Former Woolworths (now The Original Factory Shop), Chepstow (24 Mar 2011). Photograph by Alastair Leaver

Back in February I featured a batch of readers’ ex-Woolies pics, showcasing the former stores in Warrington (now Poundland), Batley (JBM Bargains) and Beverley (Boots). For its sins, Soult’s Retail View seems to have prompted people across the country to start photographing Woolworths sites, not just in this country but also further afield. So, here’s another trio of Woolies stores for you…

First up is the ex-Woolies in the Monmouthshire market town of Chepstow, which Alastair Leaver captured while visiting there a couple of weeks ago. Like quite a few other former Woolies in Wales – such as those in Porthmadog and Caernarvon – the site has been taken over by the expanding discount department store, The Original Factory Shop. As seems to be customary for that retailer, only minimal changes have been made to the property, with the recognisable Woolies shopfront still in place.

Former Woolworths (now The Original Factory Shop), Chepstow (24 Mar 2011). Photograph by Alastair Leaver

Just like its competitor B&M Bargains, The Original Factory Shop’s ability to reoccupy ex-Woolies sites with minimal fuss seems to work in its favour. The retailer reported a sales uplift of 23% in the six weeks preceding Christmas 2010, with a healthy like-for-likes uplift of 5%, and has plans to open another 35 stores during 2011.

In an uncertain economy, it’s hard to dispute that the retail industry is having a choppy time, with several new administrations – including Officers Club and Oddbins – in just the last week. It’s heartening, however, to see retailers such as The Original Factory Shop not just weathering the storm but really capitalising upon the opportunities left by others businesses’ weakness.

Former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains), Burton upon Trent (13 Mar 2011). Photograph by Martin Jarvis

B&M Bargains is another successful discount retailer doing just that. The 30,000 sq ft Gateshead flagship that I blogged about on April Fools Day may – for now – just be a flight of fancy, but I’ve regularly written about, and commended, the retailer’s ability to transform old Woolies into B&M stores in just a matter of days.

As I wrote in February, the old Burton upon Trent Woolworths, in the Coopers Square shopping centre, is one such location that B&M has recently taken over, with its new store opening there last month. Regular Midlands contributor Martin Jarvis kindly braved Coopers Square security to snap these shots of the busy B&M store.

Former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains), Burton upon Trent (13 Mar 2011). Photograph by Martin Jarvis

Expanding from 67 stores in mid-2008 to 197 two years later, B&M’s recent growth has been remarkable, much of it the result of snapping up former Woolies sites. However, as the stock of suitable ex-Woolies locations shrinks to a trickle, B&M’s presence on both high streets and retail parks gives it plenty of options – scope to continue expanding organically, while also making the occasional acquisition, such as last year’s Opus Homewares.

As in the paragraph above, I’ve had to develop quite a vocabulary for referring to the fact that Britain’s Woolworths is defunct, bringing out all the qualifiers such as ’ex’, ‘former’ and ‘collapsed’. However, the complicated history and fragmented legacy of the original, American F W Woolworth business means that there are still some places where ‘Woolworths’ stores are very much alive.

One such place is Germany, where reader Chris Exall captured a nighttime phone pic of this Woolworth-branded store, in the Bavarian town of Freising.

Woolworth, Freising, Germany (17 Jan 2011). Photograph by Chris Exall

Of course, Woolworth GmbH – the present-day chain of Woolworths stores in Germany and Austria – has nothing to do with its collapsed British namesake, though there is an element of shared history. Both are spin-offs from the American parent, the UK business having split off in 1982 and the German one as recently as 1998.

Given this heritage, its not surprising that the German business offers a vaguely familiar product mix – including stationery, homewares, toys and seasonal goods – though it also sells men’s and women’s clothing, ranges that the UK chain jettisoned back in the 1980s.

Ironically, Woolworths Germany itself filed for bankruptcy in April 2009, just a few months after the collapse of the UK chain, but the story has a happier outcome. In July last year, new investors saved the brand and around half the stores, resulting in a truncated chain of 158 ‘small department stores’, and there are ambitious plans to grow the business back up to 500 shops of between 10,000 and 20,000 sq ft each.

Germany’s Woolworths may not be quite the same Woolies as shoppers in Britain recall with such fondness. However, it’s pleasing to know that there’s at least one place in the world where high street Woolies shops not only live on, but are seen as having an exciting – and viable – future that celebrates and builds upon the business’s “proud tradition”.

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.

Former Woolworths, Coopers Square, Burton upon Trent (23 Dec 2009)

Regular readers may recall a blog post from a year ago, when I reported upon my visits to the former Woolies stores at Coopers Square in Burton upon Trent (store #147, above) and Westfield Derby (#1242), both of which had closed down following the retailer’s collapse a year earlier.  

From subsequent research, it became clear that neither of these stores were their respective town’s original Woolworths, so just before Christmas I set out to track down the long-forgotten Woolies sites in Burton and Derby that I’d missed first time around. I’ll write about Derby’s rather complex Woolies history later, but for now let me focus my attention on Burton.

As I noted previously, the Woolworths in Burton’s Coopers Square shopping centre dated from 1982, taking over the unit that Sainsbury’s had formerly occupied. Before that, however, Woolies had a smaller shop on the town’s High Street, as revealed by Duncan’s great photograph of the closed-down store, apparently from 1993, and reproduced with his permission below.  

Original Woolworths, High Street, Burton, 1993. Photograph by Duncan (co-ophistorian)

The same view today (23 Dec 2010)

Looking at my photograph of the same view today (above), you can see that the rather unattractive former Woolies property has been completely transformed, though its distinctive shape and the buildings either side are instantly recognisable from the 1993 shot.

Today, the former Woolies building houses two separate pubs – The Park, and a branch of Wetherspoon’s called The Lord Burton. Indeed, this change in uses illustrates the way in which the retail focus of Burton has shifted over the years, leaving this part of the High Street very much as a destination for leisure rather than shopping.

In the nice way that Wetherspoon’s website includes a brief history of each of its pubs, the entry for The Lord Burton makes reference to its previous function as a Woolworths store:

Until the mid 1990s, the site of this Wetherspoon pub was home to a branch of Woolworths. The Burton branch opened in 1923, when Woolworths leased 154 High Street from Pearson’s the tailor. It proved so popular that the firm took over number 155 the following year.

The 1923 opening date seems spot on, but I’m not convinced by the supposed mid-1990s closure. As I’ve mentioned before, the transfer of the original Woolworths store number (147) to the Coopers Square branch would only have happened if the old store had closed at the same time as the new one opened, in 1982.

Rear of former Coopers Square Woolworths, Burton (24 Aug 2010)

This would mean, of course, that Duncan’s photo was taken a whole decade after the store shut, though the building does have the appearance in that shot of having been empty for a long time. 

I’m sure the answer isn’t far away… perhaps someone out there has memories of Burton’s original Woolworths and can help to pin down when it really did close?

UPDATE, 18 Jan 2011: Duncan tells me “I’m sure my photo is around 1993, I only started taking photos around 1987… shops came just after, from about 1990 onwards, so even if 1993 is incorrect, it would only be by a year or so…” So, with Duncan sure of his photo date and me pretty confident of the store’s closure date, it looks like Wetherspoon’s website may well be the one with its dates out of synch…

Shot from 1998 'Woolies Winter Wonderland' TV ad

 …That was the theme of Woolworths’ 1998 Christmas TV advertisement [broken link removed], in the heady, Tellytubby days when, as the ad reminds us, everyone wanted a Talking Po.  

This festive season, the incessant snow and ice has certainly made it a Winter Wonderland in the various town centres that I visited. However, 2009 has, of course, been the first Christmas without Woolies on the high street, meaning that shoppers have had to look elsewhere for their Barbies, PlayStations, and whatever the current equivalent to a Talking Po is.  

Trudging through the wintry conditions, I did manage to snap a few more ex-Woolies stores during the last fortnight. Interestingly, unlike my last set of pictures, where most of the former Woolworths sites that I visited had been taken over by other retailers, many of the latest batch remain vacant.

Former Big W (now M&S), Tamworth (24 Dec 2009)

The former Woolies up first is a bit of a cheat, in that it’s not one of the 807 stores that closed down following Woolworths’ collapse into administration last year, but is one that had already shut – and been taken over – shortly prior to that.  

The former out-of-town Big W at Tamworth’s Ventura Park is certainly one of the more shortlived Woolies stores (having opened, I think, in summer 2001), as well as one of the larger stores to open in recent years (90,000 sq ft). The shop lasted only until late 2004 in its original form, when it was split into two: Woolies kept the left-hand half (rebranding it from Big W to Woolworths), while the right-hand half was subsequently taken over by Marks & Spencer, which opened its own store there in November 2005.  

However, even the shrunken Woolies failed to last very long. In April 2008, Woolworths closed its store at Ventura Park all together, M&S having made an offer to take over the remainder of the building. The revamped and extended Marks & Spencer opened in December 2008, and certainly seemed to be pretty busy when I visited over Christmas. Given what happened to the Woolworths chain just a few months after the closure of the Ventura Park store, it’s probably no bad thing for Tamworth that M&S had taken over the site already. (Tamworth’s separate town centre store – closed on 2 January 2009, and now Home Bargains – has already been featured in a previous blog post.)

Former Woolworths, Burton upon Trent (23 Dec 2009)

Over in nearby Burton upon Trent, in contrast, the former Woolies in the Coopers Square shopping centre is yet to find a new occupant. However, it’s hard to imagine the unit being empty for too long, given that the centre has several strong anchors (Bhs, M&S, Primark, New Look), a modern and appealing environment, and very few other empty shops.

Former Woolworths (now TJ Hughes), Westfield, Derby (23 Dec 2009)

Down the road in Derby, the large former Woolworths in the Westfield shopping centre (the extended and renamed former Eagle Centre) has been taken over by TJ Hughes, and has reportedly been trading well since its opening in September. Woolworths had occupied the site back in the Eagle Centre days, but this photograph shows the extent of the changes made to the store’s London Road frontage as part of the Westfield revamp.

Former Woolworths, Alfreton (23 Dec 2009)

Still in Derbyshire, the old Woolies in Alfreton High Street is another of those that remains vacant. It’s quite an interesting store in that it’s a rather awkward amalgamation of a traditional-looking Woolworths building (the portion on the right) with part of the adjacent block to the left. Presumably at some point Woolies must have expanded from its original building into the premises next door?

As you know, I’m generally sceptical about the merits of dividing up large former Woolworths units; in Alfreton, however, I can’t help thinking that it would really enhance the streetscape to split this property back into two separate shops – or at least to install a new shopfront that is more sympathetic to the contrasting heights and styles of the two buildings. 

Former Woolworths (now Amber Value), Ripley (23 Dec 2009)

Down the road in Church Street in Ripley, Derbyshire, the inclusion of the property above in this blog is again something of a cheat, given that it has not been a Woolworths store for many years. There’s a personal story behind this store though, in that my grandparents (and much of my family) lived in Ripley during my childhood, and I can well remember visiting Ripley’s Woolies with my gran and parents.

When the store shut (in January 1990, I believe), I can still recall my gran grumbling about the then state of Ripley’s town centre, recognising the symbolic importance – and the humiliation, almost – of the town losing its Woolworths. Twenty years on, however, you might argue that Ripley has had the last laugh. When Woolworths closed, the long-established Amber Value store – then occupying the narrow, two-bay property that you see in the middle of the picture above – extended into the much larger Woolworths premises next door (the left-hand building in the photo), increasing its floor area several times over as a result.

Since then, Amber Value has continued to trade successfully from the site, offering an eclectic but highly useful range of household items, such as homewares, gardening products, stationery and toiletries. Today, the store is rightly valued by local people as a place to buy items that are not readily available elsewhere in the town centre – everything, you might argue, that Woolworths used to be.

Former Woolworths (now Lighthouse charity shop), Heanor (23 Dec 2009)

Back to the more recent Woolies closures, and in nearby Heanor the old Woolworths store is occupied by a Lighthouse charity shop, though only on a short-term basis judging by the continued presence of a ‘To Let’ sign. I wasn’t familiar with this enterprise prior to my visit, but I understand that Lighthouse is a growing chain of charity shops across Derbyshire operated by Valley CIDS, a Christian charity “that is committed to building and strengthening community in and around Derbyshire”, and which works “to support children and families through outreach work in schools and the wider community”.

As has happened in Burnley – where the YMCA has turned the 16,000 sqft former Woolworths into the largest charity superstore in the country – there are inevitably questions about how effective a charity shop can be in enhancing the fortunes of a town centre, particularly in the aftermath of an important Woolworths store being lost. As a shorter-term measure, however, using such units to promote beneficial charity work is surely preferable to the properties lying empty.

Former Woolworths, Dumfries (29 Dec 2009)

The two remaining former Woolies featured here are indeed both stores that have yet to find a new occupant. The first, in Dumfries, was reported back in September as being ‘under offer’, though there was no evidence of anything happening – and a ‘To Let’ sign still in place – when I visited last week.

Former Woolworths, Dumfries (29 Dec 2009)

Fittingly, given the Winter Wonderland theme with which we started, the final Woolies for now is the one in Chester-le-Street, photographed – during a snow shower – just yesterday. Unfortunately for Chester-le-Street town centre, the still vacant Woolworths premises in Front Street are directly opposite those of the former Co-op department store, which closed down in 2007 and is only partly reoccupied (by Peacocks, since April 2009).

Former Woolworths, Chester-le-Street (2 Jan 2010)

Throughout these changes, it’s refreshing to see Chester-le-Street Heritage Group doing its bit to both promote and document the town’s retail history, including setting up a display of old photographs of the Woolworths store during its final days. The former Woolworths store is certainly an attractive building in a very central location within Chester-le-Street, so I’d be surprised if the Heritage Group didn’t have some good news to report upon and document during 2010.