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’.

Poundland fascia

One of the few empty shops in Hexham will soon be occupied again, with Poundland set to move into the former Heron Foods site in Priestpopple.

Though no opening date has been confirmed yet, store jobs have been advertised and a planning application submitted for “one internally illuminated fascia sign and one internally illuminated hanging sign”. Drawings of the signage attached to the application confirm Poundland as the retailer in question. [UPDATE, 14 Nov 2011: The opening has now been confirmed for this coming Thursday, 17 November.]

The move is significant in that it’s outside Hexham’s main pedestrianised thoroughfare of Fore Street, where multiple retailers have tended to cluster. That street, however, is consistently fully let, with Mountain Warehouse (in the former Stead & Simpson) and Iceland (in the old Woolworths) among the recent arrivals.

Priestpopple, Hexham (4 Dec 2010)

Priestpopple and Market Street, in contrast, have tended to have a higher proportion of independent stores. Nevertheless, the former Heron site is in a good location – close to the bus station, opposite the side entrance to Beales department store (formerly Robbs), and on the way to the hidden Marks & Spencer in Maidens Walk – and Poundland’s arrival is likely to drive footfall further.

Beales' side entrance, Hexham (18 Sep 2011)

Hexham’s shop vacancy rate is traditionally in the low single figures, and this letting again confirms the Northumberland town’s attractiveness to retailers – as well as Poundland’s continued foray into more upmarket locations. The joy of Hexham as a shopping destination is that it combines a good mix of chains with some superb independent shops and cafés, such as Dillies (flower, chocolate and wine shop) in Market Street, and the delightful Artful gallery and Cornmill Coffee Shop in St Mary’s Chare.

Dillies, Hexham (19 Aug 2010)

As I’ve noted before, however, tentative plans for the relocation and redevelopment of Hexham’s bus station need to be progressed if the town is to capitalise on all those big-name retail space requirements that currently cannot be met.

Former Woolworths (now temporary BHS), Swindon (11 Sep 2011)

If you saw my earlier post about the shiny new BHS in Swindon, you might be wondering what happened to the retailer during the 18-month period that its old store was being redeveloped. Well, rather conveniently, there was an empty unit in nearby Regent Street where it was able to open a temporary store: the site of Swindon’s former Woolworths.

At the time of Woolies’ collapse in 2008, the Swindon store (store #38) was one of the longest established in the country. It opened at 23-25 Regent Street on 12 September 1914 – almost 97 years to the day before my visit – and underwent a series of extensions and redevelopments in 1936, 1973, 1980 and 1995.

Old postcard of Woolworths in Swindon, c.1960

Sadly, the rather functional present-day frontage bears no resemblance to the more elegant, cinema-style façade that existed previously – similar to the one still found at Chester-le-Street. However, the attractive turreted Next building (in the middle of both shots, above and below) ensures that there is at least some visual link between the 1960s and present-day views along the street.

A similar view along Regent Street today (11 Sep 2011)

Now that BHS’s new store is open, I’d rather expected to find the former Woolworths store vacated again. However, BHS looks to be hanging on to the space for the moment, badging it as a BHS Furniture Clearance Outlet.

When you visit Swindon, that word – outlet – seems to assail you at every turn, with both positive and negative consequences for the town. In the Swindon Designer Outlet, owned by McArthur Glen, the town has one of the busiest and best outlet shopping centres in the country, housing 120 stores in the Grade II-listed Great Western Railway Works – a truly fantastic series of spaces.

Swindon Designer Outlet (11 Sep 2011)

With outlet stores from big names such as John Lewis, Next and M&S, as well as designer brands like Aquascutum, Hugo Boss and Tommy Hilfiger, there’s little wonder that the centre was packed with shoppers when I visited. Indeed, according to CACI Retail Footprint data, the outlet centre alone generates £160m of annual expenditure – equivalent to Tamworth’s vast Ventura Retail Park.

Swindon Designer Outlet (11 Sep 2011)

However, while bringing shoppers and their spend into Swindon, the Designer Outlet is perhaps just a little too far away from the town centre – a good 10 minutes’ walk – to have much of a positive knock-on effect. On the contrary, there are bound to be some names whose presence at the Designer Outlet rules them out of taking space in the town centre proper.

House of Fraser Outlet, Swindon (11 Sep 2011)

Once in the town centre, the outlet theme continues, somewhat controversially. In 2008, Swindon’s established House of Fraser store was rebadged as a House of Fraser Outlet, featuring end-of-the-line branded stock from other stores in the chain. While better than losing House of Fraser completely, it’s hard to see this as anything other than a retrograde step.

Looking around the store on Sunday, it felt rather like a more upmarket TJ Hughes, with a slight ‘jumble sale’ feel and the sense that it’s no longer really a proper department store. For that, shoppers must go along the street to Debenhams, which itself makes a fairly unglamorous impression from the outside.

Debenhams, Swindon (11 Sep 2011)

Swindon might have a shiny John Lewis at Home on its outskirts, and the country’s most modern BHS in its centre, but I have to confess to being slightly underwhelmed by the town centre – both in terms of its retail offer and the overall quality of the public realm.

Perhaps my expectations were too high? After all, with annual retail expenditure (according to CACI) of £350m, Swindon town centre is barely a third of the size of nearby Bristol or Reading (each £1.2bn), and ranks below both Darlington (£360m) and Middlesbrough (£430m) in the North East. In my previous post, I cited John Ryan’s assertion that the new BHS was “without doubt the best shop in Swindon”, and it’s hard to really argue with that claim.

So, against this mixed backdrop, what might the future hold for Swindon’s former Woolworths site once BHS finally moves on? Usefully, the town’s growth and regeneration company, Forward Swindon, commissioned a ‘Town Centre Healthcheck’ from GVA Grimley in May last year, which reported in November.

Drawing from the FOCUS real estate database, this report found that a relatively small number of retailers (30) had a requirement for space in Swindon, particularly in comparison to other large centres in the south, such as Oxford, Reading and Bristol. Of these, just two – Asda Living and the now-much-reduced TJ Hughes – had a requirement for more than 15,000 sq ft of retail space.

Of course, Swindon’s recent BHS development – and similar retail schemes elsewhere – remind us that if developers build the right quality of space in the right locations, retailers will often find a requirement. As Swindon looks forward, I can’t help thinking that the Woolworths site might need another redevelopment of its own if it’s to have a sustainable and long-term future as prime retail space.

Former Woolworths, South Shields (8 Aug 2011)

The Indian-owned value fashion retailer, Store Twenty One, is to add a fourth North East ex-Woolies site to its estate, taking over the empty portion of the former Woolworths store in South Shields.

Poundland has occupied part of the ex-Woolies building in King Street since late 2009, but the other half has remained stubbornly ‘to let’ for the last couple of years.

Store Twenty One, Jarrow (24 Jul 2010)

The rumour of Store Twenty One’s impending arrival was reported in the Shields Gazette three weeks ago, but I understand that the retailer has since completed on the deal. The South Shields store will be Store Twenty One’s second ex-Woolies site in South Tyneside, following on from the opening of its Jarrow shop in July last year. There are also Store Twenty One branches in place of the former Woolworths stores in Stanley and Houghton-le-Spring, as well as another within a historic Woolworths building in Redcar.

Mothercare, South Shields (8 Aug 2011)

Though not the Primark that had been rumoured back in 2009 – which always seemed implausible, given the relatively compact size of the unit – Store Twenty One’s arrival will be a welcome boost to a street that has more than its fair share of voids, many the result of national retail collapses (such as Adams and MK One) or store rationalisations (a recently closed Currys.digital). And with South Shields home to one of the dwindling number of high-street Mothercare stores – many of which are being closed – it would be a surprise if further departures don’t follow.

Henry Boot's Waterloo Square retail scheme in South Shields (24 Jul 2010)

On the other hand, South Shields still has many positives as a retail centre. The modern Waterloo Square scheme remains strong, having attracted Next, Desire by Debenhams, BHS and River Island into South Shields for the first time five years ago. The development provides the large, spacious units that those major chains require, while maintaining a strong pedestrian link with the nearby King Street.

Wilkinson, South Shields (8 Aug 2011)

Meanwhile, King Street is bookended by two important anchors. The hardware and variety store retailer Wilkinson has recently refurbished its large and popular store in the Market Place, while Morrisons taking over the vacated Asda premises last year has given a much-needed boost to the town centre’s eastern end.

King Street, South Shields (30 Apr 2011)

Indeed, where South Shields most needs work is in the very heart of its town centre, along the main thoroughfare of King Street. Though the street itself is quite handsome, and has – crucially – hung on to its Marks & Spencer store, the prominence of empty units, coupled with a mish mash of poor quality shopfronts and signage, conveys an overall air of tattiness and underinvestment.

Redcar High Street (4 May 2011)

Down the coast on Teesside, Redcar’s town centre is not without its challenges either. However, everywhere you look in Redcar there are signs of things happening, whether it’s the local authority’s investment in marketing the town (under the ‘This is Redcar’ tagline), the opening of a tourist information centre on the high street, the presence of lively street entertainment, or the widespread use of ‘virtual shops’ to successfully mitigate the negative visual impact of empty units. In challenging economic times, positive measures such as these can play an important role in stemming the perception of a town being in decline.

Perhaps it’s time for South Shields to take a look at what other seaside towns are doing to lift their spirits, with a view to bringing some added colour, theatre and optimism to its own high street.

Trinity Leeds logo (21 Jan 2011)

During my recent visit to Leeds city centre, one of the most visible retail developments was the ongoing construction work for Trinity Leeds, with cranes towering over the adjacent 18th century church that gives the new shopping scheme its name.

After a one-year hiatus caused by the economic downturn, work on Trinity Leeds recommenced last summer, and the development is due to open in spring 2013.

Cranes over the Holy Trinity Church, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

For the most part, Trinity Leeds’ anchors seem to be revamped versions of stores that already exist on site, including M&S, Boots, BHS and H&M. However, it promises to bring some ‘wow factor’ to the currently dreary pedestrian routes around Albion Street, as well as making space, Eldon Square-style, for the obligatory Apple Store, Hollister and Superdry among its 120 shops.

Arguably the project’s most welcome feature is that it includes a full revamp of the existing Leeds Shopping Plaza, aiming to transform a shopping centre that is currently dated and cheerless.

Existing Leeds Shopping Plaza (21 Jan 2011)

Though building work is still at a very early stage, colourful hoardings around the edges of the site – bordered by Briggate, Boar Lane, Lower Basinghall Street and Commercial Street – bear the Trinity Leeds logo and the message “Your retail soulmate is coming”, ensuring that there’s no excuse for not knowing what’s happening.

Trinity Leeds hoarding, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

However, I was amused to overhear one passerby asking her friend “What’s Soulmate?” – a gentle reminder, perhaps, that marketing slogans may sometimes be too oblique for their own good.

Mountain Warehouse, Hexham (1 Jan 2011)

Visiting Hexham on New Year’s Day, I was interested to see that a new branch of Mountain Warehouse had sprung up since I was previously in the town, barely a month earlier.

The expanding outdoor retailer – which opened its 100th store earlier in 2010 – has taken over the Fore Street premises previously occupied by a tired Stead & Simpson shop, in a move that confirms Hexham’s status as a highly desirable location for retailers. Interestingly, both Mountain Warehouse and the nearby Millets were happily trading on New Year’s Day, with Beales’ decision to open up Robbs department store on the public holiday seemingly giving impetus to other stores nearby.

Fore Street, Hexham (1 Jan 2011)

The recent LDC research commissioned by the BBC’s Inside Out programme flagged Hexham as having the lowest proportion of vacant shops (just 5%) among the North East towns surveyed, and it’s certainly true that there are virtually no empty units in the town’s main shopping streets. In turn, those units that do become vacant – such as this one, or Hexham’s former Woolworths site (now Iceland) – tend to be reoccupied very swiftly.

Iceland, Hexham (1 Jan 2011)

The danger for Hexham is that if it fails to provide new space to meet this pent-up demand, top retailers seeking a south Northumberland location will continue to flock instead to Morpeth’s Sanderson Arcade. Opened at the end of 2009, that development is of very high quality, and has been well designed in a way that provides new routes between the town’s bus station, its main shopping thoroughfare (Bridge Street), and the largest supermarket (Morrisons).

These ingredients have allowed it to attract an impressive raft of top-notch retailers including M&S, Laura Ashley, Fat Face, Crew Clothing and Waterstone’s, soon to be joined by Northumberland’s first branch of Monsoon.

Beales-owned Robbs of Hexham (1 Jan 2011)

Hexham’s main opportunity for town centre retail development is the current bus station on Priestpopple, a place that is presently a rather miserable environment for bus passengers at the same time as blocking what ought to be a natural route between Robbs and the Marks & Spencer store in Maidens Walk.

The former Co-op supermarket, which traded from the M&S site for ten years until 2006, reportedly opened its store on the basis that a link with the town centre would be created – fifteen years later, the people of Hexham are still waiting for that physical connection to be made. Though the compact M&S store always seems surprisingly busy with shoppers, there must be a significant number of visitors to Hexham who arrive and depart the town without ever realising that it exists.

Making sure that 2011 is the year when the bus station redevelopment finally gets off the drawing board should ensure that M&S’s continued presence in Hexham is secured, at the same time as giving some hope to all those other big-name retailers that are still queuing up for space.

Woolworths building, West Ealing (24 Nov 2010)

While visiting London last month, I also found time to pay a visit to the interesting shopping area of West Ealing – home, as you would expect, to a former branch of Woolworths.

Part of the London Borough of Ealing, West Ealing is today somewhat overshadowed as a retail centre by the much larger Ealing Broadway, just a mile or so down the road. However, the imposing building that formerly housed West Ealing’s Woolworths store (store #239) is testament to that neighbourhood’s own history as a significant shopping centre.

Purpose built as a Woolworths store and opened in 1926, the West Ealing property is just as handsome as those in Oxford Street or Kensington High Street, with a glorious 11-bay, four-storey tiled façade that would make an impression on any high street.

Former Woolworths (now Poundworld), West Ealing (24 Nov 2010)

The incongruous sight of a tree growing out of the building’s pediment is a poignant symbol of the property’s decline over the years. While Woolworths would have originally occupied the full frontage, the store was just a fraction of its original size by the time it closed on 30 December 2008.

Superdrug – part of the same Kingfisher conglomerate as Woolworths between 1987 and 2001 – still trades from the right-hand portion of the store that was carved off for it in the 1990s. The left-hand part of the property was, until recently, a small branch of New Look; when I visited, the unit was temporarily in use as ‘The Bargain Store’. Meanwhile, the section latterly occupied by Woolworths was taken over in late 2009 by the Leeds-based single-price retailer Poundworld.

Former Woolworths (now Poundworld), West Ealing (24 Nov 2010)

Though it is arguably less well-known than either Poundland or 99p Stores, Poundworld has grown rapidly in recent years to become the UK’s third largest single-price retailer, with just over 100 stores now compared to the 33 that it had five years ago. Apart from West Ealing, the retailer has also taken over former Woolies sites in Castleford, High Wycombe and Nottingham’s Victoria Centre, with the latter reported to be – at 12,500 sq ft – the chain’s largest store to date.

Even before the loss of Woolworths, West Ealing’s high street had seen significant change in recent decades, with the departure of Marks & Spencer in the late 1990s widely seen as an important loss. That site, next to the old Woolworths building, has subsequently been redeveloped and is now occupied by Wilkinson.

Nevertheless, it would be wrong to see West Ealing as a retail centre in terminal decline. It’s true that on my walk along Uxbridge Road and Broadway I noted a lot of vacant shops – including the ubiquitous closed-down Ethel Austin – and cheap-looking discount stores. However, there are plenty of bright spots.

Waitrose – a retailer whose presence in a retail centre is just as iconic as that of M&S – operates from a very large, recently rebuilt store in Alexandra Road, though its location, slightly away from the main shopping thoroughfare, presumably restricts the flow of Waitrose shoppers’ trips to West Ealing’s other, smaller retailers – which is a shame.

Arguably, it’s West Ealing’s independent shops that give it the brightest hope for the future. Walking through, despite the visible problems, the area has a cosmopolitan and colourful feel, with ethnic food shops displaying their wares in the street. The West Ealing weekly farmers’ market in Leeland Road – which seemed to be well advertised when I visited – also adds to the area’s reputation as a mecca for foodies, and is apparently its trump card in attracting shoppers from other parts of London.

Primark in Ealing Broadway shopping centre (24 Nov 2010)

Where Ealing proper has big names and the shiny Ealing Broadway mall (anchored by Primark in premises that used to be Beales), it’s easy to envisage a future where West Ealing provides a complementary, food-driven offer that celebrates the area’s independence, cultural diversity and soul.

Incidentally, just as I had to pay a return visit to Kensington to locate the area’s original Woolies, it looks like I’ll have to pop back to Ealing sometime to photograph another old Woolworths that I missed. Walking from Ealing Broadway to West Ealing, I managed to go straight past the former’s old Woolies branch in New Broadway without even realising it.

Now occupied by Iceland, the property has no architectural clues of ever being a Woolworths, but was a comparatively early store (#74), opened in about 1916, before closing down (as I understand it) a couple of decades ago. In between, one of its claims to fame was being converted, in the mid-1980s, to Kingfisher’s experimental Kidstore format – a specialist store for children, based around enlarged ranges of clothes, toys, books and confectionery.

Though the Kidstore concept was never rolled out, its relative success underpinned Woolworths’ later investment in its Ladybird and Chad Valley children’s brands – two parts of the business that were successfully resurrected after Woolies’ collapse under the new ownership of Shop Direct and Argos respectively.

Yet another example of how every old branch of Woolworths has an interesting and unique story to tell – not just about the changing fortunes of its location, but also about the ups, downs and experiments of the Woolworths business as a whole.

Graham filming with the BBC's Chris Jackson in Stockton High Street

Those of you in the North East and Cumbria (or anywhere else with access to Freesat), may be interested in watching BBC1 at 7.30 pm tonight (Monday 6 December)! [UPDATE: The programme is now available to watch on iPlayer.]

The regional Inside Out programme includes an interview with me as part of a feature on the state of the North East’s high streets; coincidentally, the programme also has a report (not involving me) on the transformation of Robbs of Hexham, under the new ownership of Beales.

Hexham's transformed Robbs store (4 Dec 2010)

The high street theme is running across all the regional editions of Inside Out this week – in the BBC South version, for example, Claire Robertson from Wellworths is making an appearance, talking about Dorchester’s success in maintaining a very low number of empty shops. 

The programmes’ timing deliberately coincides with the release of new research into empty shop rates that the BBC commissioned from the Local Data Company, as well as with the impending second anniversary of Woolworths’ demise – hence the BBC asking me if I’d be willing to be involved.

B&M Bargains, on the site of Stockton's old Woolworths (22 Nov 2010)

I had a really enjoyable and interesting day filming with the BBC in Stockton and Hartlepool – happily just before all the current snow and ice kicked in. The reason for filming in Stockton was its dubious honour of having nearly 30% of its town centre shops empty – one of the highest proportions of any of the 500 town centres covered by the LDC survey. My job was to provide some insight into why Stockton has such a high vacancy rate – building on my August blog post on that topic – as well as commenting on the success of those discount retailers, like B&M Bargains in Stockton, that have taken over old Woolies sites across the region.

Stockton High Street (17 Sep 2010)

As you know from my previous comments, I have rather a fondness for Stockton town centre. Its unusually wide High Street is one of the best urban spaces anywhere, and it is lined by some beautiful – if sometimes neglected – buildings.

Castlegate Shopping Centre, Stockton (28 Jun 2010)

Equally, visit the Castlegate Shopping Centre, where we started our filming, and you can also be forgiven for wondering where the LDC got its figures from. Though very much based around a value offer (including Wilkinson, Poundland and Home Bargains, as well as B&M), there are hardly any vacant units and the mall was really busy with shoppers on the Monday morning that we were there.

Wellington Square, Stockton (17 Sep 2009)

Nevertheless, walk the length of the High Street towards the empty Globe Theatre and the number of vacant units does start to add up. In Wellington Square, Stockton’s newer shopping centre, I counted at least 15 (mostly smaller) empty units, despite the presence of strong anchors such as Debenhams, New Look, H&M and (a modernised) M&S. Around the corner, in the High Street itself, one particular stretch includes only one permanent shop in a row of six units that are otherwise either empty or to let. With these kinds of numbers, the LDC findings begin to make sense.

Empty shops in Stockton High Street (22 Nov 2010)

So, why does Stockton have so many empty shops? When the BBC’s Chris Jackson asked me this question while filming in front of some of these vacant units, I suggested that it was down to a combination of factors.

While it’s easy to blame out-of-town retail, it’s certainly true that Stockton town centre has to compete with an unusually large number of out-of-town stores, both at Teesside Shopping Park and Portrack Lane. This doesn’t stop some retailers, such as M&S, having a presence both in-town and out – indeed, even B&M has just opened a Homestore in part of the old Big W at Portrack Lane, obviously seeing this as complementary to its Castlegate shop.

Marks & Spencer in Stockton (16 Nov 2010)

However, other retailers that could conceivably have a Stockton town centre presence, like Next and TK Maxx, already have stores at Teesside Shopping Park instead. Factor in the competition from Middlesbrough’s strong retail centre just four miles away, and it’s easy to frame Stockton as having a town centre that is simply too large for its current needs. Imagine that Stockton’s empty shops could be magicked away, with those that remain compressed into a smaller footprint. Without the distraction of the empty units, what you would see is a pretty strong retail offer for a place of Stockton’s size. Indeed, there are plenty of towns that would love to have both Debenhams and M&S on their high street, as Stockton still does.

Closed-down Rosebys in Stockton (16 Nov 2010)

As I explained to Chris, however, Stockton’s situation is not all down to local factors. There’s little any place can do when quite a number of its empty shops – such as a former Ethel Austin, Leveys, Rosebys, Au Naturale and Internacionale – are the consequence of weak retailers collapsing or struggling at a national level. Unfortunately, such names tend to be disproportionately represented in more secondary or less affluent retail locations rather than in major city centres, exacerbating the problem of empty shops in those places that often most need a retail fillip.

However, work already underway in Stockton provides some optimism for the future. The local council seems to recognise what needs to be done, improving the appearance of empty shops to minimise their blighting effect on the town centre, and supporting the transformation of the derelict Globe Theatre into a venue that draws people into that part of the High Street. All this is helped by the fact that Stockton High Street offers such a unique and impressive setting.

Inside Middleton Grange, Hartlepool (17 Sep 2009)

In contrast, Hartlepool’s town centre, where we filmed later in the day, suffers from having much less richness and character, due to its town centre basically being the Middleton Grange shopping centre. As with other homogeonous town centres such as Washington, this inevitably limits the options for retailers looking to enter Hartlepool, particularly those that would prefer a bustling high street location to an enclosed mall. After all, there must be some reason why Hartlepool’s large Woolworths site remains empty at the same time as many big names (and potential occupants) – such as BHS, H&M, TK Maxx and TJ Hughes – remain absent from the town.

Church Square, Hartlepool (16 Nov 2010)

Though parts of Middleton Grange are bright and busy, it suffers from being largely inward facing, and from having inadequate physical connections with the surrounding area. It is around these edges – notably in the dismal Market Walk area – where Middleton Grange seems to have its largest number of empty units.

The desolate Market Walk area of Hartlepool (16 Nov 2010)

I love the vibrancy of Hartlepool Marina, as well as the pleasing architecture and townscape of Church Square and Church Street (part of Ralph Ward Jackson’s original town centre for West Hartlepool – more of which in an upcoming post). However, getting to these places on foot from the town centre is stymied by a succession of busy roads, despite the distance not being very great. For the same reason, I suspect few of those who visit the Marina, Museum of Hartlepool or HMS Trincomalee make it over to the town centre.

The attractive Hartlepool Marina (17 Sep 2009)

Apart from making Hartlepool less hard to navigate, an important point I made on camera related to the town’s lack of a department store. Go back twenty years, and Hartlepool had Binns (House of Fraser) as well of Uptons, anchoring either end of Middleton Grange.

The outline of the former Binns logo can still be seen (16 Nov 2010)

Today, the Binns site is occupied by Wilkinson, and the old Uptons is a Co-op Home Store – basically one of Anglia Co-op’s Westgate Department Stores, but with only home-related departments and no fashions. If Hartlepool is to prevent the leakage of shoppers to centres such as Middlesbrough and Sunderland, this is a gap that really needs to be filled.

Co-op Home Store, Hartlepool (16 Nov 2010)

Having said all this, I’m not entirely sure how much of the filming is going to be used in the programme tonight – I know that the need to report on the impact of the current cold weather has meant that the retail features have, unfortunately, had to be trimmed. Let’s just hope that Inside Out doesn’t feel a late urge to report on Newcastle United sacking yet another manager earlier this afternoon…

Frontage of original Woolworths store, Stockton-on-Tees (28 June 2010)

Having missed Stockton-on-Tees’ original Woolworths when I first visited the town nearly a year ago, I’ve been keen to go back and capture a photograph of it for the ever-growing collection.

I was finally able to pay a visit a few weeks ago – the same day that I went to Billingham – and felt fairly embarrassed to have missed it the first time, given that it conforms to all the usual architectural conventions of a purpose-built 1920s Woolies.

The invaluable 100thBirthday.co.uk reveals that the store, in Stockton’s High Street, opened on 1 September 1928, before being extended in 1933 and modernised in 1966. Less than six years later, however (on 14 April 1972), the store moved to the new Castlegate shopping centre, where it remained until the closure of the entire Woolworths business in 2008/09. Though still vacant when I stopped by in September, the premises were taken over by B&M Bargains just a few weeks later.

Former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains) in Stockton's Castlegate shopping centre (28 June 2010)

Because it was a straight relocation, the Castlegate store retained the same store number (#336) as the old High Street shop. A review of the Woolworths stores opened either side of Stockton’s – #335 in Elgin, established on 4 August 1928, and #337 in Tipperary, opened in September 1928 – provides a snapshot of the pace and extent of Woolies’ expansion at that time, taking in the Republic of Ireland as well as the UK.

Original Woolworths, Stockton-on-Tees (28 Jun 2010)

An image on the 100thBirthday.co.uk website shows the original Stockton Woolworths in its 1950s heyday, and there’s a closer up photograph, from 1958, at PictureStockton. Interestingly, both old photos show the slightly strange way in which the Woolies shop frontage nibbles a foot or two into the building on the left. I wonder if this was part of the 1933 expansion, perhaps taking over a space that had previously been an alleyway between the two buildings?

Gareth Hill’s earlier comments help to fill in the building’s history since Woolworths vacated it, reporting that “…when Woolworths moved, the then North Eastern Co-operative Society acquired the store to connect to their Wellington Street department store which gave them some high street frontage.”

“The store closed in the early 90s and sadly the impressive Wellington Street building was demolished to make way for the bland Wellington Square shopping development.” The Co-op building that Gareth refers to is, I believe, the impressive edifice shown in these photographs, again at PictureStockton, dating from the late 1990s.

Former Ethel Austin, Stockton-on-Tees (28 Jun 2010)

The fact that the old Woolies property today houses a YMCA furniture shop is perhaps indicative of Stockton High Street’s changing fortunes. When I walked along the length of the street, I noted a higher proportion of vacant units than I’d seen in most other town or city centres, though many of these are the product of chains that have disappeared completely – not just from Stockton.

Hence, as well as the empty Leveys (chain collapsed) next to the original Woolies, examples that I spotted included the ubiquitous empty Ethel Austin (chain collapsed), and three prominent shops in a row that used to house Savers (#35-37; store relocated), Rosebys (#38; chain collapsed) and Radio Rentals (#39; chain closed. Site later occupied by YMCA shop).

Empty shops in Stockton High Street (28 Jun 2010)

Even among those properties that are occupied, some could do with a spruce up. Though its modern Wellington Square entrance is fine, I’m always particularly disappointed by the High Street frontage of Stockton’s Debenhams. With its tatty upper floors and blacked out windows, it’s a world away from the glamour and sheen of the new Debenhams in Newcastle. Instead, it looks more like a store that is waiting to be closed down.

Debenhams, Stockton (17 Sep 2009)

Debenhams is undoubtedly not helped by the poor condition of the striking and iconic Globe Theatre building (photographed on my previous visit), just two doors away. Currently, the empty and derelict property presents a very negative first impression to anyone entering the High Street from its northern end.

Globe Theatre, Stockton High Street (17 Sep 2009)

Hopefully, however, recently approved redevelopment plans will see this lovely building brought back to life, so that it can once again become an asset to the town centre.

Stockton Town Hall (17 Sep 2009)

Despite these concerns, my overall impression of Stockton High Street remains a positive one. Though the centerpiece is undoubtedly the attractive Town Hall, built in the 1700s, the street also retains an unusually large number of impressive and imposing commercial buildings, even if many of them – the original Woolies and Savers premises included – are disfigured by unsympathetic shopfronts and signage.

On the other hand, the town’s Marks & Spencer store has an appealing shopfront and, crucially, signage featuring the chain’s current logo. This suggests that M&S’s presence in Stockton is secure, unlike those three unmodernised M&S stores in Lincolnshire, plus another in Nuneaton, that are currently under threat of closure.

Marks & Spencer, Stockton High Street (28 Jun 2010)

My favourite building, however, has to be the astonishing little property that currently houses part of Nobles Amusements (and was previously Shoefayre), with a pictorial terracotta façade that was apparently originally built for Altham’s grocers in 1908.

Former Altham's grocers with its teracotta façade (28 Jun 2010)

In my view, Stockton town centre’s greatest asset is the combination of these attractive and imposing properties with a street that is undoubtedly one of the most impressive public spaces in any British town. Stockton Council claims that it’s the widest high street in the UK, and the sheer scale of the space certainly creates a wow factor when you step off the bus.

Stockton Town Hall and High Street (28 June 2010)

While undoubedly important in providing modern retail space, a flaw of both the Castlegate and Wellington Square shopping centre developments is that they have, to some extent, turned their backs on Stockton High Street and sucked activity away from it.

Stockton High Street (17 Sep 2010)

In this context, the Council appears to be doing the right things in celebrating its High Street’s unique character, investing in the Shambles Market Hall, and promoting the street as a backdrop for major events.

However, securing investment in the properties themselves – whether through new shopfronts or simply better maintenance of their frontages – will be a key factor in bringing empty units back into use, and in enhancing the High Street’s appeal, to both shoppers and potential tenants, as a unique and attractive retail destination.

Original Factory Shop fascia

The rapidly expanding mini-department store retailer, The Original Factory Shop, opened its seventh North East store, in Morpeth, last week. It adds to the retailer’s existing stores within the region at Stanley, Prudhoe, Ashington, Crook, Spennymoor and Shildon.

As noted previously, The Original Factory Shop has been snapping up quite a few former Woolworths branches across the UK – such as the one I visited in Porthmadog, and, closer to home, in Spennymoor.

Established Original Factory Shop store in Stanley (12 Apr 2010)

The Original Factory Shop, Spennymoor (12 March 2010)

However, while Woolies sites are one option, the retailer has a record of being creative in its choice of new store locations. As I blogged last week, Colwyn Bay is set to get an Original Factory Shop in a former pub (with an opening date of 31 August now announced), while the established store in Prudhoe – predating Woolies’ collapse – occupies a former Kwik Save site.

Existing store in Prudhoe (10 Apr 2010)

Meanwhile, the Morpeth location is, as I guessed it would be, the former M&S Simply Food site in the town’s Market Place. I should flag up that Morpeth was not one of the 25 Simply Food stores that was closed down last year due to “underperformance”, such as the shop in Whitley Bay.

Site of the new Morpeth store (10 Jul 2010)

Instead, the Morpeth site became vacant in November 2009 when M&S moved into a full-size store – with both food and fashions – within the new Sanderson Arcade shopping centre. Marks & Spencer had only occupied the Market Place site since 2006, having acquired it (and 27 other locations) from the supermarket Iceland at the point where Simply Food was expanding aggressively, and Iceland was emerging, under new ownership, from a torrid and lossmaking 2004-05.

New M&S in Morpeth's Sanderson Arcade (4 Dec 2009)

In the cyclical way of retail, Iceland returned to Morpeth in 2009 (in the former Woolies store opposite its original location), made a £110m pre-tax profit in the most recent financial year, and has regrown store numbers to 782 – their highest figure to date. Thus, there’s an element of going back to the future in Morpeth once again having a general retailer and Iceland facing each other across Bridge Street.

Summing up from a retail analysis point of view, the opening of The Original Factory Shop in Morpeth is notable on two fronts. First, for Morpeth, it’s great news in bringing a prime site back into use after a fairly short period of vacancy. With Sanderson Arcade having attracted some very strong names to Morpeth for the first time (including Fat Face, Laura Ashley, Paperchase, Crew Clothing and Waterstone’s), and with few voids elsewhere in the town centre, Morpeth seems to be riding the downturn well.

Second, for The Original Factory Shop, it’s interesting that Morpeth represents a location that is both more upmarket and more competitive than the “forgotten high streets” that it has traditionally targeted. It will be interesting to see whether this apparent shift in ambitions signals a push by The Original Factory Shop into other North East market towns, such as Hexham and Alnwick.

Alternatively, if the retailer’s expansion is focused on its more traditional type of location, there are still plenty of opportunities. After all, just in this region there are as yet no branches of The Original Factory Shop anywhere in Teesside, Wearside or Tyneside, meaning that places like Redcar, Seaham or Whitley Bay could yet be on the retailer’s radar.

Job ad for Wallis in Hexham

Delivering on its promise to bring quality concessions to its recently acquired Robbs of Hexham store, it seems that Beales has already signed up the Arcadia-owned womenswear brand Wallis.

A job ad has gone live today^{[broken link removed]}, advertising the “fantastic opportunity for Sales Advisers and Senior Sales Advisers to join our brand new store in Hexham Beales.” There are no details of when the new Wallis will open, but my expectation is that it will be ready in time for the relaunch of Robbs’ women’s fashion department, scheduled for September 1st.

Wallis logo

Hopefully the first of many such signings, Wallis coming to Robbs is clearly a positive step. Traditionally focused on classicwear for 25–45 year olds within the ABC1C2 bracket, Wallis is among the more upmarket of Arcadia’s brands, and sits well with Beales’ intention to broaden Robbs’ appeal.

Owned by Arcadia since 1999, Wallis has about 300 UK stores, as well as 60 in the Republic of Ireland and another 65 overseas. Of the UK shops, roughly half are concessions, including a growing number in Arcadia’s own Bhs stores, as well as a significant number within high-end department stores.

Wallis store within Bhs in Middlesbrough

Tyneside is already well served by Wallis – there are branches in Debenhams at Eldon Square and MetroCentre, in Fenwick in Newcastle, in Bhs at South Shields, and a standalone shop in Monument Mall – and there are also several stores on Teesside. This will, however, be the retailer’s first store in Northumberland.

Standalone Wallis store at Monument Mall in Newcastle

Having attracted Wallis, it will be interesting to see whether Beales can bring any other Arcadia names to Hexham. Dorothy Perkins has a store in Fore Street already, but Miss Selfridge – already mentioned as a possibility – would help to address Robb’s traditional weakness in young women’s fashion.

Similarly, bringing in a Burton concession would do something to remedy the chronic lack of menswear choices in Hexham town centre. With options presently limited to Robbs itself, Tesco Extra, and a disappointingly small range in Marks & Spencer, the demand is surely there.

Bhs in Newcastle. Photograph by Graham Soult

Its interior may be somewhat dowdy, but I do have a soft spot for Newcastle’s Bhs store, in Northumberland Street.

True, the fashionability of some of the menswear is questionable, with colours and styles that are clearly aimed at an older clientele. However, the retailer’s introduction of trendier sub-brands – such as Trait and Atlantic Bay – aimed at a younger, more fashion conscious market, have gone some way to redress the image of Bhs as an old man’s shop, even if the ranges are rather let down by the less than glamorous instore environment. 

Another reason I like Bhs is that I’ve always found the quality of its clothing to be very good, and, wandering around Newcastle on Friday afternoon, it’s clear that its prices too are competitive against those of H&M, Marks & Spencer or New Look.

However, my Bhs purchase last week was not from the menswear section at all, but from the homewares department. Homeware, and especially lighting, has always been seen as one of Bhs’s big strengths, and I was interested to spot quite a lot of products – including tableware, small appliances and bedding – being marketed under the Maison Essentials sub-brand.

In parallel with Sir Philip Green pursuing his ‘house of brands’ strategy – introducing Arcadia brands into some Bhs stores – it seems quite likely that ‘Bhs’ could end up merely as a label for the overall store environment, rather than for any of the actual fashion or homeware ranges sold within it. When I was visiting Middlesbrough last month, I noticed that the town’s Bhs store in Linthorpe Road has already had the Arcadia makeover, with a smart black fascia and the introduction of Wallis and Dorothy Perkins shop-in-shops.

Revamped Bhs in Middlesbrough

Of course, none of these cosmetic changes matter one jot if the service that the customer receives is poor. Unfortunately, I was less than impressed by the male staff member who served me in Newcastle’s Bhs on Friday (whose name I noted, but will not repeat here). Surely a smile, some eye contact, and a semblence of enthusiasm isn’t too much to ask?

Gregory's bakers in Bishop Auckland (6 Feb 2010)

The recent focus upon all that’s been happening in Newcastle means that I haven’t had as much time as I would like to explore some other topics of interest – there are at least half a dozen on my ‘to do’ list.  

One thing I’ve been meaning to write up – and now finally am – is a report on my visit to Bishop Auckland, in County Durham, a few Saturdays ago. Other than skirting around the edge on my way somewhere else I’d never been to Bishop Auckland before, but I was generally quite impressed by the town centre. It has a nice range of independent shops (like the 150-year-old Gregory’s bakers^{[broken link removed]}, above) and big-name multiples (such as M&S and Topshop), some attractive streets and buildings, and its main shopping thoroughfare – Newgate Street – had a nice buzz about the place on the day that I visited.

Market Place, Bishop Auckland (6 Feb 2010)

On the downside, I was disappointed by the rather gloomy Newgate Shopping Centre, and by the small and sad-looking cluster of market stalls in the Market Place. Rather like in Tamworth, the look and feel of the market was rather disparate and ad hoc; however, where Tamworth’s market suffers from being shoehorned into too small a space, Bishop Auckland’s seemed to be floating in a public square that was much too large for it.

Entrance to Auckland Castle (6 Feb 2010)

Overlooked by the imposing Town Hall and the entrance to Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland’s Market Place is undoubtedly among the North East’s most impressive public spaces. When I visited, much of the area was being dug up as part of improvement works that will include new paving and “extra space for events and market stalls”. Once complete, these enhancements will hopefully allow the Market Place to be used to its full potential.

Given what I’d seen on the Bishop Auckland Town website at bishopauckland.org, I’d also expected more of Fore Bondgate: a narrow and historic street off the Market Place that is full of character, but seems to be suffering from a lot of empty units at the moment. However, Fore Bondgate has scope to be a great location in which to build an interesting cluster of independent shops and cafes, and with the right investment and promotion could really be a distinctive and successful retail destination.

Former Woolworths, Bishop Auckland (6 Feb 2010)

Unsurprisingly, a highlight of the visit was being able to tick another North East Woolworths off the list, meaning that there are now only nine left to get of the 33 that closed down in December 2008 and January 2009. I hadn’t seen a photo of the store prior to visiting Bishop Auckland, but even without the giveaway of the red Woolworths fascia, it is instantly recognisable as a Woolies building, with all the familiar architectural traits. Indeed, of all those former Woolies I’ve seen so far, it’s the most similar to the mysterious is-it-an-old-Woolies-or-not in Byker.

Former Woolworths, Bishop Auckland (6 Feb 2010)

Just a couple of doors up from Woolworths is another property that could very easily have become an empty blight on Newgate Street – the Co-op department store, now run under the Westgate Department Stores brand by Anglia Regional Co-operative Society (ARCS). As I’ve mentioned before, Bishop Auckland’s Co-op department store was one of three North East shops rescued by ARCS when the Co-operative Group decided, in 2005, to exit non-food.

Westgate Department Store, Bishop Auckland (6 Feb 2010). Photograph by Graham Soult

It’s easy to see why ARCS stepped in to save the store, as it really is at the heart of Bishop Auckland town centre, and its only department store. Its street frontage is vast, and it sells all those types of products – such as toys, furniture and electricals – that would otherwise be difficult to find on the local high street. Pleasingly, the store seemed to be doing a decent trade on the Saturday afternoon when I was there – long may it continue.

Peacocks logo

Peacocks has submitted a planning application for new signage at the former Zavvi site in Newcastle’s Northumberland Street, confirming recent rumours that the fashion retailer was being lined up to occupy the 17,000 sq ft store.

Published today, the application (2010/0159/01/ADV) is for the “display of internally illuminated fascia sign, internally illuminated projecting sign and non illuminated banner sign to Northumberland Street elevation and black vinyl graphic to windows on Northumberland Street and Brunswick Place elevation”. An accompanying application – 2010/0160/01/DET – has been submitted for the “installation of new shopfront and replacement of air conditioning units to roof”.

Former Zavvi, Newcastle (27 Sep 2009)

Very few changes to the unit itself are envisaged – the application states that Peacocks will occupy the existing three trading levels (basement, ground and first floor), and will retain all the existing links between the store and Monument Mall. In a previous blog post, back in August, I wrote that “one of Zavvi’s strengths was having entrances/exits on all three shopping levels of Monument Mall, as well as to Northumberland Street, helping shoppers permeate throughout”. The retention of all these routes in and out of the new Peacocks store will undoubtedly provide a footfall boost to Monument Mall’s other retailers, across all of the shopping centre’s three main levels.

Looking beyond Monument Mall, and the obvious fact that a large empty unit will be brought back into use, Peacocks’ arrival can only be good news for Newcastle city centre. Though it may have had a less fashionable image in the past, today’s Peacocks is a highly popular and successful retailer – it now has over 500 UK stores, with plans to open 40 more in 2010-11, and reported like-for-like sales growth of 8% in the eight weeks up to 2 January, a significantly better figure than Next (3.2%) or M&S (1.2%). It’s newer stores – such as North East branches opened in Chester-le-Street, Seaham and Gateshead in the last year or two – are smart and attractive, with bright and interesting frontages that enliven the street scene. Peacocks’ arrival at Monument Mall can undoubtedly be seen as a vote of confidence in Newcastle city centre from a thriving retailer that has not previously had a presence here.

Existing Peacocks store in Gateshead

Above all, we can celebrate the fact that we’re getting a Peacocks instead of another branch of Barclays Bank – an idea that seems even more crazy now that the former Zavvi site’s continued viability as a large, three-storey retail unit has been so clearly demonstrated.

Thanks to TownPlanningNE at SkyscraperCity’s Newcastle City Centre Retail forum for the tip-off regarding the planning application!

The empty Oil & Vinegar store this evening (6 Jan 2010)

After work, I trudged through the snow to the delightful Eldon Square Waitrose this evening, though not before giving the store a call to check that it was opening its normal hours. It was, though quite a few shops en route had signs in their windows announcing that they had shut up earlier than usual (a similar picture to elsewhere in the UK, according to Retail Week), including Waterstone’s at the Monument which was citing “staff shortages” due to the weather. The service in Waitrose was, as always, friendly and efficient, alleviating what might otherwise be the stress of negotiating a busy supermarket.

After my Waitrose food shop, I was sad – but not entirely surprised – to notice that the Oil & Vinegar store next door in St George’s Way appears to have closed down. The shutters were down, and the unit looks to have been stripped of both stock and fixtures. I’m not sure how long it’s been gone, but the store was certainly still open when I walked by before Christmas, and is still listed (for now, at least) on the Oil & Vinegar website (below). [Update, 8 Jan 2010: Not sure if it's my influence, but the Newcastle page has now been removed.]

Page for the Newcastle store on the Oil & Vinegar website

It’s a disappointing end for a store that only opened at the end of 2008, and was featured, almost exactly a year ago, as Retail Week’s ‘Store of the Week’. It was, as John Ryan’s review suggests, a really appealing shop, with a rich and interesting instore environment.

However, the problem signs were probably there from the beginning. Regularly walking past on my way to the bus station, it’s fair to say that I’d never seen more a couple of customers in there at any one time – and often there looked to be no-one in the shop at all. Equally, the recent shrinking of the store – moving forward the back wall to reduce its size by about half – started to ring my alarm bells.

So what went wrong? To some extent, I’d suggest that Oil & Vinegar is the kind of shop where people go in, look at the lovely stuff on offer, and leave without buying anything. Certainly, it’s more of a giftware retailer than a place to buy things for yourself, reflected in the Netherlands-based company’s description of itself as a “culinary gift shop”.

On the other hand, Eldon Square’s previous Oil & Vinegar store – a franchise rather than a company-run shop – always seemed to do well. It lasted from 2003 to 2007, and reportedly closed due to supply chain issues, not because of any trading difficulties. (When it shut, I remember there being a notice in the window that suggested it was not the franchisees’ own decision to close down.)

The key difference between the two incarnations, I would argue, is location. The original Oil & Vinegar had a pretty good spot in Earls Way (where Geoff Steven & Son Opticians is now situated), close to the side entrances of both Marks & Spencer and John Lewis, and therefore with plenty of middle-class shoppers passing to and fro. The store, though small, benefited from being wide and shallow, therefore having a much more prominent frontage on the mall than might be expected, given its size.

In contrast, it’s fair to suggest that St George’s Way – the location of the current store - has struggled a little since it opened in February 2008. Two years on, four of the 16 units remain empty, with Argos and Waitrose (both often busy, though rarely thronged) the only major footfall drivers. (Though John Lewis and Boots both have entrances onto St George’s Way, they lead into the lower ground floor levels of those stores; instead, the entrances on the main shopping level above tend to be much more frequently used.)

Most importantly, I think Oil & Vinegar’s particular location within the mall has been problematic – next door to Waitrose but barely visible from its entrance; adjacent to two empty units; only passed by shoppers if they are going to and from the Eldon Square bus station; and deep and narrow in form (so with a limited frontage), rather than shallow and wide. Instead, the layout of St George’s Way and, particularly, the orientation of its escalators seems to makes the opposite stretch, from Waitrose to Old Eldon Square, flow as a busier and more obvious route.

Looking to the future, the Oil & Vinegar website indicates that there are still opportunities to open franchise stores in the UK ^{[broken link removed]}, stating that “following a country re-structure and development strategy Oil & Vinegar UK are looking to grow the UK & Ireland with 8 [stores] in 2009 and 10 in 2010″. If this is so, perhaps we will yet see Newcastle welcome its third – and hopefully lucky – incarnation of an Oil & Vinegar shop.

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.

Woolworths in Whitley Bay, just prior to closure

Anyone who follows my blog posts will see how frequently I draw from the great resource that is local newspaper websites. With the downturn affecting every high street in one way or another – most obviously with the collapse of Woolworths, and the subsequent arrival of new shops in 600 former Woolies sites - the retail industry has probably never had more coverage in the local media than in 2009.

While some of the articles that I find in the local press are interesting and informative, others are unintentionally comical – most usually for the quotes that they attribute (not always wholly accurately, as I know from experience) to local luminaries, or the drama that they bring to an apparently mundane story.

Last week, for example, writing about the ‘son of Woolies’ chain Alworths, I mentioned the priceless Wiltshire Times article in which the vice president of Chippenham Chamber of Commerce apparently made his thoughts on the town’s proposed Poundland store abundantly – and rather pompously – clear:

“This is a flagship location on the High Street and Poundland would not set the right tone for the town and we already have one similar shop in Borough Parade that caters for the people who would use it.”

Prior to that, one of my favourites, that I mentioned back in July, was the Waltham Forest Guardian’s classic non-story: “Loughton High Road branch of Woolworths not bought by Argos”. On that basis, there are presumably 200 local papers that can run the story “Local Woolies not bought by anybody”…

Whitley Bay seafront

You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this, but the prompt for this particular blog post is a recent article from Newcastle’s Evening Chronicle that makes reference to one of those 200 or so Woolies that is yet to be reoccupied – up here in Whitley Bay, a town on North Tyneside that’s recently had a pretty torrid time, shops-wise. Following on from its shut-down Woolworths, and the closure of the prominent Co-op store in 2008, the early part of 2009 saw Whitley Bay lose two of its other most important shops – M&S Simply Food and the stationer T&G Allan.

However, read the Chronicle’s gushing quote attributed to Bill Midgley, the chairman of Whitley Bay Chamber of Trade, and you could rather be forgiven for thinking that something new and exciting is happening to enhance the town’s shopping experience:

“It will make the area more attractive, confirming the upward trend in retail shopping in the town centre.

“We understand the importance of the town centre being a pleasant place to visit.

“An initiative like this can only help attract more visitors and increase trade for businesses in the town.”

So what is ‘it’ that’s going to bring Tyneside’s shoppers flocking to the coast? (And what, pray, is ‘retail shopping’ as opposed to any other kind of shopping?) Well, if you can contain your excitement…

“The 36 hoardings which cover the boarded-up windows of the Co-op building, at the junction of Whitley Road and Marden Road, will be painted with a special design that reflects the seaside traditions of Whitley Bay.”

Yes, readers – it’s a whole article about the frontage of a vacant, boarded-up shop being painted, and how this will (in the words of someone else quoted in the piece) “make Whitley Bay a more attractive place to visit, and so contribute to the sustainability of the High Street economy”. While it would be churlish to not see the mural as a positive step, it’s clearly nonsense to suggest that shoppers will be attracted to visit Whitley Bay because a particular empty shop unit looks more attractive than it did before.

The F E Maughan store in Whitley Bay

Indeed, it would be unfair on the hardworking retailers that remain to suggest that it’s all gloom and doom in Whitley Bay – look beyond the most visible signs of decline and it’s a place that still has a great deal of charm, and a stunning seaside location that no amount of money can buy. Crucially, there are still a good number of independent shops^{[broken link removed]} doing OK, such as the quirky and useful F E Maughan hardware store, and investment (finally) coming in to revamp the seafront. Meanwhile, the Whitley Bay Playhouse has recently reopened after an £8.5m rebuild, and the appealing Park View Shopping Centre, opened in 2004, still has a decent complement of big-name retailers, including Peacocks, Superdrug, Iceland, Boots and Home Bargains.

The rather silly article in the Chronicle is not terribly helpful in that it emphasises – yet somehow trivialises – the challenges that Whitley Bay is genuinely facing as a retail centre, while saying very little about its tangible positive features. Bring in some new quality retailers to complement those shops and attractions that already exist, and that really will be a local news story worth blogging about.

M&S store

The news that the current boss of Morrisons, Marc Bolland, is to become the new Chief Executive of Marks & Spencer brings to an end months of speculation in the retail industry about who would – and should – succeed Sir Stuart Rose. Though Bolland’s name had been mentioned as a possible candidate, the announcement comes as something of a surprise, with retail commentators suggesting of late that an internal promotion was more likely.

While the focus of news coverage is inevitably on what this appointment will mean for M&S, the question of what it means for Morrisons is equally significant, if not more so. When Bolland arrived at Morrisons in September 2006, the business was a mess, suffering from a severe case of indigestion after swallowing up its much bigger rival Safeway in March 2004. Though Sir Ken Morrison was undoubtedly a superb grocer, his team proved ill-equipped for the scale of the integration task that faced them, with the business posting its first ever loss - of £313m – for the 12 months to the end of January 2006.

Morrisons store at Redcar

Since Bolland arrived just over three years ago, the company has been transformed from something of a laughing stock into a darling of the retail industry and the city. The old garish black and yellow logo has been overhauled, store environments and ranges have been improved, and canny advertising has pushed the distinctive ‘Market Street’ concept as underpinning Morrisons’ reputation for both freshness and value.

In contrast, when Morrisons first took over Safeway, there was some snootiness about the predominantly northern retailer venturing into the south and Scotland, and a sense – not entirely unreasonable at the time – that Morrisons didn’t really understand the very different shopping habits of the Safeway customers that it had inherited.

In a sign of how perceptions of Morrisons have changed since then, it no longer stretches credulity to imagine the recent stars of the retailer’s adverts – such as Alan Hansen, Lulu, Nick Hancock or Richard Hammond – actually shopping at their local Morrisons (more than can be said for the shortlived Sharon Osbourne Asda ads…)

Given the challenges he inherited and overcame at Morrisons, Bolland seems like a good choice for the high-profile role of M&S CEO, where there is still work to be done in buoying food sales and sorting out the most tired outposts of the store estate that have so far missed out on refurbishment.

Morrisons store at Seaburn, Sunderland

In turn, the Morrisons job also offers notable challenges to whoever replaces Bolland. To date, Morrisons has had little or no presence in some areas of the market in which its main competitors – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, even Waitrose – have built up significant strength, such as homewares, online shopping, clothing and convenience stores. Compared to Tesco and Sainsbury’s, for example, Morrisons’ store format is relatively inflexible, with even the shops acquired from Safeway often struggling to offer as satisfying an instore environment – particularly around ‘Market Street’ – as the generally larger, purpose-built Morrisons stores.

None of this has mattered much while Morrisons’ sales have been buoyant, and market share has been growing. However, should the retailer’s growth stutter, Bolland’s successor will have to address whether Morrison’s existing store formats, and clear but relatively narrow focus on being “the food specialist for everyone”, are really the most effective way forward in a highly competitive market.

Hollister's website, including the '1922' device

I can’t claim to know much about Abercrombie & Fitch’s sister brand, Hollister, and if I did, I suspect it’s somewhere that might be outside of both my price and age brackets. To be fair though, Hollister’s presence in the UK is pretty new – the first store, at Brent Cross, opened only last year – with Meadowhall and the Trafford Centre currently its most northerly outposts.

Despite my limited knowledge of the retailer, I was still quite interested to read the BBC’s article today about what it describes as Hollister’s ‘fictitious’ branding. Essentially, the BBC has ‘uncovered’ that there is no historical foundation for the use of the ’1922′ device on Hollister’s logos and labels, and that the whole ‘story’ behind the business – actually founded in 2000 – is made up.

In reality, the BBC’s article is not quite the scoop that it first appears, given that the Wikipedia article about Hollister has openly referred to the business’s “fictional background story” – downloadable in full from the A&F website – since at least January this year. Given that it’s no secret, it would surely have been better for Hollister’s press people to point this out to the BBC themselves, moulding the story into some positive PR for the brand, rather than giving a silly response – “Due to our policies regarding press, we choose not to provide any comment on your questions” – that simply appears to add substance to the BBC’s implied criticism.

Nevertheless, the debate about whether all this matters is still an interesting one. The question, essentially, is this – does anybody really care about the authenticity of Hollister’s history as long as they like the clothes and can relate to the brand’s “harmony of romance, beauty, adventure and today”?

It’s certainly true that retailers have long created brands that evoke the American dream – after all, with their respective ‘Cedarwood State’, ‘Atlantic Bay’ and ‘Blue Harbour’ sub-brands, even Primark, Bhs and M&S are at it.

I do wonder, however, if founding an entire retailer’s brand on a made-up story is maybe an evocation too far.

Your comments, as always, are welcomed…

Millets store

Today’s retail news has arguably been dominated by Marks and Spencer revealing better than expected results, and Blacks Leisure (owner of Millets, as well as its eponymous chain) announcing plans to shut 89 stores that “have not traded profitably for many years” (in which case, you may wonder why the company has persevered with those branches as long as it has – Woolworths’ demise surely demonstrates the potential for ropey stores to bring the profitable ones crashing down with them).

While established names link M&S and Blacks display mixed fortunes in their quest for future success, one of today’s other (less prominent but no less interesting) retail stories relates to a brand new presence on the high street – GIVe, the latest venture from fashion guru George Davies of Next, George at Asda and Per Una fame.

Following months of anticipation, GIVe’s Regent Street flagship has opened today, with 21 other shops – five standalone stores and 16 department store concessions – following tomorrow. Alongside London, the standalone GIVe stores are in all the top shopping centre locations that you would expect – Bluewater, Cribbs Causeway, Kingston-upon-Thames, Liverpool One, Meadowhall – with Glasgow and Harrogate following soon.

Unusually, the concessions are all located within independent department stores, including all 11 Beales sites – a refreshing change from the usual House of Frasers and Debenhams. This decision, reportedly, is linked to Davies’ wish to offer a free minor alterations service within all his GIVe shops, as well as his desire for a less corporate, more boutiquey feel – hence the sense in tying up with department stores that already provide this type of personal, customer-focused service.

Several observations can be made about the store portfolio. Most obvious, from a North East viewpoint, is the absence as yet of any GIVe stores in our region. Perhaps we shouldn’t worry – after all, there’s no GIVe store to date in Manchester, Leeds or Edinburgh either. However, compared to other major regional shopping centres, such as Bluewater and Cribbs Causeway, I do wonder sometimes about MetroCentre’s ability to attract and retain the top names – take for example the oft-cited departure of Gap and its replacement with Peacocks.

Don’t get me wrong - Peacocks is a great shop – but it’s ubiquity means that it’s not really a special shop. For me, a special shop can still be part of a retail chain, but it needs to be one that has few enough stores to make each one a real destination – shops like the John Lewis’s, Fenwicks, Selfridges, Apple Stores and Lego Stores of this world. Other than the Berghaus flagship, it’s difficult to think of stores in MetroCentre that would fit this definition. Is it a function of the existing retail mix? The fact that the 22-year-old MetroCentre, with the exception of the Red Mall extension, looks rather cheap and dated compared to its newer competitors? Or something else? 

Certainly, Apple Store’s important decision to open up in Newcastle’s Eldon Square extension (blogged about here), alongside a growing roster of big-name fashion retailers, may help give Eldon Square the edge as the most likely location for GIVe’s North East debut. Alternatively, Rutherfords in Morpeth (mentioned here) or Robbs in Hexham would be obvious candidates, were GIVe to go down the concessions route.

Another observation about GIVe’s store portfolio is quite what a coup – and potential boost – this is for Beales, whose recent performance has been patchy to say the least. Assuming that GIVe is a success, Beales is sure to reap some benefit in terms of both footfall and trade. If nothing else, it will help to make its sometimes tired-looking stores more of a retail destination again.

GIVe homepage

 Inevitably, a blog post like this would not be complete without me passing comment on GIVe’s online presence. I’m hardly qualified to comment on the women’s fashions themselves, but the good quality photographs are really effective, and I like how the clothes can be browsed by colour as well as garment type. The ‘style with’ tips – suggesting belts or bags to go with your top – also seem like a canny move. If nothing else, Davies’ ability to launch a high street retail chain and fully operational online store on the same day is pretty impressive. Recognising the synergies between bricks and clicks, the site – unlike others I could mention - also gets brownie points for featuring a list of GIVe store locations, complete with opening times, contact details, and the name of the store manager.

Any obvious website downsides? None especially, other than the predominant black and white look making the GIVe site resemble any number of other fashion retailers’ – House of Fraser or the aforementioned Tucci, to name just two. As always, if you’ve surfed the GIVe website – or indeed visited one of the high street stores – feel free to share your own reactions to the GIVe experience.