Wooly Minded, Clayton Street, Newcastle (24 Jul 2010)

Passing through Newcastle city centre yesterday afternoon, I was able to see what was happening with several incoming stores that I’ve blogged about previously.

In Clayton Street, Wooly Minded has now been trading for a week or two, and indeed features the palette of flying sheep, lime green and black that I was earlier promised.

I have to confess that I really dislike the sign’s use of Comic Sans, a font that is widely derided and overused – often in situations where something with a little more gravitas would work better. (Erin Valois, for example, recently described Comic Sans as “generally reserved for older ladies sending out chain emails about kittens or preteens flirting on MSN Messenger circa 2002″.)

Window display, Wooly Minded, Newcastle (24 Jul 2010)

Still, the overall effect is undeniably eyecatching, and where Wooly Minded’s existing shops in North and South Shields are hampered by quite long, thin shopwindows, the Newcastle store’s full height glazing has allowed for a bolder, fresher treatment. Crucially, while both the Shields shops feature densely packed window displays (including posters and signs stuck to the inside of the glass), the relative simplicity of the Clayton Street window treatment ensures that passing shoppers get a clear view into the shop.

Card Factory, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (24 Jul 2010)

Another new store with bold signage is the recently opened Card Factory on Northumberland Street, whose blue and yellow fascia can never be termed discreet. The end result looks OK, however, with much of the shopfront and fascia kept as white, and is certainly an improvement on the tired Foot Locker frontage that it has replaced. The shop is apparently Card Factory’s 500th store, and certainly seemed busy when I passed by.

How it looked before (17 Jun 2010)

Despite its stone frontage, the property itself is arguably one of the ugliest in Northumberland Street – strangely ageless and devoid of character with its assymetrical facade and drab blank windows to the upper floors. If Card Factory’s bright shopfront stops people looking any higher up, it’s perhaps not such a bad thing in this particular instance.

Upcoming Bank store, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (24 Jul 2010)

The final stop on this occasion is just a couple of doors further down Northumberland Street, where the JD-owned young fashion chain Bank – previously mentioned here – is now clearly announcing its arrival in the former Priceless Shoes unit. Offering what it describes as “the latest fashion for women and men from your favourite designer brands such as Paul’s Boutique, Lipsy, Superdry and Henleys”, I’m not quite clear how many of Bank’s brands simply duplicate names that are in the city centre already – Superdry, for example, has a prominent store of its own in St Andrew’s Way, while Lipsy and Paul’s Boutique are both available in Fenwick’s.

Typical Bank store. Image courtesy of Bank

Still, with the nearest Bank stores currently in Middlesbrough and Stockton, it’s positive to see a new name coming to a prime site in Newcastle city centre. Perhaps more importantly, images on the retailer’s own website suggest that Bank stores have a modern, open feel that wouldn’t be out of place in the Eldon Square extension. If the new Northumberland Street store looks anything like this, it should bring a little glamour to a location that, as Priceless Shoes, has had all the retail pizzazz of a jumble sale.

Typical Card Factory fascia

Newcastle City Council has recently received a planning application for the “display of internally illuminated fascia sign and non illuminated projecting sign to front elevation” for 55-57 Northumberland Street. The applicant, I understand, is the rapidly expanding greetings card chain Card Factory.

As far as I can tell, no retailer name is mentioned anywhere in the planning application, but a little bit of detective work soon reveals the ‘Applicant Address’ as Card Factory’s head office in Wakefield, and the ‘Applicant Name’ as the firm’s Property Administrator.

Only established in 1997, Card Factory has been one of the quiet retail successes of recent years. Following a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, the business has expanded to 490 stores nationwide, making it the second largest UK greetings card retailer after Clinton Cards.

Clinton Cards store in South Shields (18 Jun 2010)

Of the two, however, Card Factory has enjoyed the recent momentum, delivering year-on-year sales growth of 27% in 2009, and a £29.4m pre-tax profit on a turnover of nearly £168m. Clinton, in contrast, had to turn over £345m – double that of Card Factory – in order to generate a similar pre-tax profit (£24.1m). Just this April, Card Factory’s founders, Dean and Janet Hoyle, enjoyed a “multi-million pound windfall” after selling a £350m majority stake in the company to the London-based private equity firm Charterhouse.

Card Factory's South Shields store (18 Jun 2010)

Card Factory has already become an established presence in the North East, with Tyneside alone having branches in Gateshead, Blaydon, Wallsend, Jarrow, North Shields, South Shields and Whitley Bay. However, Northumberland Street will be the retailer’s first foray into Newcastle, and is certainly a bold choice for a chain that tends to be associated with the value end of the greetings card market.

Site of new Card Factory store in Newcastle (17 Jun 2010)

55-57 Northumberland Street, let’s not forget, is very much at the heart of what has traditionally been Newcastle’s prime retail pitch, sat between the Fenwick department store and the main Eldon Way entrance to Eldon Square. Previously Foot Locker, the unit became vacant as part of the reshuffle of Newcastle city centre retailers that has followed the opening of Eldon Square South. Republic, you’ll recall, kicked things off by moving from its previous store in Douglas Way to a new flagship in St Andrew’s Way, paving the way for Foot Locker to move into the more fashion-focused pitch freed up by Republic.

Northumberland Street entrance to Eldon Square (17 Jun 2010)

I like Card Factory – the prices are reasonable, and the quality and range excellent – and I certainly prefer its lively, unpretentious stores over the strangely soulless experience that I tend to find at Clinton’s. However, news of Card Factory’s planned Newcastle store does reinforce what seems to be Northumberland Street’s shift towards the value end of retail, coming hot on the heels of the new Peacocks store.

Peacocks, Monument Mall, Newcastle (11 Jun 2010)

To some extent, of course, this is merely a reflection of those retailers that are currently doing well and looking to expand. On the other hand, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to imagine top-end names opening up on Northumberland Street. When toy retailer Hamleys had its ill-fated foray into the provinces in the 1980s, it seemed natural for its Newcastle store to open up in Northumberland Street (in the premises now occupied by HMV). If it were doing the same today, you’d have to imagine it heading straight for St Andrew’s Way, and a berth among Apple Store, Guess, Hollister and All Saints.

The tide could yet, of course, shift back in Northumberland Street’s favour. The JD-owned branded fashion chain Bank is set to open in the nearby Priceless Shoes unit, and will surely be an improvement on the increasingly unappealing and tacky-looking store that’s there now. 

Next, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (5 Feb 2010)

The big test, however, will be on what occupies the unit that Next will leave empty when it moves into its new Eldon Square flagship. Received wisdom seems to be that the site represents the perfect opportunity for Zara to make a return to Northumberland Street, after its short-lived stint – in a unit that was too small for it – a few years ago.

In my view, Zara’s the kind of midmarket but well regarded retailer that Northumberland Street needs to attract if its to hang on to its status as Newcastle’s premier shopping thoroughfare. With Next due to move out early in 2011, it may not be very long before we know the answer.

George Street, Tamworth (24 Dec 2009)

Take a look at the photograph above, captured in Tamworth’s main shopping street just before Christmas. Now, from a retailing point of view, see if you can work out what’s wrong with that scene.

To the right of the man in the photograph are some of Tamworth’s permanent shops – the lifeblood of the town centre. To the left of him are the backs of market stalls, facing into George Street. What’s outrageous, in my view, is the space (or lack of it) between the two – a couple of feet at best, and certainly only room to walk through in single file. If you have a pushchair or are in a wheelchair, forget it.

The result is that not only are the shops almost entirely obscured from the street – as you can see in the shot below – but that even if you know the shops are there, it’s a real challenge to navigate your way inside.

Market stalls in George Street, Tamworth (24 Dec 2009)

A similar scene a few months earlier (19 Sep 2009)

Tamworth Market (24 Dec 2009)

Reportedly held since Saxon times, Tamworth’s market has a remarkable heritage, and is something that has potential to be a real asset to the town. What a shame then that on the 450th anniversary of its incorporation, by Queen Elizabeth in 1560, today’s market is such a sorry affair.

To have ramshackle ‘stalls’ in the middle of the town’s main shopping street, where traders display goods on a stack of cardboard boxes, is nothing short of a disgrace. Indeed, when the town has a sizeable open space – St Editha’s Square – that seems entirely capable of accommodating a large number of market stalls with some degree of orderliness, I never understand why they have to be shoehorned into George Street at all.

A near-deserted Gungate Precinct awaits demolition (22 Dec 2008)

For as long as I can remember, Tamworthians have grumbled about the lack of big-name or quality stores in the town centre – no M&S, Debenhams, Bhs, Primark, River Island or Next, for example (though a few of those names, plus many others, are now accommodated at the Ventura Park out-of-town retail development, about 15 minutes’ walk from the town centre).

The planned redevelopment of the Gungate Precinct by Henry Boot – a scheme known as Tamworth Junction – is set to provide Tamworth with its first major town centre shopping development in more than thirty years, with an opportunity to offer those missing retailers the size and quality of space that has been lacking to date.

However, if any property scouts had been visiting Tamworth the day that I was there, they would have come away with the impression of a town centre where the shops play second fiddle to the market stalls – hardly an incentive for any prospective retailer to invest in the town.

Tamworth town centre from the Castle mound (22 Dec 2008)

What is particularly frustrating is that Tamworth town centre has such a lot of potential as an attractive and distinctive retail destination. Tamworth Castle, St Editha’s Church and the Town Hall are historic buildings of importance and beauty, each one a dramatic landmark within the town centre.

St Editha's Church, Tamworth (22 Dec 2008)

Tamworth Town Hall (22 Dec 2008)

Lined with interesting old properties, Lower Gungate, Market Street and Little Church Lane are all streets of real character and charm, populated by many independent shops. It’s no coincidence that the absence of market stalls allows these streets to be properly appreciated.

Lower Gungate, Tamworth (22 Dec 2008)

Market Street, Tamworth, looking towards the Town Hall (22 Dec 2008)

The town having a Co-op department store – run by the still independent Tamworth Co-operative Society – is also something of a novelty these days, yet it has managed to evolve and maintain its position at the very heart of the town’s shopping experience at the same time as other regional Co-ops have exited non-food all together.

Co-op department store, Tamworth (19 Sep 2009)

The Ankerside Shopping Centre is also a significant asset, and has aged quite gracefully in the thirty-odd years since it opened. Though it lacks a well-known department store as an anchor, the presence of one of the few Dunnes Stores outside Ireland gives Ankerside something different to everywhere else. Equally, the relatively small number of empty units is an undoubted positive in the current economic climate – and nothing short of a miracle, given that the out-of-town Ventura Park features even more retail floorspace than the town centre.

Ankerside Shopping Centre, Tamworth (22 Dec 2008)

With so many assets, its frustrating that a visit to Tamworth town centre can still leave such a negative overall impression – an observation seemingly shared by John Harper at the Tamworth Herald newspaper, who questions why “the dreary, lacklustre place it is becoming” cannot be transformed  into “a thriving tourist centre”.

Certainly, comparing Tamworth to some of the other, more successful town centres that I’ve visited recently, I can’t help feeling that Tamworth’s powers-that-be need to have more confidence in what they’ve got, and in what they could have.

If nothing else, the place deserves so much better than a bloke in the street selling random stuff out of a box.