La Senza closing down in Newcastle (2 Jan 2012)

Since this is my first post of 2012, I must begin by wishing all Soult’s Retail View readers a very Happy New Year! Thank you to everyone who has commented, emailed, tweeted or visited during 2011, and I hope you will find many more posts to spark your interest during 2012.

As we enter 2012, the retail picture for the centre of Newcastle looks like repeating the trends of the last couple of years: various high-profile casualties amid one of the most challenging economic environments modern retailers have seen, countered by some exciting new arrivals and major retail schemes.

So, in the year ahead, what are some of the most significant things to look out for in Newcastle’s prime shopping locations?

Northumberland Street

Northumberland Street, Newcastle, with new BHS on the left (1 Jan 2012)

As I reported last week, the opening of the new BHS store in Newcastle’s premier retail location of Northumberland Street, expected sometime in the spring, will be one of the city’s major retail events of 2012. Local shoppers who are yet to experience one of the chain’s new-concept stores – such as the shop in Swindon that I visited in September – will be in for a pleasant surprise when the new four-storey store opens its doors in the old Next premises.

Beneath the scaffolding and wrap – which, as I noted previously, is due to come down in March – it’s just possible to see how the old façade has now been completely removed (below), ahead of the new BHS glass frontage being inserted.

BHS site, Northumberland Street (1 Jan 2012)

Next door, work to enable Primark’s expansion into the former BHS unit is also well underway, and, together with the new BHS, seems to be keeping local scaffolding companies busy (below). I understand, however, that we will have to wait until the end of the year for those works – which include another revamped frontage – to be completed.

Site of Primark extension, Newcastle (1 Jan 2012)

Elsewhere in Northumberland Street, the absence of any currently empty units means that new happenings in 2012 are likely to be the result of rebrands, relocations or closures.

In my previous post, I highlighted one major Northumberland Street retailer that’s looking to exit its existing store, ahead of a relocation to smaller premises elsewhere in the city centre. Its situation – being tied into expensive space that is now regarded as significantly overrented – is far from unique; however, with the St Andrew’s Way extension to Eldon Square (and the subsequent shuffling of other retailers, such as Next, BHS and Primark) having mopped up much of the demand for MSUs (major space units) in the city, I understand that finding a replacement occupier is proving a challenge.

As far as rebrands are concerned, Northumberland Street’s Northern Rock branch will no doubt be rebranded as Virgin Money during 2012; though banks tend to fall outside my blogging remit, it’s interesting that Virgin Money is referring to the locations it has acquired as ‘stores’ rather than ‘branches’, seemingly drawing inspiration from the best of retail as it seeks to create a “bright, relaxed, comfortable environment to come and sort out money matters, quickly and easily”.

Locations information on the Virgin Money website (4 Jan 2012)

To complement its ’stores’, there are also set to be Virgin Money Lounges in five cities – Edinburgh, Newcastle, Norwich, Manchester and London – providing a “place where our customers and their guests can relax”; it’s not clear, however, whether Newcastle’s promised Virgin Money Lounge will occupy one of the city’s two existing branch sites or new premises elsewhere. In Manchester, I’m told that the soon-to-open Virgin Money Lounge has taken over entirely new landmark premises, in addition to the established Northern Rock branch nearby, so it will be interesting to see whether the same approach is taken in Newcastle.

La Senza closing down in Newcastle (2 Jan 2012)

On the closure front, La Senza looks set to be Northumberland Street’s first retail casualty of 2012, following the lingerie chain’s announcement that it intends to enter administration. While the firm has blamed “trading conditions in La Senza’s high street locations and the overall macro environment which are having an adverse effect on the company”, such a statement fails to explain why La Senza has failed when many other retailers are successfully weathering the storm.

One suggestion, based on what my female friends have told me, is that La Senza may have fallen into the same trap as the collapsed young fashion chain Jane Norman by undermining its reputation for quality and, by extension, customers’ overall value perception of its products.

Of the retailer’s 146 UK stores, Newcastle is one of 81 locations that have launched ‘closing down’ sales, though there’s always a chance that any potential rescuer might decide to keep the store open after all. However, given its prominent location at the main entrance to Eldon Square, it’s unlikely that the unit would remain empty for long even if La Senza departed.

Blacks, Newcastle (8 Aug 2011)

Elsewhere in the city centre, the fate of several familar stores rests on whether their owners can turn around a sustained period of poor trading. The future of the outdoor retailer Blacks – which has a recently-opened store in Market Street – remains up in the air, while HMV has an uphill struggle to define its place in a changing entertainment market.

HMV’s Newcastle store, for example, is a curious mix of technology products, cold drinks and NUFC merchandise alongside the traditional CDs, DVDs and games; the overall impression is of a store that is cluttered, lacking in personality, and confused about what it’s trying to be.

HMV’s future – if it is to have one – must surely be in showcasing its credentials as a chain that lives, breathes, and is an authority on entertainment, as a way of differentiating itself from its online and supermarket competitors. However, the current presentation of piles of DVDs in a sub-supermarket-quality environment merely demonstrates the scale of the challenge ahead, rather than any sense of passion for the product.

HMV Newcastle (1 Jan 2012)

Time will tell whether my shot of a shuttered HMV on New Year’s Day, above – one of the few days of the year when most shops still close – becomes a more poignant image in the coming months.

Monument Mall

Wallis closing down, Newcastle (1 Jan 2012)

Further down, on the corner of Northumberland Street and Blackett Street, the closure of the Wallis and Evans store in Monument Mall this coming Saturday (7 January) is, hopefully, the harbinger of more positive developments ahead.

Evans closing down, Newcastle (1 Jan 2011)

Hammerson – who bought the shopping centre last April – had its ambitious plans to redevelop Monument Mall approved in November, and the Arcadia brands’ departure is a necessary step in enabling the scheme to proceed. Some high-profile departures under the previous ownership left Monument Mall’s generally small-sized units bereft of occupants, and Hammerson’s plans turn the centre inside out by filling in the mall’s circulation spaces and creating full-depth, street-facing shop and restaurant units.

Monument Mall, Newcastle (26 Oct 2011)

While Arcadia’s decision not to open new Evans and Wallis stores in Newcastle is a little disappointing, the move is in line with Sir Philip Green’s strategy of consolidating his space as leases expire. As the store-closure posters note, Wallis already has concessions in Newcastle’s Fenwick and Debenhams stores, while Evans is represented at both Metrocentre and Team Valley in Gateshead, but not elsewhere in Newcastle. Of the two, I’d therefore wager that Evans is more likely to make a reappearance in Newcastle city centre in due course – perhaps even as part of the aforementioned new BHS store – given its distinctive plus-size positioning and lack of Newcastle presence once the current store closes.

Peacocks, Northumberland Street (25 Jun 2010)

Incidentally, the only impact of the plans on the Peacocks store – which opened in the former Zavvi unit in 2010 – will be to block up its current mall entrances, leaving the main Northumberland Street frontage as the only access. The store will therefore revert to being the self-contained premises that it used to be as Woolworths and Next, in the years before Monument Mall opened in 1990.

So, what of the Monument Mall development itself? My understanding is that the new units are likely to be trading in time for Christmas 2013, and that Hammerson’s focus is on attracting niche retailers that will complement and reinforce the emerging Urban Outfitters-anchored high-end cluster around Grey’s Monument.

With strong demand for the medium-sized units in the new scheme, I understand that the development is expected to be fully let by spring this year. While no names have emerged, Hugo Boss – recently beaten by The North Face to the former Schuh unit opposite – must be a prime candidate, while there are plenty of expanding high-end fashion brands, such as White Stuff and Jack Wills, that are yet to establish a Newcastle presence.

Eldon Square

Northumberland Street entrance to Eldon Square (17 Jun 2010)

The dominance of Eldon Square within Newcastle is, arguably, one of the reasons why the city centre’s smaller shopping malls – whether Monument Mall, Eldon Garden or the earmarked-for-demolition Newgate Shopping Centre – have consistently failed to fly.

With 150 stores, Eldon Square’s vast size leaves it vulnerable to retail collapses, with the existing Barratts, Priceless and Past Times stores all at risk from those chains’ current difficulties. On the other hand, the shopping centre still has an impressive occupancy rate and a successful record of refilling those units that have recently become free.

New Next, Newcastle (10 May 2011)

While I understand that one retailer is mulling an exit, the new Debenhams-anchored St Andrew’s Way remains fully let to date, and almost all the space freed up by relocations to the new mall has been reoccupied by other tenants. Most notably, of course, Next opened a new flagship store in the former Arcadia space in May last year, which I’m told is trading very well.

The major problem area of Eldon Square is the Sidgate and High Friars stretch, running between the new Next and the mall entrance next to Grey’s Monument. Traditionally more value-focused than the rest of Eldon Square, this part of the shopping centre has suffered from its odd configuration and small-sized units, and currently has a relatively high number of voids, including the large two-storey store that New Look vacated when it moved to St Andrew’s Way two years ago.

However, my understanding is that the key former New Look unit will soon be reoccupied by a big-name retailer moving from elsewhere in the centre, whose space, in turn, is set to be occupied by a fashion chain not currently represented in Eldon Square. Ahead of any more radical reconfiguration of Sidgate and High Friars (which is surely likely to be required at some point in the future), the reoccupation of the former New Look site will at least restore some of the footfall that has been lost in the last couple of years.

Summary

So, for all that the media likes to portray 2012 as the year of a “high street bloodbath”, the reality in Newcastle city centre is more complex – and more positive – than the garish headlines suggest.

With both new and existing retailers still making significant commitments to the city centre – and, on the whole, decent demand for any space that becomes free – Newcastle seems well placed to see through the downturn and emerge in good condition on the other side.

Trinity Square, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

It may have taken over a year to get started following the Get Carter car park’s demolition, but building work at Gateshead’s Trinity Square is now proceeding apace.

Construction of the £150m development only began at the start of November, but the speed of progress has been impressive since I photographed the first section of steel frame less than two months ago (below), close to where the car park entrance ramp used to be.

Start of construction at Trinity Square, Gateshead (4 Nov 2011)

That part of the scheme now towers over the adjacent three-storey New Century House (formerly the Co-op department store; now Argos and other shops), giving a first sense of the development’s scale along West Street – what is currently, to all intents and purposes, Gateshead’s main shopping thoroughfare. As well as the steel frame, concrete floors and staircases are also starting to go in.

Trinity Square from West Street, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

Further down West Street, another section of Trinity Square is taking shape opposite the existing Iceland and Heron Foods stores.

Trinity Square from West Street, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

Overall, it’s possible to start making out the shape of the scheme on the ground in relation to the numerous artists’ impressions that the developer, Spenhill (a subsidiary of Tesco), has made available, even if the images do make West Street look unfeasibly wide. When complete, the development will include a 175,000 sq ft Tesco Extra store, an additional 170,000 sq ft of new retail and leisure space (comprising up to 42 shop units and kiosks), over 750 parking spaces, and a 993-room student village. I understand that several well-known retail names are already lined up for the scheme, though one or two are likely to be relocations from older or overrented space elsewhere in the town centre.

Artist's impression of Trinity Square from West Street. Image courtesy of Spenhill

Unsurprisingly, the Trinity Square development has both its fans and its detractors. When I blogged about the scheme back in July last year, one reader, Seamaster, lamented the demolition of Owen Luder’s iconic car park, while James lambasted my assessment that “the Tesco store is properly integrated, visually and physically, into a wider scheme that is bold and modern.”

Anyone who follows my blogs or tweets will know that I’m not always an enthusiast of Tesco. However, from the perspective of both a retail commentator and a Gateshead resident, I stand by my positive view of the development. For me, the scheme’s unashamedly modern design and scale is much more successful, for example, than the strange modern-classical hybrid adopted by Newcastle’s recent Eldon Square extension (below).

Clayton Street frontage, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010)

The potential of a monolithic Tesco development also seems to have been avoided, both in terms of physical connectivity and the mix of uses.

Jackson Street, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

With regard to the former, the plan and images show additional shops lining West Street and High Street, as well as a new store-lined street that will connect West Street to High Street via the new town square. Together with a further pedestrian link, to Jackson Street (emerging beyond Hutchinsons in the photograph above), these connections should ensure that Gateshead town centre’s existing businesses – including recent arrivals such as Poundland (in the former Woolworths) and Wetherspoon’s – benefit from the extra footfall that the development is bound to generate.

Overall, Spenhill predicts that the scheme will result in an increase in the town centre’s retail turnover potential from £74m to £160m, and that Gateshead’s RetailVision CentreRanking will “improve by over 500 places”.

New Poundland store, Gateshead (21 Sep 2010)

In terms of the mix of uses, the development also seems to get things right. In addition to the retail space, the introduction of leisure uses and a sizable student housing component should help to address two of Gateshead town centre’s other flaws – a very limited bar and restaurant offer, and next to nothing in the way of town centre housing, both of which currently create an eeriness and lack of activity at night.

Poster at Trinity Square, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

For now, however, Gateshead shoppers still have to wait a few years longer before the development is complete. The latest issue of Gateshead Council News reports that the current Tesco store will close in mid-2012, with the new store (on much of the same site) opening in spring 2013, and the student housing being completed in summer 2014. A temporary Tesco (probably in the Metro format, given the unit’s size) is expected to operate from the old Kwik Save site in the High Street in the interim.

Former Kwik Save, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

Apart from the buzz that the students on site will bring to the scheme, Trinity Square will mean that Gateshead’s other residents also finally have a town centre that is a viable place to shop and go out in, rather than always having to head to Newcastle or Metrocentre.

At a time when Mary Portas and others are encouraging us to support and regenerate our local high streets, bringing Gateshead town centre back to life – through a bold mix of retail, leisure and housing – must surely be a good thing.

Closing-down poster at Newgate Street Co-op, Newcastle (2 Dec 2011)

Newcastle city centre’s Co-op supermarket is to close down this month, bringing to an end nearly a century-and-a-half of Co-operative presence in Newgate Street. Posters in the windows and instore – which I spotted while passing by yesterday – reveal that the store will ‘cease trading as a Co-operative’ at 6pm on New Year’s Eve (31 December).

Former Co-op department store, Newgate Street (16 Feb 2010)

The food hall is the last remaining part of the former Co-op department store, which closed in 2007, and there has been speculation about its long-term future ever since – both in terms of its competitive position and the expected redevelopment of the building in which it sits.

For many years, the Co-op was one of a handful of supermarkets in Newcastle city centre – alongside Marks & Spencer’s food hall and the now-demolished Safeway (previously Presto) in Clayton Street – and had the advantage of the biggest range and longest opening hours of the lot.

Sainsbury's Local, Gallowgate, Newcastle (10 May 2011)

More recently, however, competition has intensified, with Waitrose opening in nearby Eldon Square and Tesco Metro taking a unit roughly where Safeway used to be in the redeveloped Eldon Square South. Reflecting the national trend of big grocers moving into convenience, the city has also seen a proliferation of smaller supermarkets, including two Sainsbury’s Locals (in nearby Gallowgate and at Central Station) and a Tesco Express (Eldon Garden), as well as a recently opened Londis Metro in Grainger Street.

While the environment around it has shifted, the Newgate Street Co-op has failed to keep up. Even two years ago, I described the rump supermarket as feeling “unloved and behind the times”, noting the “bored-looking staff, long queues (as usual), and numerous broken light fittings that create an overall feeling of gloom.”

Old 'Food Hall' signage, Co-op, Newgate St, Newcastle (9 Nov 2009)

Despite the apparent lack of investment or attention to detail inside the store, last year’s replacement of the old ‘Food Hall’ signs with ones bearing the new ‘Co-operative Food’ identity suggested that the Co-op might, in fact, be planning on staying around for a while. Indeed, even when long-awaited plans for the building’s re-use for retail, hotel and leisure were approved earlier this month, it was stated that the Co-op’s food store would be retained as part of the scheme, despite plans for a new (but much smaller) Co-operative Food store, in the old Envy unit in Market Street, having come to light a week earlier.

New Co-operative Food signage (20 May 2010)

Nevertheless, the Co-op food hall’s surprise closure in Newgate Street is likely to facilitate the Redbox-designed plans to revamp the iconic building that it occupies. The shop’s strange position within the property – largely the result of having to screen it off from the abandoned department store and stair towers – would always have necessitated some reconfiguration and resulting disruption to business.

So, what of the redevelopment itself? First of all, it’s important to appreciate the extent and interest of the existing property. While the Grade II-Listed Art Deco section facing Newgate Street – built from 1931-32 to replace the original 1870s premises, and extended by three bays in 1959 – is the most familiar part of the old Co-op department store, there are also some noteworthy Grade II-Listed buildings around the corner in St Andrew’s Street.

St Andrew's Street buildings, former Co-op, Newcastle (9 Nov 2009)

As David Lovie notes in his useful (but now quite old) ‘The Buildings of Grainger Town’ book, these were built in 1902 as an extension to the original 1870s Co-op store, so are the oldest surviving part of the property. Happily, these will be given a new purpose as the entrance to the 231-bedroom Travelodge that is set to occupy the upper-floor space within the 150,000 sq ft scheme.

St Andrew's Street buildings, former Co-op, Newcastle (9 Nov 2009)

According to the useful project update on the architects’ website, a gym is expected to occupy the basement, while the ground floor will house six retail or restaurant units. Interestingly, the piece – which also assumed, at the time, that the Co-op supermarket would remain in place – states that “all tenants but one have already committed to the scheme”, which will no doubt prompt all sorts of speculation about who might occupy the space.

The property’s location next to The Gate leisure complex means that restaurants or bars are an obvious choice, but its position in relation to recently opened big-name stores - opposite Debenhams and New Look, and close to Next – makes fashion retail a possibility.

All in all, then, it’s difficult not to be positive about the plans for the property. A historic building is going to be brought back into use after five years of near-vacancy, while the promised ground-floor uses should help generate street-level activity and footfall in Newgate Street. Meanwhile, any loyal Co-op shoppers look set to be catered for by a small store elsewhere in the city centre.

For all that the present Co-op supermarket is unlikely to be widely missed, I hope that the rather clinical head-office posters announcing the store’s closure will be replaced in due course by something more bespoke. After all, when a business has traded from the same site since the 1870s – supported by generations of Newcastle families – shoppers surely deserve a warmer expression of gratitude than a passing ’Thank you for your custom’.

Upcoming Urban Outfitters, Newcastle (29 Nov 2011)

Newcastle’s upcoming Urban Outfitters store has been tantalisingly hidden behind orange boards for over a month – including when I passed by last week – but the shop’s frontage has now been unwrapped ahead of its opening a week on Friday (9 December).

While we’ve known the opening date for a while, this is the first chance we’ve had to see what the front of the Grainger Street store looks like. So, following Dave Robson’s tip-off on the Skyscrapercity Forums last night, I went along with my camera this morning to take a look.

...and hidden away before (26 Oct 2011)

Given the building’s Listed status, and the need to work around the strange metal flashing that stretches across the frontage of that and the neighbouring stores, the shop has a relatively understated shopfront and fascia compared to UO stores elsewhere.

Upcoming Urban Outfitters, Newcastle (29 Nov 2011)

Both the shopfront and fascia are in a deep shade of red powder-coated aluminium, with fret-cut letters spelling out the name of the store. Interestingly, the letters are much smaller than Urban Outfitters’ original planning application had proposed – that would have seen them be about twice the current height, and the full width of the frontage. Seemingly, however, something a little more discreet – and, dare I say it, less bold and interesting – was needed in order to get through the planning process.

Given the resulting low-key signage, one assumes that the large shopwindow will do much of the talking once the store opens; for now, however, it’s greeting passers by with a ’HELLUO NEWCASTLE!’ message, in a cheeky play on its name.

Upcoming Urban Outfitters, Newcastle (29 Nov 2011)

The watchful presence of several contractors made it difficult to lurk for long or get much of a view inside, though the fact that building work is still underway obviously means that there are no fixtures or stock in place yet. However, the store’s imminent opening – in just ten days’ time – must suggest that we’ll see some activity on the merchandising front later this week.

Grainger Street, with Urban Outfitters on the left (29 Nov 2011)

As I explained in my first blog about this development, back in January last year, the shop’s ground floor – which was formerly Jigsaw’s unit – will represent a relatively small part of the three-storey unit. Much of the retail floorspace is on the first and second floors – spanning the adjacent Calvin Klein Underwear, Fat Face, Phones 4u and Vodafone stores – in the area that used to be occupied by the Green Market at High Friars and, before that, the MVC record shop.

As I noted back then, however, the property has never been under the same ownership as the Eldon Square shopping centre, despite the ex-MVC unit being accessed from the mall and, to all intents and purposes, being perceived as part of it. Realignment of the floor levels to their historic positions means that Urban Outfitters will be accessed only from the street, with the old Eldon Square entrance – currently hidden behind boards – blocked up.

Such is the complexity of this building, shoppers who go into Urban Outfitters on 9 December can surely be forgiven if their first reaction is “where did all this upstairs space come from?”

The North Face, Newcastle (29 Oct 2011)

The Californian outdoor brand The North Face has opened its new store in Newcastle in the last few days – though you could easily be forgiven for not realising.

The shop, at 9-15 Blackett Street, seems to have opened with little fanfare. As yet, its details don’t show up on The North Face UK website; there’s been no announcement via The North Face Twitter account; and, as recently as four days ago when I walked past, window posters were declaring only that the store was ‘opening soon’. By yesterday, however, the store was very much open for business, trading from both the ground and first floors.

The North Face, Newcastle, four days ago (26 Oct 2011)

The apparent reticence is surprising, given that the Newcastle branch of The North Face has been confirmed as one of the chain’s Flagship stores – a status it shares with only five other UK shops, in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and London. Also, I’m told that The North Face had been eager to secure this space for some time, eventually beating off competition for the site from the fashion brand Hugo Boss.

The lease of the 2,500 sq ft property has been for sale for a good couple of years (with an advertised annual rent of £202,500 PAX) due to Schuh’s relocation to the new St Andrew’s Way section of Eldon Square in February last year. However, Schuh continued to trade from the old site alongside the new one until a replacement tenant was secured.

The store on 6 October, with work at an early stage

While The North Face seems to have made some attempt to remove the residue left on the store’s fascia by the old Schuh logo and ‘to let’ signs, the overall effect – with a small The North Face logo stuck not quite in the middle – is still quite messy.

However, as Newcastle Historian has pointed out in the Skyscrapercity Forums, the current solution seems like a temporary one while the currently ‘pending’ planning application for internally illuminated projecting and fascia signs – on a reclad fascia – is determined. Still, it’s a pity that the store couldn’t open with its ‘finished’ look already in place – the present frontage doesn’t really do justice to the store’s pleasing window displays, which are simple yet striking.

The North Face, Newcastle (29 Oct 2011)

Niggles aside, however, The North Face’s arrival in Newcastle is a very welcome one. Its presence reinforces the sense of the Grey’s Monument area developing into the city’s upmarket quarter – something I’ve blogged about before – with Hotel Chocolat, Jaeger London, Calvin Klein Underwear and Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green all having arrived in the last year or so, and quirky US fashion and homewares giant Urban Outfitters set to join them on 9 December.

Furthermore, with Hugo Boss still understood to have an active requirement for space in Newcastle city centre, the demand for decent-sized units in the right locations doesn’t look set to dry up just yet.

3DReid's proposal for the remodelled Primark/ex-BHS building

Interesting retail things always seem to happen on Tyneside while I’m on holiday! This time, I returned from Slovenia yesterday – hence the lack of recent blog posts – to find that the planning application for Newcastle’s new Primark flagship has been submitted while I’ve been away.

While the news of Primark’s expansion has been known since the adjacent BHS store began closing down in January, the planning application is significant in revealing for the first time the shape, size and appearance of the proposed store.

A more detailed trawl through the application’s 52 accompanying documents will have to wait until I’ve caught up with my post-holiday tasks, but we now know that the store will be huge – with 10,650 sqm (114,636 sq ft) of retail floorspace – and that it will involve a radical remodelling, above, of the property’s frontages to both Northumberland Road and Northumberland Street. The Evening Chronicle’s coverage of the story suggests that 200 new part-time jobs will be created as a result of the expansion.

...and how it looked before (7 Mar 2010)

Judging by the comments at SkyscraperCity, reaction to 3DReid’s radical redesign seems mixed, with some forum members – not entirely unjustly – likening the new look to that of an east European department store. To be fair, the slightly grainy quality of the renders makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions, but there’s little doubt in my mind that almost anything would be an improvement on what’s currently there. The introduction of much more glazing and what looks like an elaborate lighting scheme are particularly welcome in enlivening what has, to date, always been a blank and unforgiving façade.

How the new BHS will look. Image by Dalziel & Pow

With Primark’s proposals coming hot on the heels of BHS’s plans for an equally radical reworking of the adjacent former Next store, above, 2011 is certainly shaping up to be a significant year for Newcastle city centre retail. Readers, journalists and visitors to Newcastle often ask me to summarise what’s currently happening in the city centre, so here, by way of reminder, are the key developments that any Newcastle retail watcher should include within their itinerary.

Northumberland Street

Cotswold, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (14 Mar 2011)

• At the top end of Northumberland Street, opposite M&S, preparatory work is underway on Newcastle’s new Primark, expanding the chain’s existing store (in a former C&A unit) into the vacated BHS site.
• Next door, the former Next is being transformed into a four-storey, new-concept BHS. Plans for a bold new frontage are still yet to be approved, but Arcadia Group says that the store is expected to open by the end of the year.
• Further down the street, Clas Ohlson’s twelfth UK store is set to open next month, covering 20,333 sq ft of retail space on the site of the former Collectables store.
• Elsewhere in the street, the new Peacocks, Cotswold Outdoor and Currys/PC World stores – all opened during 2010 – are among those chains’ most impressive high-street shops, and are all worth a visit.

Grainger Town

Hotel Chocolat, Blackett Street, Newcastle (12 Jan 2011)

Around and south of Grey’s Monument, the potential loss of TJ Hughes – currently in closing-down mode – is undoubtedly a worry, but there are plenty of other signs that the area is bouncing back after several years of high vacancy rates:

• Big upcoming arrivals are the three-storey Urban Outfitters on the former Green Market site, and a new Calvin Klein Underwear shop in the former Kurt Geiger next door.
• Meanwhile, the fabulous Hotel Chocolat in Blackett Street, H&M in Grey Street and Jaeger London in Grainger Street are among the recent arrivals that have helped to improve the retail offer in the southern part of the city centre.
• As far as specialist retail is concerned, the Market Street area seems to have established itself as Newcastle’s ‘outdoor retail’ focus, with the long-established Tiso recently joined by Blacks and the well-regarded independent Start Cycles. Over the road, investments in the Grainger Market also seem to be paying off as a wealth of creative independents – such as the delightful foodie store Mmm… – build on the Market’s fresh-food heritage to create a truly modern and inspiring retail experience.

Eldon Square

Eldon Square extension (16 Feb 2010)

The opening of Eldon Square’s St Andrew’s Way extension eighteen months ago is arguably the impetus for all else that’s currently happening in the city centre, both in terms of freeing up space elsewhere and in prompting other retailers to up their game:

• The Debenhams-anchored St Andrew’s Way is universally impressive, with almost all the retailers there having created modern and innovative frontages, store environments or both. All Saints’ double-height window of sewing machines always catches the eye, while Hollister has given Newcastle an instore experience that is completely on-brand, appeals to all the senses (sight, smell, touch…), and is unlike anything else currently in the city.
• Among the units freed up by those retailers now in St Andrew’s Way, the recently opened Next has transformed the old Arcadia space into a store that is unrecognisable – inside and out – from what it used to be. Elsewhere, Kurt Geiger, Foot Locker and Barratts have all created new, eyecatching stores within the older parts of the shopping centre, replacing their older and smaller shops elsewhere.

That’s my snapshot of some of the current and recent interesting happenings in Newcastle city centre, but do feel free, as always, to add your own highlights using the comments form below!

Habitat, Bristol (22 Feb 2011)

It’s hard to dispute that the last couple of weeks has been a torrid time for the UK high street, with a succession of well-known names either announcing bad news or collapsing into administration.

While HMV has a stay of execution for now, other retailers in that section of the alphabet – Habitat, HomeForm, Haldanes and TJ Hughes – have teetered, joined by others such as the clothing chains Jane Norman and Life & Style.

Thorntons, Bishop Auckland (24 Jan 2011)

Comet and Thorntons, meanwhile, look set to follow Mothercare’s recent lead in radically slimming down their UK store estates. When Thorntons becomes the most popular trending topic on Twitter, as it was earlier this week, you really know that the high street’s travails have entered mainstream discussion.

So, what are the key headlines from, arguably, the most intense period of bad retail news since a flurry of retailers – among them Woolworths, Zavvi, Whittard’s and Adams – all collapsed in the final weeks of 2008?

Habitat's Tottenham Court Road flagship - which is staying open (6 Apr 2011)

• The iconic furniture brand Habitat, and three of its central London stores, have been bought by Home Retail Group, owner of Argos and Homebase, for £24.5m. However, the remaining 30 UK stores are in administration and threatened with closure, with 750 jobs at risk. Harrogate, Edinburgh and York are among the locations affected, but there have been no Habitat stores in the North East since the Eldon Square branch in Newcastle closed in the late 1980s.

• HomeForm, the private equity-owned home improvement business that owns brands such as Moben, Kitchens Direct and Dolphin filed for administration on 23 June, putting 160 showrooms and 2,800 jobs in danger. Locations in the North East include Darlington, Gateshead, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Sunderland.

• TJ Hughes, the Liverpool-based discount department store chain, collapsed into administration on Thursday morning, two days after announcing that it was planning to appoint administrators. The chain has 57 stores, which employ 4,000 people and account for almost 2 million square feet of retail floorspace – slightly more than the entire sales area of Metrocentre. TJ Hughes stores in Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough are among those at risk.

• Young fashion chain Jane Norman collapsed into administration earlier this week. On Tuesday, it was announced that Edinburgh Woollen Mill had bought 33 of the 94 shops, saving nearly 400 jobs, with a possibility of buying 28 more stores. However, the remaining 33 sites will close – including the branch in Newcastle’s Eldon Square – and the future of Jane Norman’s 82 department store concessions is uncertain.

• Clothing and homewares chain Life & Style – the rebadged Ethel Austin – collapsed into administration for the third time in as many years last month. 22 of the rump business’s 90 stores are already closing, with 274 staff losing their jobs.

• A week ago, Kesa-owned electricals chain Comet reported a 6.8% fall in sales compared to a year before, and annnounced plans to close 17 stores and downsize 9 others.

• On Tuesday, chocolatier Thorntons revealed that it would close up to 180 shops over the next three years, accounting for almost half of its entire company-owned store estate. The additional 227 franchisee-owned stores are not affected.

All these stories are worthy of a discussion in their own right – and will more than likely crop up again in future blog posts – but, looked at as a whole, what do they tell us about the condition of UK retail right now?

TJ Hughes, Sunderland (7 Sep 2009)

Whenever a familar high street name is in danger, it’s easy to wheel out all the usual arguments about the effects of online shopping, supermarkets’ assault into non-food, and the bane of quarterly rent payments or upward-only rent reviews.

Squeezed consumer spending is clearly also a huge issue at present. The sectors that Comet and HomeForm inhsbit – electricals and home improvement – are both among the most challenging places to be right now, as demonstrated by difficult trading at Dixons, Best Buy’s struggle to make an impression in the UK, and the recent collapse of Focus DIY.

Focus, Consett (4 Jun 2011)

Without a doubt, these economic or market factors have all contributed to the recent bad news, but they don’t explain why some retailers are collapsing when plenty of others are, if not exactly thriving, at least weathering the economic storm. The John Lewis Partnership, for example, today published its healthiest weekly sales figures for some time, with the Delia effect at Waitrose and the launch of the John Lewis Clearance pushing up turnover by 12.5% compared to a year ago.

Just as John Lewis can usually be relied upon to deliver good news, it’s very rarely a complete surprise when a particular retailer goes under. Look at this week’s casualties, and you’ll see that most of them share one or more of the same attributes:

• Lack of clarity regarding the brand or proposition
• A perception of being a ‘legacy’ retailer
• Stronger competitors within their sector
• A reputation simply for being cheap, rather than offering value
• Instability and a lack of strategic direction through constant changes in ownership or management.

Habitat fascia, York (17 Jul 2010)

In its heyday in the 1960s and 70s, Habitat, for example, was truly a design and retail innovator. However, squeezed between Ikea at the value end and Heal’s and John Lewis at the top end, Habitat has since struggled to define its niche. Meanwhile, a shrinking store estate over the years – 33 now, from a recent peak of 42 – has reinforced the impression of a business in decline.

Closed-down Habitat, Birmingham (18 Mar 2010)

Jane Norman, too, has seemingly lost sight of the reasons that made it successful in the first place, with my female friends bemoaning what they see as its move downmarket – a dangerous shift, that brings it into more direct competition with bigger, and cheaper, chains such as Primark, Peacocks and New Look.

Those big names in the clothing sector have also caused difficulties for TJ Hughes and Life & Style – raising their fashion credentials in order to offer customers all-round value, and leaving behind those retailers that have sought to compete primarily on price. Add in Life & Style’s record of previous collapses (as Ethel Austin), and the fact that TJ Hughes has had four owners in the last decade, and there’s little wonder that both have become distracted from what needs to be their core focus – being top-notch retailers.

In Thorntons’ case, many of its difficulties seem self-inflicted, throwing away the upmarket cachet of its brand by spreading itself too thinly. Creating a bloated estate of 600 shops would be unwise enough, particularly when quite a lot of them offer uninspring store environments in unglamorous locations. However, letting your product be sold in supermarkets and Wilkinson was always likely to be a disaster – undermining your brand’s reputation for quality while simultaneously removing the need for shoppers to visit your own stores.

What does all this mean, looking forward? Well, those retail businesses that simply aren’t up to scratch in terms of proposition, brand, strategy or customer experience will need to up their game in order to survive. However, there’s no reason why those businesses that are well-run and have a clear reason to exist shouldn’t continue to prosper.

New Next, Newcastle (14 Apr 2011)

The timescale may have slipped a little from the original April target – which is still being proclaimed by the external hoardings – but I understand that Next is now expecting to open its 55,000 sq ft Newcastle flagship store on or around Thursday 12 May.

I dropped by to check on progress yesterday morning, and the biggest change from my last update in February is the addition of the Next signage to the Blackett Street elevation.

New Next, Newcastle (23 Feb 2011)

New Next, Newcastle (14 Apr 2011)

From the outside, it does still look like there’s quite a lot of work to be wrapped up over the next four weeks. However, the huge lettering means that no-one has any excuse for not being aware that Next is on its way.

New Next, Newcastle (23 Feb 2011)

Work has been underway on Newcastle’s former Arcadia site for the best part of a year, as the space is transformed into a 55,000 sq ft Next store. Like the old Topshop store that it replaces, Next will have a ground-floor street frontage to Blackett Street as well as a first-floor mall entrance to Eldon Square.

The development’s completion is now close, as hoardings around the store reveal an April opening date. As well as the core Next and Next Home offers, the banners confirm that the store will also stock the Next Sport and Lipsy ranges.

Since January last year, I’ve been recording the building’s transformation in photographs, starting with a shot (below) just before Arcadia’s brands relocated to the Eldon Square extension at St Andrew’s Way.

Still trading as Topshop (30 Jan 2010)

By May (below), the Topshop signage had gone and some holes had appeared in the Newgate Street frontage, but most of the work was evidently going on inside.

Site of new Next store in Newcastle (16 May 2010)

However, the most recent views from January (below) and February this year (top) clearly show the addition of the new structure on top of the existing flat roof, which will provide extra floorspace for Next.

The large blank frontage to Newgate Street has also been nibbled away to accommodate four double-height windows – but, as far as I understand, no doors – while the existing openings to Blackett Street have also been enlarged.

Site of new Next, Newcastle (14 Jan 2011)

Reducing the amount of blank brick wall is surely an improvement, and will undoubtedly enhance the building’s appearance.

However, given the store’s prominent corner location, I am a little disappointed that the opportunity for a more radical redevelopment has been missed. Indeed, it’s a particular pity that the street entrance is set to remain around the corner in Blackett Street, instead of a bolder and more imposing entrance being created on the Newgate Street side.

As I’ve made clear before, attracting Next to open one of its largest UK stores can only be a positive thing for Eldon Square and for Newcastle’s status as a top retail destination. As it is, however, the new store’s design means that it is likely to have a very positive effect on footfall on the mall side, but a fairly limited impact as far as enlivening the street is concerned.

Compared, for example, to how Bristol’s Cabot Circus has both fostered street-level activity and improved the appearance of existing buildings incorporated within the scheme, I can’t help feeling that something more creative could have been attempted here too.

John Lewis Oxford Street, London

Given how long it’s been since the weekly trading figures for John Lewis department stores last recorded a year-on-year fall in sales, it’s little wonder that the 2.2% sales drop announced today seems to be causing a few jitters. 

On the back of this month’s VAT increase and an apparent “astonishing” plunge in consumer confidence, it’s inevitable that any sign of a wobble in trading at the UK’s retail bellweather will catch the eye of commentators. We’ll have to wait for future weeks’ figures to see whether this fall is merely, as John Lewis suggests, a weather-skewed blip, or if it does mark the beginning of something more unpleasant. 

John Lewis Leicester

For the half year as a whole, however – which ends with next week’s figures – it’s hard to argue that a 10% year-on-year rise in sales is anything but impressive, even if the stellar rise in online sales (38.9% up year on year) does to some extent mask a comparatively less strong performance from John Lewis’s shops. Of those, the half-year performances at Cambridge (+9.4%), Leicester (+8.8%) and Oxford Street (+8.1%) are the most improved.

Thinking about the John Lewis sales figures brought to mind my third ever blog post – a whole 170 posts ago – written back at the height of the recession in July 2009 when weakened retailers, post-Woolies, were still dropping like flies. It’s worth placing today’s 2.2% John Lewis sales drop in the context of the trading picture that I described back then. By way of reminder, here’s some of what I wrote 18 months ago:

Giving a picture of slightly longer-term trends, the comparisons given for the current half-year, rather than just the last week, tend to be more insightful.

These remind us just how challenging John Lewis’s trading was between February and April – even after what is now 13 successive weeks of positive figures compared to 2008, Cambridge is still the only physical store to have enjoyed better sales (up 1.5%) over the current 24-week period than it did during the same stretch a year ago.

In contrast, it’s interesting that John Lewis’s worst performing store over the last 24 weeks has been John Lewis Bristol at the out-of-town Mall at Cribbs Causeway, where sales are down a whole 12.5% compared to last year.

Comparing figures for that half-year with the most recent one show just how much things have improved. Cambridge’s recent +9.4% performance is clearly much better than the +1.5% that I wrote about in July 2009, while Bristol – down 12.5% year on year back then – is currently registering a sales fall of only 0.6% for the current half year. Of course, the flipside is that these comparisons remind us how bad things could yet get, if all the worst fears of a double-dip recession are realised.

John Lewis Bristol. Photograph by Mark Leaver

While Bristol was the weakest performing John Lewis store in early 2009, it’s interesting that current half year figures award that slightly dubious status to Newcastle. Sales at the former Bainbridge are down 3.5% compared to a year ago, with Liverpool (-1.3%) the only other store to record a sales decrease of more than 1%.

However, just as I observed back then that the Bristol store’s figures were undoubtedly impacted by the recent opening of Cabot Circus, one must imagine that the opening of Newcastle’s Debenhams-anchored St Andrew’s Way, in February last year, has had a similar effect on the John Lewis up here. In the same way as Bristol’s figures have now smoothed out, it will be interesting to see what the JL weekly stats for Newcastle look like once the opening of the Eldon Square extension is no longer skewing the year-on-year comparisons.

Even with the overall boost in sales and footfall that the Eldon Square extension has surely given Newcastle city centre, it was always likely that there would be some cannibalisation of existing stores. However, the apparent impact of Debenhams’ opening raises interesting questions about how far Newcastle could support any more upmarket department stores, with House of Fraser, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols all having been linked to the city at various points in the last twenty years.

Maybe we should just be content with our John Lewis, Fenwick and Debenhams – after all, since the closure of Joplings last year, it is still two more department stores than Sunderland has…

Closing down sale at BHS Newcastle (14 Jan 2011)

Newcastle’s iconic Northumberland Street is set to see its most dramatic retail shake-up since the departure of C&A and Littlewoods more than a decade ago.

The BHS store is currently holding a closing down sale, and will shut its doors for good in three weeks’ time. The retailer has traded from its present site for decades, apart from a short absence for rebuilding in the early 1970s.

1930s postcard of BHS, Northumberland Street, Newcastle

However, a member of staff told me that BHS will be reopening further along the street in October, taking over the premises that will be vacated by Next when it moves into Eldon Square later this spring. In turn, the staff member revealed that Primark next door is set to expand its existing premises into the space freed up by BHS, doubling the size of its current store.

Current Next - and soon to be BHS - in Northumberland Street, Newcastle (5 Feb 2010)

The news brings to an end speculation about which retailer would move onto the current Next site. Though the premises are smaller than the present BHS, the move means that Newcastle will become one of the first locations to benefit from a modern, new-concept BHS store, as first unveiled at the Chimes shopping centre in Uxbridge in May last year.

Meanwhile, the expansion of the Primark store is further demonstration of the retailer’s continued success both on Tyneside and in the country as a whole, coming just weeks after its plans to open a flagship 60,000 sq ft store at MetroCentre – on the former Woolworths site – were confirmed.

Site of new Next, Newcastle (14 Jan 2011)

Arguably, there’s a slight sense of disappointment that Next’s move isn’t going to see an exciting new retailer moving into Northumberland Street. On the other hand, it can only be a good thing for Newcastle city centre that its BHS, Primark and Next stores will be among the most impressive and up to date in the UK.

Primark fascia

MetroCentre’s empty Woolworths site is poised to get a new occupant, according to the mall’s majority owners, and is set to be trading by the middle of next year.

Capital Shopping Centres’ interim management statement for the period 1 July to 3 November 2010, released last week, reveals that “a major value fashion anchor is close to exchange in the former Woolworths store at MetroCentre, Gateshead, with a target opening of July 2011.”

It continues: “Along with the opening in September [2010] of the first combined TK Maxx/Homesense store [as blogged about here], this would enhance CSC’s anchor store strategy for the centre.”

Former Woolworths at MetroCentre (5 Oct 2009)

The news all but confirms the rumours that Primark is set to relocate from its single-storey Cameron Walk unit – formerly Littlewoods – to the enlarged Woolworths site in Garden Walk. In May, planners approved an application from The MetroCentre Partnership for a 17,405 sq ft extension to the unit, increasing its size, across two floors, to 60,000 sq ft.

This reconfigured unit is similar in size to the upcoming Next store, in the CSC-owned Eldon Square, which the statement also reveals is “on target for a December 2010 handover enabling an Easter 2011 retail opening.”

Assuming that the Primark move is confirmed – and there are few other retailers that would fit the bill of a “major value fashion anchor” – attention will surely turn to who might take over the freed-up Primark site. However, with the expanding Swedish retailer Clas Ohlson already trading or signed up in four of CSC’s 13 shopping centres – and planning to open, in the longer term, up to 200 UK shops – a MetroCentre unit of the right size and configuration could well be on its radar.

Clas Ohlson fascia

I’m not sure whether Clas Ohlson’s people are reading this blog, or whether – more likely – the obvious locations for new UK stores are fairly easy to identify.

Either way, I was interested to spot that the Swedish retailer has this week signed contracts for new stores in shopping centres in Cardiff and Norwich – following on from my post, in June, where I suggested that “Nottingham, Cardiff, Norwich, Bristol and Southampton [are] among the top retail centres that could well be on Clas Ohlson’s hit list.”

Both shops are scheduled to open in December, shortly after the previously announced new store at Merry Hill, and will be similar in size to the existing Clas Ohlson shop at Liverpool’s Clayton Square. Their opening will increase the number of Clas Ohlson stores in the UK to ten.

The Norwich store is to be located in unit 13 of the Chapelfield shopping centre, occupying retail space of 1,570 sqm (16,899 sq ft) in what I understand used to be the lower level of the city’s Borders store^{[broken link removed]} – a prime spot opposite H&M.

At 1,640 sqm (17,653 sq ft), Cardiff’s store, in the St David’s centre, is a similar size to the one in Norwich. St David’s was extended and refurbished at the end of last year, with an impressive new John Lewis as its centrepiece, and I’m assuming that Clas Ohlson will occupy one of those new units that has not so far attracted a tenant.

Interestingly, both Chapelfield and St David’s are owned (wholly and partly respectively) by Capital Shopping Centres. With CSC also owning Watford’s Harlequin and Manchester’s Arndale (as I noted here), it will mean that four of Clas Ohlson’s ten UK stores are in CSC locations.

On this basis, how long can it be before CSC’s Eldon Square in Newcastle or MetroCentre in Gateshead also gets in on the Clas Ohlson act?

UPDATE, 30 August 2010: It’s been announced today that Clas Ohlson has also signed for a 1,760 sqm (18,944 sq ft) store in Doncaster’s Frenchgate Shopping Centre. There seems to be no word on the exact location yet, though I’m wondering if it will be the still-empty former Woolies site.

Entrance to Green Market, Newcastle

Since I broke the story, in January, official confirmation of the closure of Newcastle’s Green Market at High Friars has been rather slow in coming. Even back then, I argued that “the lack of any coverage – or perhaps even awareness – of what appears to be the current Green Market’s impending closure is surprising.” 

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, however, notices on Newcastle City Council letterheads, posted around the market, are now confirming that it will close on 31 January 2011, and the story has been picked up today by both BBC News and the Evening Chronicle. 

Though the market has only operated from its current site for the last three years, there has been, as the Chronicle notes, a Greenmarket in Newcastle for the past four centuries. While the current incarnation at High Friars may be a rather sad, mostly empty version compared to its predecessors, its demise will signal the end of one of Newcastle’s most long-established retail ‘brands’. 

Interestingly, the BBC article remarks that “the departure of the market will make way for a fashion retailer”, though it’s unclear from where this information has been sourced. However, it echoes my earlier observation of a new tenant being “secured” for the three-storey retail unit that will replace the Green Market, and does nothing to dispel the still-persistent rumours of Urban Outfitters being the retailer in question.

Expected entrance for new fashion store from Grainger Street

Spare a thought, however, for the few tenants that are still trading in the Green Market, and who now face the further upheaval – if they have the energy and inclination – of moving into the Grainger Market. 

When the current, 15-unit site was launched in 2007, following a £1m refurbishment, it was heralded as being “fresh”, “new” and “modern”, with “a prime location… right next to MK One and New Look”, but with every intention that a new, permanent Greenmarket would be built as part of the St Andrew’s Way extension. 

With those plans subsequently abandoned, and the ‘temporary’ Green Market too small and isolated to really take off – especially since New Look’s departure for the Eldon Square extension – the Green Market at High Friars was always likely to struggle as a longer-term enterprise.

Interestingly, the fact that the new ‘fashion retailer’ will be accessed from Grainger Street (with access from Eldon Square itself due to be blocked up) is only likely to compound the problems facing the shopping centre’s High Friars section. A mall leading only to the toilets, a branch of Internaçionale (in the former MK One unit) and the escalator down to Nelson Street is hardly going to draw the crowds.

Nelson Street, with the Green Market access on the left (17 Jun 2010)

Securing a really strong anchor to reoccupy the large, two-storey former New Look unit will therefore be crucial. To encourage flow around that end of the shopping centre, it will be much better to have one retailer occupying both levels, preferably also with a reopened direct entrance on to Nelson Street, as was the case when the site housed WHSmith.

It may even be worth trying to carve out a larger unit from the old New Look, the current Internaçionale, and the mall in between, to create a sizable, modern unit that may appeal to a retailer such as Clas Ohlson – already represented in Capital Shopping Centres’ malls at Watford and Manchester – or Zara.

High Friars entrance to Eldon Square (22 Jan 2010)

Ultimately, however, full redevelopment of the Sidgate and High Friars end of Eldon Square – preferably including reinstatement of the historic link between Clayton Street and Old Eldon Square, and a livelier frontage to Blackett Street – may be the radical solution that’s needed.

New Currys and PC World, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (6 Aug 2010)

Heading into Newcastle today for a much-needed haircut, I had my usual wander around to see what was happening,  retail property-wise.

In Northumberland Street, the new combined Currys and PC World now boasts its signage ahead of its opening on Thursday (12 August).

How it looked six weeks ago (25 Jun 2010)

Upstairs, the new branch of Cotswold Outdoor – accessed from the street via the entrance with the red shutters – looks to be less advanced (with no signage yet), and merely declares that it will be ‘coming soon’. There’s no further opening information, that I can see, on the retailer’s website, though I fairly quickly got fed up of trying to browse the site due to its heavy use of Flash and constant ‘Loading’ messages.

New Currys and PC World, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (6 Aug 2010)

Overall, the revamped property is certainly more pleasing to the eye than it was as Currys.digital, though I never understand whose idea it is to populate the city’s premier shopping street with tatty market stalls. If I’d just invested a lot of money in modernising my store’s frontage, the last thing I’d want is to be partly obscured by a stall selling £3 pillows.

Is this really the place for a market stall? (6 Aug 2010)

One place where market stalls are less out of place – if any actually wanted to locate there – is the Green Market at High Friars, in Eldon Square. The news of the market’s closure – broken here in January – has now been confirmed, with on-site notices on Newcastle City Council letterheads giving a closure date of 31 January 2011.

It will therefore be a little while yet before any work can start on the replacement three-storey retail unit that is still rumoured to be earmarked for Urban Outfitters.

The notice indicates, incidentally, that tenants will be offered alternative space in the Grainger Market; one suspects, however, that those stallholders who wanted to go there would have already done so when the previous Greenmarket, facing Clayton Street, was closed in January 2007.

Upcoming Clinton Cards, Douglas Way, Eldon Square (6 Aug 2010)

Finally, at the other end of Eldon Square, the St Andrew’s Way-initiated retail merry-go-round continues. Clinton Cards is set to move into the Douglas Way unit vacated by River Island, with a shop that will include one of its Pure Party concessions. One imagines, in turn, that Clinton’s existing Eldon Square store at 14-16 Blackettbridge will be closed.

Selling partywear, costumes and balloons, and first launched as a trial in late 2009, Pure Party seems like Clinton’s attempt to mop up some of the business that would previously have gone to Woolworths. The fact that Clinton’s is continuing to roll out the concept – with 43 standalone or concession stores so far – suggests that this strategy is proving a success.

My shot of the Clinton’s hoardings may, incidentally, be the first and last photo I take inside Eldon Square. I was promptly spoken to (pleasantly but firmly) by a security guard who warned me that “no pictures of any kind” were allowed within the mall.

I never quite understand why shopping centres are so tetchy about photographs, and Eldon Square – unlike others I’ve visited – does not seem to have any signs at its entrances expressly banning the practice. Still, I’d better not do it again.

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?

Newgate Street frontage, Debenhams Newcastle

Though I’d had a wander around several times before, today was the first occasion that I’d actually bought something from Newcastle’s recently opened Debenhams store. However, if the good quality customer service that I received is the norm, it gives me every incentive to go back.

I was looking for a nice shirt and tie, and, having decided (for once) to try somewhere a bit more upmarket than TJ Hughes, found myself in the Debenhams menswear department. This is on the ground floor of the store, one level down from the St Andrew’s Way mall, and with an entrance on to Newgate Street.

Like the rest of the shop, the interior of the menswear department is clean, classy and not too crowded, giving plenty of space to browse, and the staff appear uniformly smart and attentive.

Debenhams, Eldon Square. Photograph by Peter (aka 'Newcastle Historian')

Having made my selection, I went to the menswear tills, where both cashiers were serving but I was first in the queue. When a cash desk became free, the smartly suited staff member, Sean, apologised for the wait, though in reality I’d only been left hanging on for thirty seconds so – in many other fashion stores, that would be speedy service. While dealing with my purchase, he was chatty but polite, before holding the bag by the corners when he handed it over the counter – perhaps an old fashioned trick, but one that somehow shows due respect for both the customer and the item being purchased.

Overall then, a positive impression from my first shopping experience in Newcastle’s Debenhams, and one where the attention to detail made all the difference.

Apple Store, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010). Photograph by Peter (aka 'Newcastle Historian')

Just three months after opening a new store in the St Andrew’s Way extension of Eldon Square, I understand that Apple is poised to open a second Tyneside shop at the MetroCentre in Gateshead.

I’m not aware that anything has yet been announced officially, but anyone looking for retail opportunities on the Jobs at Apple website is given the option of MetroCentre as a future store opening (screenshot below).

Screenshot of Jobs at Apple website (21 May 2010)

This is undoubtedly good news for MetroCentre, and will go some way in countering the scepticism – from me, and others – about the mall’s ability to attract and retain more upmarket names. It also suggests that the Eldon Square Apple Store must be meeting or exceeding expectations, given that there would be little point in opening a second store if it risked dangerously cannibalising the first.

Promo shot for Hollister's spring collection

Eldon Square’s new Apple Store may have attracted the most buzz at the opening of St Andrew’s Way back in February, but it’s Hollister that’s still dominating traffic to Soult’s Retail View, ahead of its opening on 15 April. 

Since the store’s imminent arrival was announced barely three months ago, an incredible 1,755 visitors have reached this blog after Googling ‘hollister newcastle’, closely followed by ‘hollister eldon square’ (324), ‘hollister newcastle opening’ (139) and ‘hollister in newcastle’ (117).

Echoing what I wrote in a previous post, I suspect – based on the imagery being used to promote the retailer’s spring collection – that I am neither young enough nor glamorous enough to be part of Hollister’s target market. However, I’ll certainly be curious to drop by when the store opens – on 15 April – to see what all the fuss is about, assuming of course that I can get through all the crowds. The fact that the Hollister Newcastle Facebook fan page already has 431 fans signed up (most of them indeed young and glamorous) merely reinforces my impression that Hollister coming to Eldon Square really is seen as a big deal indeed.

One unintended consequence of being the top Google result for ‘hollister newcastle’ is that I’ve been getting a steady stream of emails from people asking how they can get a job at the store (try here) or when it’s going to be opening (15 April). As a blogger, I’ve quickly come to realise that you do get some slightly off-piste enquiries, mostly from people who seemingly cannot distinguish between someone, like me, who is merely writing about a particular retailer, and someone (not me) who represents the retailer itself.

In some ways, it will be quite a relief when Hollister in Newcastle finally opens its doors – on 15 April – and I can turn my attention to other areas of retail interest. In the meantime, you can bet that there’ll still be someone who drops me a line asking when the store’s going to open…

Debenhams, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010). Photograph by Peter (aka 'Newcastle Historian')

I might have been busy at work at 10:30 a.m this morning, but many thousands of others evidently weren’t, judging from the crowds that attended the grand opening of St Andrew’s Way! Such was the excitement, Eldon Square was once again a trending topic on Twitter for much of today, while even the editor of industry bible Retail Week was there to see things first hand.

New Look, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010)

Debenhams, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010)

By the time I popped in to the new mall just after 5, things had calmed down somewhat, but there were still plenty of people having a good look around. I was able to get some better photos of the street frontages (using a proper camera this time), but thought better of getting any interior shots, given how many police officers were wandering about. However, Peter – aka ‘Newcastle Historian’ from the SkyscraperCity forums – has kindly let me plunder some of his own pics from inside the mall.

St Andrew's Way, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010). Photograph by Peter (aka 'Newcastle Historian')

Clayton Street frontage, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010)

First impressions are really positive – the inside of the mall is wide and bright, and the double height means that most of the retailers have created truly dramatic frontages. Debenhams’ looks great, Republic’s is as impressive as promised, and Apple’s is the bold statement that you would expect.

Best of the lot though must be Hollister. The store’s not yet open (and won’t be until April, apparently), but its shopfront is pure MetroCentre Mediterranean Village, circa 1986 – striking, kitschy, but totally on brand. It does mean that with most of the shop frontages being so flamboyant, Schuh’s – which would look very nice anywhere else – feels rather tame.

Apple Store, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010). Photograph by Peter (aka 'Newcastle Historian')

Debenhams, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010)

Tesco Metro, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010)

Clayton Street frontage to Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010)

Poundland, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010)

As I’ve remarked before, a successful Tesco store probably does not bode well for the nearby Co-op food hall. However, there can surely be no better opportunity than now for the whole of the former Co-op department store building to be brought back into use. Just looking at all the people busying around in Newgate Street this evening, it really is now a great pitch, directly opposite Debenhams. If Harvey Nichols ever made up its mind to come to Newcastle, it need surely look no further for a stunning landmark property in a fantastic, prime location.

Former Co-op department store, Newgate Street (16 Feb 2010)

I also had a look around the older parts of Eldon Square, where there are now various voids from retailers moving into the new part of the shopping centre. However, these vacated units have all been screened off already – complete with ‘exciting new retailer coming soon’ banners – so merely look blank and dark rather than obviously empty. On the other hand, the existing Poundland in the old post office premises and the current All Saints in Market Street were both still happily trading when I walked past this evening, suggesting that those stores will be retained alongside their brand new Eldon Square siblings.

All Saints, Eldon Square (16 Feb 2010). Photograph by Peter (aka 'Newcastle Historian')

I read this morning that five of the six now-empty sites in Eldon Square have new occupants lined up, which is very good news if true. Certainly, the banner at the former Arcadia site promises a ‘new flagship retailer’ soon – almost certainly Next. Meanwhile, at least part of the site of the former Republic store is going to be Foot Locker, presumably moving from its existing Northumberland Street site. So, tick this off as yet another seemingly un-Woolies-related blog post that in fact has a faintly obscure Woolworths link…