91-93 Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough (4 May 2011)

After making my first visit to Middlesbrough’s most recent former Woolworths – the site of today’s Discount UK – back in September 2009, Soult’s Retail View readers Ali Brown and Gareth Hill helped to reveal that the town had, in fact, hosted four previous Woolies stores at different times.

Having managed to locate and photograph the last of those just last week, now seems like an opportune time to piece all the fragments together, and to finally tell the story of Middlesbrough’s Woolworths – starting more than a century ago – in chronological order.

1) Store #8 – 91-93 Linthorpe Road

91-93 Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough (4 May 2011)

If they were asked to name the location of the first ever Woolworths in the North East, many people would assume that it was in Newcastle.

In fact, Newcastle had to wait until 1913 to gain its first Woolworths (store #27, on the site of today’s Peacocks in Northumberland Street) – two years after the region’s first Woolies (store #8) had already set up shop at 91-93 Linthorpe Road in Middlesbrough, on 10 June 1911.

Back then, it must have been quite some accolade for Middlesbrough to secure only the eighth Woolworths store in the country, following on from those that had already opened in Liverpool (two stores), Preston, Manchester, Leeds, Hull and Brixton.

Interestingly, the fact that Woolworths ever had a store at nos. 91-93 is in danger of being forgotten, with more than one source wrongly stating that the store was always along the street at nos. 51-67: the site of Middlesbrough’s largest and most-remembered Woolworths store, but not the original location. 100thBirthday.co.uk makes that mistake, while even Woolies’ own staff magazine, The New Bond, erroneously refers in its December 1958 edition to the site of the “original store” being “rebuilt and enlarged”.

1913 postcard showing Middlesbrough's Woolworths at 91-93 Linthorpe Road on the left. Image courtesy of Ali Brown

A similar view of Linthorpe Road today (5 Jan 2012)

Happily, evidence for the original location exists in both photographic and written form. Ali Brown alerted me to a 1913 postcard that she’d acquired (above), in which the Woolworths fascia is clearly visible on the far left, within the handsome property that is still today nos. 91-93. The comparable present-day shot shows just how much of the surrounding streetscape has changed.

Referring to the store as a “fancy bazaar”, the 1913 Kelly’s Directory of North and East Ridings of Yorkshire (below) also confirms Woolworths’ address as 91-93 Linthorpe Road, and correctly places it – together with the landmark (but now-demolished) Wright’s Tower House – between the still-extant Davison Street and Grange Road West.

Extract from 1913 Kelly's Directory for the North Riding (p.216)

One thing I haven’t quite pinned down yet is when exactly Woolworths vacated nos. 91-93 in order to move into the bigger premises at 51-67.

The 1913 Kelly’s Directory lists the Central Buildings block between Newport Crescent and Gilkes Street – what would later become the new Woolworths – as still housing the Middlesbrough Co-operative Society Limited, Huggins Bros’ warehouse, Francis Wilson (bootmaker) and Miss Annie Holt (milliner). However, 100thBirthday.co.uk shows what it claims is a 1920s view of Woolworths already moved into this new location, while the image on the Valentine’s postcard below – in which Woolworths is clearly visible in its new premises on the left - must date, according to the publisher’s own numbering system, from the 1940s.

1940s Valentine postcard of Woolworths at 51-67 Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough

Whenever exactly Woolworths left, 91-93 Linthorpe Road is most well known these days as the former home of BBC Radio Teesside – renamed BBC Radio Cleveland in 1974, and known today as BBC Tees – between 1970 and 1984. Today, however, both the ground and upper floors remain empty as a succession of temporary occupants have been and gone, most recently the outlet clothing store Alias.

Hopefully, before long, a new and permanent occupant will be found that befits this striking and historically interesting building.

Coming in part 2: Store #8 – 51-67 Linthorpe Road

Just the fourth in a history of Middlesbrough's Woolies

I’m always delighted when people comment on my blog posts, and a recent contribution from Gareth Hill has proved particularly interesting in shedding light on the history of Woolworths’ presence in Middlesbrough, following on from my visit to the town back in September. Gareth wrote:

In Middlesbrough the former Woolworths in the Hill Street centre was actually Woolworths’ fourth store in Middlesbrough.

The first was on Linthorpe Road, opposite the Sony Centre. In the 1950s they moved a few doors up Linthorpe Road to a new Department Store, just before Binns corner. This was one of the many larger stores which had large food halls which closed in the early 80s when the British arm of the business was sold. This building was split into three separate units.

For a few years there was no Woolworths presence in Middlesbrough. Then in about 1990 there was a short-lived Woolworths Music & Video store in a corner unit diagonally opposite the store you visited. You may therefore have visited a further three former Woolworths.

Needless to say, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to do a bit of digging around into what Gareth had told me. A bit of Googling later, I’d come across this great Evening Gazette blog post about the history of Woolworths in Middlesbrough, including a fabulous photo (below) of the Mark II Linthorpe Road store – known as Central Buildings – on its opening day of 3 September 1958.

Woolworths in Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough on its opening day of 3 September 1958. Photograph courtesy of Evening Gazette

Passing along Linthorpe Road today, I was determined to see if I could spot the building in question. In fact, it wasn’t very difficult at all, given that surprisingly little seems to have changed (apart from The Mall’s annoying canopy, which rather got in the way of me replicating the original view):

Former Woolworths in Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough (4 Jan 2010)

Here’s a clearer view, taken from the opposite direction:

Former Woolworths in Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough (4 Jan 2010)

In comparison, locating the original Linthorpe Road Woolworths has proved much more of a challenge – and even now I’m not sure that I’ve managed to identify the right building. Gareth had referred to it being “a few doors” from the 1950s Woolworths and “opposite the Sony Centre”, but the only Sony Centre that I could find details of prior to my visit was the one in Captain Cook Square – well away from any Linthorpe Road frontage. I had some vague recollection, however, of reading something a few years ago about the Middlesbrough Sony Centre having moved location. Perhaps Gareth was referring to where it used to be?

With this in mind, and using a process of elimination, I took a photo of one of the few remaining old (i.e. pre-1950s), suitable looking buildings, in roughly the right location along Linthorpe Road:

Is this Middlesbrough's original Woolies?

Perhaps someone in the know can reveal whether or not I’ve correctly identified Middlesbrough’s original Woolworths? Following my visit, a bit more digging suggests that I can’t be too far off the mark – it looks like the Sony Centre did used to be in Linthorpe Road (#98), in a unit that now appears to be occupied by Carphone Warehouse, and that is more or less opposite the building that I photographed.

So, some one out there had better put me out of my misery! Am I right, or am I wrong???!!

[UPDATE: It appears I'm right... :) ]