park was certainly busy when I visited today, and the Asda Living store had plenty of customers in both the store and the cafe. I also noted that the former JJB Fitness Club has been rebranded as DW Sports Fitness since my last visit in September, following JJB’s March 2009 disposal of its fitness clubs business to Dave Whelan – the ex-footballer who had created JJB Sports in the first place, back in 1977, before selling his last stake thirty years later.

Looking ahead, it’s hard to imagine a retailer that would want to occupy the whole of the enormous former Woolworths site. It’s probably about the right size for Best Buy (opening its first UK stores this Spring) or a Currys Megastore, but those types of retailers are more likely to favour the busier, higher profile retail parks on Tyneside, such as Team Valley or Silverlink, for their flagship stores. Perhaps carving the unit up into two or three smaller stores will ultimately prove to be the best way forward?

Ethel Austin, Bishop Auckland

Reports that value fashion retailer Ethel Austin and its sister homewares business, Au Naturale, are poised to enter administration – less than two years after both chains were rescued from previous administrations - is sad and disappointing news, as well as being quite surprising in its timing. 

True, there has been talk of an impending refinancing deal for a week or two, following suppliers’ alleged complaints about not having received payments that were due before Christmas. However, the retailer had reportedly “vehemently denied that it was in trouble”, and has recently been opening stores at quite a pace – 30 to 40 in the last few months, according to the Independent. 

Indeed, as recently as last week Ethel Austin was announcing new store openings, its planned move into the former Woolworths premises in Carmarthen following its acquisition of more than 20 other Woolies sites nationwide over the last twelve months, such as Huddersfield, Fishponds in Bristol, Stone in Staffordshire, and Leven in Fife. 

Ethel Austin store, Byker

I can’t recall ever entering an Ethel Austin store, so it’s difficult for me to comment on what might have gone wrong, though it’s fair to say that many of the more established shops that I have spotted – in places such as Byker or Seaham – haven’t occupied great locations. I’ve always quite liked Au Naturale though, and was disappointed to hear only this week that its Washington Galleries store was closing down. Its stock is largely cheap and cheerful, but it’s always been a good place to go for reasonably priced, decent quality home accessories such as cushions, baskets, vases and coasters. 

Hopefully, whatever fate awaits Ethel Austin and Au Naturale, the future of as many stores and jobs as possible can be secured. However, as with childrenswear retailer Adams – currently in administration for the third time in three years – you do have to question how far a business that has repeatedly collapsed into administration is really worth saving. It suggests, surely, that something is fundamentally awry with the business model or brand. 

Indeed, think about those retailers that have been rescued from administration in recent years, and it’s much easier to bring to mind those that have later collapsed again – such as MK One, MFI and, only this week, jewellery retailer Diamonds & Pearls – than it is to think of any chain that has truly gone on to thrive. Little wonder, perhaps, when retailers are so often bought out of administration – in a pre-pack or otherwise – by the same individuals who took them into administration in the first place.

Is this an old Woolies? (27 Sep 2009)

Here’s a retail history question for you – was this building (above), in Shields Road in Byker, once a Woolworths? [UPDATE, 28 Feb 2011: It seems that it was, as http://www.soultsretailview.co.uk/2011/02/28/mystery-of-shields-road-woolies-building-solved/ explains.]

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 from a delapidated upper floor, and a truly horrible fascia and shopfront treatment. On the other hand, wedged in next to the fairly new Morrisons store, it’s perhaps remarkable that the building has survived at all.

What struck me as I was walking by was the property’s architectural similarities to other Woolies stores that I’d seen before, such as those in Gosforth, Prestatyn and Morpeth:

Former Woolworths, Gosforth (27 Sep 2009)

Former Woolworths - now Home Bargains - in Prestatyn (25 Sep 2009)

Former Woolworths, Morpeth (15 Aug 2009)

More recently, the former Woolworths that I photographed in Alfreton, Derbyshire is perhaps the most similar of all:

Former Woolworths, Alfreton (23 Dec 2009)

Though the palette of materials varies in each case, all the properties above share the same sense of symmetry, a central pediment, and a similar pattern of fenestration – usually some variation of a 1-3-1 arrangement, with narrow windows either side of a wider, central window element. I know very little about the history of Woolworths architecture (though Jonathan Glancey has an excellent article on the subject here), but my hunch is that these would all have been purpose-built Woolworths stores, probably constructed during retailer’s heyday of the 1930s.

If anyone is able to confirm whether or not the building in Shields Road was once a Woolworths, and, if it was, when it closed, I’d be delighted to hear from you! So far I haven’t been able to find any evidence to support my theory, other than a reference from someone in the Journal’s online forums which confirms only that there was, historically, a Woolworths somewhere in Shields Road:

Can anyone remember the biscuit counter in Woolworths. I particularly remember the Woolies on Shields Road. If I remember rightly the biscuit counter was double sided and the assistants stood in the middle with tins of open biscuits all around them. There were all sorts of biscuits and you could get a 1llb of broken biscuits cheap. Also you could order a 1lb of mixed biscuits and get a few from each box.

As always, the comments box below eagerly awaits your contributions!

Former Woolworths, Consett (10 Oct 2009)

After Parts 1 and 2 of my former Woolworths photo gallery, it’s time to finish up – at least for the moment – with some more shots of old Woolies sites up here in the North East.

First up is the former store in Newcastle’s Clayton Street. The 1930s building has always been something of an architectural oddity in its location, with most of the rest of the street consisting of Richard Grainger buildings from about 1837.

Former Woolworths, Clayton Street, Newcastle (27 Sep 2009). Photograph by Graham Soult

The property, which is currently being advertised as ‘to let’, is pretty large – over 16,000 sq ft on the ground floor, with the same again on the first floor. In recent years the Woolworths store occupied only the ground floor, but I’d be curious to know whether Woolies ever had the first floor open to the public too. Perhaps there’s a reader out there who knows the answer?

To be honest, it’s difficult to see a store of this size, in this location, being re-let any time soon. This end of Clayton Street is very much a secondary pitch in Newcastle city centre (with some rather unprepossessing neighbours), and is therefore unlikely to suit the limited number of large retailers, such as Peacocks, that are not currently represented in the centre of Newcastle.

Possibly a more likely scenario is to see the building redeveloped as part of the planned demolition and rebuilding of the Newgate Shopping Centre, slated for 2011-12, into which the old Woolies had a (latterly unused) side entrance.

Former Woolworths, Byker (27 Sep 2009)

The Clayton Street shop was one of three Woolworths stores that existed within the Newcastle city boundaries until the chain’s collapse last year. One of those other stores was the Newcastle Shopping Park branch, in Byker – a slightly unusual case in that it displays no visible sign of ever being a Woolies, in contrast to most still-empty Woolworths that retain their familiar red signage.

This lack of evidence for where Woolworths actually was has already caused some confusion on the web, with Ballysundriven on Flickr (who has built up an astonishing collection of 349 old Woolies pics that puts mine to shame), and, in turn, Retail Week, mistakenly identifying the new B&M Home Store as being in the old Woolies premises. In fact, as the (very old) mall map confirms, B&M is in the unit that used to be Au Naturale, prior to its 2008 administration; meanwhile, the vast 95,000 sq ft former Woolworths unit remains resolutely empty.

Just to prove it really was a Woolworths, take a look at this picture of it, at the time of closure, on the Newcastle upon Tyne Daily Photo blog, or some shots here after it had just opened. Amusingly, while Woolworths’ own signage may have been taken down, its presence hasn’t been erased from Newcastle Shopping Park entirely:

Woolworths listed on a Newcastle Shopping Park sign (27 Sep 2009)

Only opened in 2004, the Byker store undoubtedly has a much shorter history than most of those Woolies branches that closed down a year ago; to be honest, though, the store was a bit of a white elephant from the beginning.

When Woolworths originally signed up to anchor the Newcastle Shopping Park scheme, its store was expected to be a Big W – the large, out-of-town format that Woolworths adopted in the late 1990s. However, the Big W format had already been abandoned by the time the Byker store was ready to open, so it was merely branded as Woolworths – albeit a very large one. Evidently it proved too large, given that Woolworths later brought in Peacocks to share some of the space.

Newcastle’s third and final Woolworths was the one in Gosforth High Street, which has seemingly been let to The Co-operative Food. When I revisited Gosforth last weekend, there looked to be hoardings up around the front of the store, with refurbishment work presumably underway.

Former Woolworths, Gosforth (27 Sep 2009)

"Acquired for clients Co-op Group"

Finally, another North East Woolworths that has had more happen to it since my photograph is the branch in Consett, County Durham.

Former Woolworths, Consett (10 Oct 2009)

Empty at the time of my visit, I understand that the store is now going to become a branch of the weekly payment store, BrightHouse.^{[broken link removed]}

For now – until I go travelling again - that’s all the photos I’ve got of recently-closed Woolworths. However, I’ve a couple of photographic variations left over for forthcoming blog posts, including one old North East Woolworths that shut down in 2004, and another that I think is an old Woolworths that closed down many years ago… See if you can work out which locations I’m referring to!