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.

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.

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!

Upcoming Waitrose at Welcome Break's Hopwood Park Services (24 Jan 2010). Photograph by Mark Leaver

Many thanks to Mark Leaver for sending me an MMS with this photo of work underway on the new Waitrose store at Hopwood Park Services on the M42. Supposedly due to open in February (though there looks a fair bit of work to do yet), the store will be the sixth to open under a franchise agreement between Waitrose and the motorway service area operator Welcome Break.

As a fan of Waitrose, I do worry a little about the retailer stretching its brand too thinly – after all, there has to be some point at which Waitrose becomes so ubiquitous it’s no longer a special experience to visit one of its stores.

However, I was quite impressed when I sampled one of the first Welcome Break stores at South Mimms^{[broken link removed]} back in May, and appreciated the convenience of being able to pick up some essential items having flown back into the UK late on a Saturday evening.

Looking forward, I suspect that the success of the venture will depend upon Waitrose’s motorway stores replicating as far as possible the excellent customer experience and stock availability offered by its regular shops – something that, in my experience of visiting its equivalent Moto stores, M&S Simply Food does not always manage to achieve.

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.

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.

Newcastle's Zavvi store in happier times. Photograph by Mankind 2k

When I remarked a couple of weeks ago that Newcastle’s “Monument Mall would surely welcome the arrival of a strong anchor store” following the closure of Zavvi, a potential new branch of Barclays Bank was not exactly what I had envisaged.

Today’s Journal reports that “some members of Newcastle’s commercial property community have expressed dismay at the potential move”, and no wonder – the idea of the prime Northumberland Street site being lost to retail use is a crazy one.

Over the years, The Journal’s commercial property section has repeatedly cited the problem of big-name retailers who want to move to Newcastle not being able to find units of the size and quality that they require. This, indeed, has also been mentioned as the logic behind Eldon Square’s current redevelopment, where two-storey, modern units are being created. Against this backdrop, it certainly seems bizarre to take a 17,000 sq ft, three-storey unit out of the city’s retail equation.

It’s hard too to see how filling one of Monument Mall’s most prominent units with a bank will do very much to invigorate the rest of the mall. 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. It would seem unlikely, however, that Barclays would wish to keep so many entrances, or indeed even make public use of all three floors.

Even Northumberland Street – though in reasonably fine fettle, anchored as it is by the stalwarts of Fenwick, M&S, Bhs, Primark, Next and H&M – would surely benefit from something different to the banks, phone shops and coffee shops that have mushroomed along its length in recent years.

A separate issue is what would happen to Barclays’ existing city centre branches assuming, as The Journal notes, that any planning application to change the old Zavvi’s use from A1 (retailing) to A2 (financial services) was successful (something that is not guaranteed). While other banks have scaled back their city centre presence in recent years, Barclays still has four branches in relatively close proximity to each other – at the top end of Northumberland Street; on the corner of Percy Street and Gallowgate; in Grainger Street, next to Central Arcade; and the rebranded Woolwich opposite the old Odeon in Pilgrim Street (I don’t think I’ve missed any others). It seems highly unlikely that all of these would be retained in addition to the proposed new branch, but none are really in top-notch retail locations – perhaps part of the rationale for Barclays seeking a more central site.

If this were the case, Barclays’ move would mirror that of HSBC a few years ago, where several Newcastle city centre branches were closed and their operations consolidated into a new Grey Street flagship. The difference, though, is that HSBC’s move didn’t result in the loss of an existing retail site, given that the premises it moved into had previously housed branches of Pizza Hut and TSB.

As always, your thoughts and reactions are welcome. Most obviously, what retail name would you like to see moving into Newcastle’s old Zavvi store? Or, perhaps, are you excited at the prospect of a new shiny branch of Barclays?

Update: That’s neat! Impressed that Google has not only picked up this blog post within an hour of me publishing it, but that it shows up higher in the search results for ‘zavvi barclays newcastle’ than the Journal article that prompted it :)

Thank you to Mankind 2k for the use of his photograph of Newcastle’s old Zavvi store, which is © Copyright Mankind 2k and licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.