Discount UK (former Woolworths), Newcastle (4 Nov 2011)

Poundworld-owned variety retailer Discount UK has opened its Newcastle store today, with stilt walkers and free sweets on hand to welcome shoppers to the former Woolworths site.

I dropped by shortly after the store opened at 10am, and it seemed to have got off to a good start – it was packed with shoppers, and there were plenty of people queueing at the tills to make their purchases. Inside, the store has retained the old Woolies wooden flooring, but otherwise looks to have had a comprehensive refurbishment. It also seems to have used the bulk of the space that Woolworths previously occupied, making it rather larger than the existing Discount UK store in Middlesbrough. Externally, the store has gained some smart and bright signage that is an undoubted improvement on what it replaced.

Discount UK (former Woolworths), Newcastle (4 Nov 2011)

While Discount UK was making a concerted effort to drive shoppers into its store – with leafletters handing out offers flyers across the city centre – I couldn’t help but notice the staff and security guards in Poundstretcher opposite, looking out the window at all the activity across the street.

Poundstretcher, Newcastle (4 Nov 2011)

Newcastle’s Poundstretcher has the advantage of being housed in a handsome Grade II-Listed Richard Grainger building dating from 1837, with two decent-sized trading floors. While the ground floor features all the traditional Poundstretcher ranges, such as snacks, greetings cards, stationery, hardware and gardening, the upper level includes an usually extensive range of furniture and homewares. Like most Poundstretcher stores, however, the quality of the goods sold is far superior to the cluttered and neglected environment in which they’re presented.

Advertising board at Poundstretcher, Newcastle (4 Nov 2011)

The dreary advertising board that Poundstretcher had outside its store today is illustrative of the retailer’s presentational problems. With faded black Times New Roman lettering on a white background, it’s the type of point-of-sale advertising that would look unprofessional even for a corner shop – yet Poundstretcher is an expanding chain, with over 350 stores nationwide. Surely it could have done something more creative and eyecatching to capitalise on all the buzz and extra footfall being generated over the road?

As I’ve argued before, Discount UK’s arrival will be positive for Clayton Street in bringing some life back to the location, and helping to cement its appeal as a value retail destination. Indeed, rather than Discount UK being a threat to Poundstretcher, the shot in the arm that it will give to Clayton Street should be seen as a great opportunity.

For all that Discount UK is a multi-price fascia, the fact still remains that 80% of its product range comprises items costing £1 or less. In this regard, it is competing much more with the two Poundland stores in Eldon Square, and with Poundworld’s eponymous shop in Grainger Street, rather than with Poundstretcher, where the average item price is undoubtedly much higher.

Poundworld, Grainger Street, Newcastle

If I ran Poundstretcher, I’d be seizing the opportunity to revamp the Newcastle store as a flagship for the chain – investing in (and – crucially – maintaining) a cleaner brighter interior that matches the quality of the product; creating a clear visual identity for the store, inside and out - including the latest logo on the fascia; and sorting out the clutter by trimming the range and selling fewer products better.

Despite its name, and the tagline of ”the original value store”, Poundstretcher isn’t and never has been a pound store – it’s a brand that should be able to compete with chains like Wilkinson, Cargo, Argos and the big supermarkets, based on the quality, range and value of its home and garden products. If Poundstretcher is to build on the momentum of recently making its first (albeit modest) profit in six years, this is surely the direction in which it needs to head – rather than competing with the discounters to see who can sell the most cans of Pepsi for £1.

Discount UK, Newcastle (29 Oct 2011)

Discount UK, the Poundworld-owned variety store retailer, is to open the doors of its new Newcastle store at 10am on Friday (4 November).

As I reported a month ago, contractors on site first revealed that the Clayton Street premises had been taken over by Poundworld, nearly three years after the long-established Woolworths store closed down. The chain’s buying director, Chris Edwards, subsequently confirmed my speculation that the site would host a branch of Discount UK – Poundworld’s recently launched multi-price format, which already occupies the former Woolies site in Middlesbrough – rather than one of its eponymous pound stores.

Discount UK, Newcastle, three days ago (26 Oct 2011)

When I passed the store on Wednesday, the hoardings that had surrounded the site for the past couple of months were still up, but I could see through the gap that all the new shelving was in place. Visiting again today, the hoardings have been taken down, the existing shopfront has been painted black (and had new automatic doors inserted), and the store is in the process of being stocked. Looking inside, the shop appears to be larger than the Middlesbrough store, using much but not all of the former Woolworths shopfloor. The right-hand half of the store seems to go back further than the left.

Discount UK, Newcastle (29 Oct 2011)

One thing that the store is still missing, however, is any signage – other than the remnants of the old Woolworths lettering, of course. With no evidence of any planning application having been submitted yet, I’m curious whether the store will still have any signage in place by the time it opens on Friday.

If it doesn’t, the member of staff who was outside the store leafletting today may have to work extra hard to alert shoppers to the store’s arrival. Today, she was handing out leaflets featuring the store’s opening deals and generally explaining to passing shoppers what Discount UK will be offering.

Discount UK flyer for new Newcastle store

For all that Discount UK is a multi-price format, the four-page leaflet focuses very much on products costing £1 or under. It reveals that of the 5,000-plus products that the store will stock, over 4,000 are £1 or less, including the various grocery, snack and confectionery items featured on the front page.

Inside, the leaflet highlights some of the household and toiletry products found instore – including, eyecatchingly, a two-pack of pregnancy tests for just 99p – alongside a decent-looking range of Christmas cards, wrap and decorations. The back page features items from the Winter Guard range of car protection products, including the leaflet’s most expensive item – a £5.99 snow shovel. The flyer also flags up the ‘Celebrity’ (my quotes) Guest Day that will take place on Saturday (5 November), featuring the Emmerdale and Dancing on Ice ‘star’ (also my quotes) Roxanne Pallett.

To be fair, Discount UK’s product offering isn’t that much different from what we can already find in Newcastle’s Wilkinson, Poundland or, indeed, Poundworld. However, if its opening helps to bring some life back to a neglected part of Clayton Street, and reinforces that part of town’s attraction as a value retail destination, then it can surely only be a good thing for Newcastle city centre.

Former Woolworths, Newcastle (30 Sep 2011)

Newcastle’s ex-Woolworths in Clayton Street (store #340) has been one of a dwindling number to retain its Woolies signage three years on, as more and more of the chain’s abandoned stores have been taken over by other retailers.

Now, as news of the site’s acquisition by Poundworld has emerged this week, the lettering at Newcastle’s Woolies has finally been taken down – though years of weathering have left a very visible imprint (above).

Former Woolworths, Newcastle (30 Sep 2011)

Former Woolworths, Newcastle (17 Sep 2011)

There was plenty of activity on site when I passed by this afternoon, and several extra openings have been punched into the hoardings facing Clayton Street since I last captured the scene a fortnight ago.

I also braved taking a photo of the Newgate Centre frontage for the first time, overlooked by a watchful security camera. However, given the absence of shops ahead of the centre’s demolition, there isn’t a great deal for any potential criminals to get up to – besides photographing empty Woolworths, of course.

Newgate Centre entrance to former Woolworths (30 Sep 2011)

Though McAleer & Rushe was granted permission for the centre’s redevelopment in June last year, there’s no indication of an imminent start to demolition work. While the inside of the centre is increasingly deserted, tenants including Halfords, Subway and Jessops are still trading in many of the street-facing units.

However, it seems unlikely that Poundworld will bother to do anything with the Newgate Centre side entrance of the ex-Woolies site, given that it will, before long, need to be blocked up anyway.

Nevertheless, the Woolworths lettering has been removed from this frontage too, though the rather bizarre remnants of the shop’s 2008 Christmas decorations – as well as the customary black granite stall riser – ensure that evidence of the property’s Woolies heritage won’t be disappearing just yet.

Former Woolworths, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

It seems we might finally have an answer to all the work that’s been going on recently at the old Newcastle Woolworths at 73-79 Clayton Street (store #340) – though not really thanks to any clever detective work on my part.

Last month, work was taking place on site that seemed to involve air being noisily pumped out from large tubes on the ground floor (above); then, this month, similar tubes appeared out of the upper windows, while the ground-floor frontage was boarded off (below). When I walked past yesterday afternoon the door in the hoarding was open, and sticking my head through there was a very strong smell of paint or, possibly, new flooring. Unfortunately, however, the seemingly deserted interior was in darkness, so I couldn’t see very much at all.

Former Woolworths, Newcastle (17 Sep 2011)

Fortunately, my fellow SkyscraperCity contributor, Al Reetson, had the wherewithal today to ask the on-site contractors whether the property had been let. As Al revealed this evening, they said yes, it had – to Poundworld, the single-price retailer that already has a small store in nearby Grainger Street.

Existing Poundworld, Grainger Street, Newcastle

Though Poundworld has snapped up a few ex-Woolies locations – such as the store I visited in West Ealing last year – I’m wondering whether the large Newcastle site might, in fact, become a branch of Poundworld’s recently launched multi-price fascia, Discount UK?

Discount UK (former Woolworths), Middlesbrough (4 May 2011)

Regular readers may well recall that Discount UK opened up in the old Woolworths in Middlesbrough’s Hillstreet shopping centre (#1200) back in April, which I blogged about at the time. As I noted then, I was quite impressed – Discount UK is a much more upmarket looking store than Poundworld itself, and the Middlesbrough shop is really nicely done out inside using a palette of black, white and pink.

The formula certainly seems to be working. Another ten or so stores have opened since Middlesbrough, bringing the total to 13, and a Guardian report a month ago suggested that a further 15 sites would be added to the chain – described by buying director Chris Edwards as a “modern multi-price format” that is intended to “step into [Woolworths'] shoes”.

Discount UK flyer (from Hillstreet website)

Crucially, Poundworld typically requires a ground-floor sales area of between 4,000 and 12,000 sq ft for its eponymous stores, and when its 12,500 sq ft Nottingham store opened in August 2009 this was reported to be the chain’s largest store to date. In comparison, the old Clayton Street Woolies, at 16,293 sq ft, is a fair bit larger than Poundland would normally require – but similar, I suspect, to the size of the existing Discount UK in Middlesbrough.

Interestingly, my last paragraph in that May blog about the Middlesbrough store may yet prove to be unusually prescient:

“I hope the store does well, and encourages the chain to consider further North East sites. In Discount UK, it could be that we’ve finally found the perfect candidate for the still-vacant ex-Woolies in Newcastle city centre: a business whose presence would greatly improve the appearance of that part of Clayton Street, while still being a great fit with – and footfall driver for – the street’s value credentials.”

Four months on, I definitely stand by that earlier sentiment. Though Newcastle’s Woolies was undoubtedly tired and in desperate need of TLC, there’s no doubt that footfall in Clayton Street has suffered since the loss of its main anchor store nearly three years ago, on 27 December 2008.

The arrival of Discount UK – or even, if it turns out that way, the country’s hugest Poundworld – could be just what Clayton Street needs to get its retail mojo back.

Former Woolworths, Newton Aycliffe (1 Mar 2011)

With a dwindling number of empty Woolworths stores remaining in the North East, it doesn’t take too long to check out whether anything’s happening on the ground.

I revisited Wallsend’s ex-Woolies back in November, closely followed by Hartlepool and Middlesbrough. This left just Newton Aycliffe, Peterlee and Newcastle to take a look at over the last couple of days, with my visits confirming that all three are indeed still vacant and without any signs of activity.

Former Woolworths, Clayton Street, Newcastle (2 Mar 2011)

Former Woolworths, Peterlee (1 Mar 2011)

Former Woolworths, Newton Aycliffe (1 Mar 2011)

I also called into Seaham – there too, the ex-Woolies building remains empty, though as a result of Ethel Austin’s collapse rather than Woolworths’. As I’ve blogged before, the property hasn’t housed a Woolworths store for a quarter of a century, though the architecture conveys the shop’s Woolies origins much more than its Newton Aycliffe or Peterlee counterparts.

Former Woolworths and Ethel Austin, Seaham (1 Mar 2011)

The fortunes of Seaham town centre as a whole seemed even more polarised than on my previous visit. The Asda-anchored Byron Place mall on the seafront appeared to be thriving, with a good number of shoppers and 100% occupancy of its units.

In contrast, the top end of Church Street – the main pedestrian thoroughfare, and where the ex-Ethel Austin is located – was eerily quiet at 5pm, with just a few shoppers venturing into the tatty-looking and partly-shuttered Somerfield store. Presumably a Co-operative Food makeover will be forthcoming soon, providing a smarter face to the street and a welcome confidence boost for that end of town.

Somerfield, Seaham (1 Mar 2011)

While new occupants of ex-Woolies stores prove elusive for a handful of North East towns, two other places have had a welcome fillip since I last visited.

Back in September 2009, the former Woolworths in Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, was a pretty depressing sight (below) with its boarded-up windows and shuttered frontage.

Former Woolworths in Houghton-le-Spring (11 Sep 2009)

Happily, the premises were taken over by Store Twenty One almost a year ago, and look a whole lot better now than they did on my previous visit.

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

I’d never visited a Store Twenty One branch prior to the company taking over the ex-Woolies sites in Stanley and Jarrow, but I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve seen there and at Houghton-le-Spring. In all three cases, the interiors have been completely transformed, with attractively presented merchandise, good quality signage and an overall fresh and modern look.

It’s just a pity that the company website’s “cheap clothes” tagline still rather undermines its impressive efforts instore. Someone needs to remind owners Grabal Alok that retailers don’t sell “cheap clothes” any more – only “value fashions”.

Another ex-Woolies that’s had a fashion makeover since I last visited is the branch at 12-18 Northgate in Darlington, where work on site was underway back in March last year (below).

Former Woolworths, Darlington (12 March 2010)

Again, the bulk of the property has been transformed, with Next creating a new store at numbers 12-16 that is bright, appealing, and a really positive addition to the street since its opening last July.

Former Woolworths (now Next), Darlington (1 March 2011)

Next door, a portion of the old Woolies – the Grade II-listed number 18 – remains vacant. However, carving it off from the rest of the store does make architectural sense, and allows the merits of its attractive façade to be better appreciated.

Former Woolworths at 18 Northgate, Darlington (1 Mar 2011)

Of course, the flipside of Next’s new store is that the two former Next sites on Northgate have been vacated, both of which are currently empty. The lease of the vacated 1,675 sq ft unit at 59-63 Northgate is currently being advertised by agent Molyneux Rose [broken link removed], while the nearby premises at 21-23 Northgate are empty after hosting a temporary ‘X Factor Factory Clearance’ store.

Former Next at 59-63 Northgate, Darlington (1 Mar 2011)

Former Next at 21-23 Northgate, Darlington (1 Mar 2011)

While temporary and pop-up shops have their place on the high street, there must surely be a tackiness threshold above which an empty shop is preferable – particularly when Simon Cowell’s intellectual property is seemingly being so blatantly infringed.

All this shuffling around in Darlington’s Northgate highlights the need to take any statistics on changing shop vacancy rates with a heavy pinch of salt. Taking the three former Woolies and Next units together, two were occupied and one vacant when I visited Darlington a year ago. Now, however, one is occupied, two are empty, and another vacant unit – at 18 Northgate – has been created.

Just looking at the numbers, without any understanding of the context, this reads like a retrograde step in Darlington’s retail fortunes, with three out of the four shops now being empty where previously it was only one of the three. However, most observers would surely see Next’s investment in Darlington as a positive sign for the town – even if this has resulted in some (hopefully) short-term voids.

Scary numbers might make garish headlines, but they’re no substitute for actually understanding the places that you’re writing about.

B&M fascia

Many thanks to Lee Dymond and Martin, who both emailed me about the news of B&M Bargains opening in the former Woolworths store in Burton, Staffordshire. As I mentioned last month, the 11,000 sq ft Coopers Square unit has remained empty since Woolworths’ closure more than two years ago, but this has always seemed surprising given the shop’s busy location in a relatively modern indoor mall environment.

The news merely reinforces B&M’s status as one of the real profiters from Woolworths’ collapse, having snapped up tens of ex-Woolies stores across the country, including the one in nearby Lichfield.

Former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains), Lichfield (30 Sep 2010)

In the North East too, B&M has been rapidly expanding its presence by mopping up space that would never normally have become available, including large units in Stockton town centre, Whitley Bay and Chester-le-Street and, most recently, a portion of the old Big W at Portrack Lane.

B&M Bargains (former Woolworths), Chester-le-Street (24 Jan 2011)

Back in August, The Local Data Company suggested that 150 ex-Woolworths stores “may never be used as shops again” – a figure that, if true, would equate to almost one fifth of the former Woolies store estate.

I’ve always been slightly sceptical of these pessimistic projections, particularly given that my own research shows that 88% (45) of the 51 ex-Woolies sites across the North East, Cumbria and North Yorkshire have already been reoccupied for retail use.

Though the initial flood of new occupants for ex-Woolies sites has inevitably dwindled as the number of available sites reduces, B&M’s takeover of the Burton unit shows that demand has not yet dried up. Indeed, news reports from across the UK over the last few weeks show other discount retailers still on the ex-Woolies acquisition trail, such as The Original Factory Shop in Bargoed and the son-of-Ethel-Austin chain Life & Style in Swansea.

Former Woolworths, Clayton Street, Newcastle (27 Sep 2009)

Of the six former Woolies locations that remain empty in the North East, four – Peterlee, Wallsend, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough – already have a B&M store in the town centre or on a nearby retail park. However, with B&M Bargains not yet having a presence in Newcastle city centre, it wouldn’t surprise me if the vacant Clayton Street Woolies site was a target for the retailer in the coming months.

Despite the nearby extension of Eldon Square, and the recent arrival of some interesting independent shops and restaurants, Clayton Street remains very much a secondary, discount-led location, with Poundstretcher, charity shops, nail bars and the ubiquitous BrightHouse among its main draws.

With its in-your-face signage and minimal shop makeovers, B&M Bargains is not everyone’s first choice as a Woolies replacement. However, no-one can dispute the business’s recent success, and it’s certainly time for something to liven up a stretch of Clayton Street that has been empty and lifeless for far too long.

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.

Wooly Minded - opening soon! (17 Jun 2010)

One of the quirks of the recently opened Eldon Square South extension in Newcastle is the contrast in tenant mix between the main St Andrew’s Way mall and those units that only face out on to the surrounding streets.

While the former includes flagship fashion stores such as Debenhams, Topshop and Hollister, the new units along Clayton Street – with no link to the actual mall – echo the more secondary-pitch feel of the surrounding area, hosting Tesco Metro, Poundland and Park Lane Cards.

While this isn’t automatically a bad thing, it does perhaps limit the Eldon Square extension’s ability to have a much-needed rejuvenating effect on the rather dowdy surrounding shopping streets.

The flipside is that it makes it viable for some interesting independents to make an appearance among the big chains – including the imminent, and intriguing, arrival of Wooly Minded, a shop that describes itself as “the knitter’s paradise”.

Eldon Square sign

What do we know about Wooly Minded? Information is pretty scarce – and it’s presumably not the same Wooly Minded as is based in New York State – but there do appear to be at least two existing stores of the same name, in West Percy Street in North Shields, and Fowler Street in South Shields.

Wooly Minded will certainly bring something new and useful to the centre of Newcastle, tapping into the same make-do-and-mend spirit that has made HobbyCraft such a success in the current recession. With many high streets looking increasingly identical to one another, this is to be welcomed.

I hope, however, that Wooly Minded’s Clayton Street shopfront gets a more inspiring treatment than that given to the existing North Shields store, where the signage and window displays seem rather lacking in pizzazz [UPDATE, 18 June 2010: I'm now reliably informed that the Clayton Street store will indeed get a bolder treatment].

The Grocery, Heaton (7 Mar 2010)

After all, Neil Wilson Design’s brilliant transformation of The Grocery in Heaton’s Chillingham Road shows what an independent retailer can achieve with the help of a little bit of design thought and flair, creating a frontage that celebrates the colour and appeal of the produce.

Surely there’s no reason why what’s good for fruit cannot be applied in a creative way to balls of wool as well?

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!