Soult's Retail View

La Senza closing down in Newcastle (2 Jan 2012)

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

As we enter 2012, the retail picture … Continue Reading

New BHS Newcastle site (28 Dec 2011)

Work on the new BHS store in Newcastle has been underway for more than six months, though the lack of any mention of BHS on site meant that anyone passing by would have been none the wiser about what exactly was happening. This always seemed … Continue Reading

Trinity Square, Gateshead (18 Dec 2011)

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

Construction of the £150m development only … Continue Reading

Newcastle’s long-awaited Urban Outfitters store opens its doors tomorrow (Friday 9 December), but I was lucky enough to be given a preview tour yesterday. Believe me, it’s worth the wait – Urban Outfitters is surely Newcastle’s most exciting and creative retail interior.

Scroll through the images to get a flavour of the journey through the store, as you enter from the street and work your way through to the second floor fitting rooms via two grand staircases. All the photographs that I took yesterday (7 December) are featured here.

An accompanying blog – describing the stunning store interior in detail – is in preparation, … Continue Reading

Upcoming Urban Outfitters, Newcastle (29 Nov 2011)

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

While we’ve … Continue Reading

Window display, Poundstretcher Wombwell (3 Nov 2011)

A few days ago, I blogged about how Poundstretcher in Newcastle needs to sell itself better in order to capitalise on the extra footfall generated by the opening of Discount UK opposite. … Continue Reading

Discount UK (former Woolworths), Newcastle (4 Nov 2011)

Poundworld-owned variety retailer Discount UK has opened its Newcastle store today, with stilt walkers and free sweets on hand to welcome shoppers to the former Woolworths site.

I dropped by shortly after the store opened at 10am, and it seemed to have got off to a … Continue Reading

The North Face, Newcastle (29 Oct 2011)

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

The shop, at 9-15 Blackett Street, seems to have opened with little fanfare. As yet, its details don’t show up on … Continue Reading

Discount UK, Newcastle (29 Oct 2011)

Discount UK, the Poundworld-owned variety store retailer, is to open the doors of its new Newcastle store at 10am on Friday (4 November).

As I reported a month ago, contractors on site first revealed that the Clayton Street premises had been taken over by Poundworld, nearly three years after … Continue Reading

Former Woolworths, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

It seems we might finally have an answer to all the work that’s been going on recently at the old Newcastle Woolworths at 73-79 Clayton Street (store #340) – though not really thanks to any clever detective work on my part.

Last month, work was taking place on site that seemed to involve air being noisily pumped out from large tubes on the ground floor (above); then, … Continue Reading

New BHS, Swindon (11 Sep 2011)

While visiting Swindon’s out-of-town John Lewis at Home, I also managed to spent some time exploring the town centre.

The open-air Parade shopping centre has the distinction of hosting one of the UK’s few (as … Continue Reading

Outdoor zone, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

If the people of Newcastle were still unaware of Clas Ohlson this morning they shouldn’t be by the end of the day. Adding to the billboards and posters that I mentioned a fortnight ago, the Swedish ”modern hardware” retailer’s latest marketing push has included leafletters … Continue Reading

Waitrose Jesmond... in Grimsby (23 Aug 2011)

Map blooper stories are always good value, whether it’s because they’ve erased Wales or located Shrewsbury in the middle of a river. Now, potential John Lewis Partners in Lincolnshire may be disappointed to find that Waitrose is not, in fact, about to … Continue Reading

Newcastle's TJ Hughes (8 Aug 2011)

There was good news for Newcastle city centre earlier this week, with the announcement that the TJ Hughes store in Grainger Street had been sold, preventing the loss of 76 jobs. However, the … Continue Reading

Clas Ohlson billboard, Gateshead (8 Aug 2011)

Everything seems to be gearing up nicely for the opening of Newcastle’s Clas Ohlson store, just two weeks today on Wednesday 24 August.

The Northumberland Street store’s hanging signage (below) has now been in place for a week or two, and there seems to be a big … Continue Reading

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

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

While the news of Primark’s … Continue Reading

Habitat, Bristol (22 Feb 2011)

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

While HMV has a stay of execution for now, other retailers in that section of the alphabet – Habitat, … Continue Reading

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

Plans for Northumberland Street’s new BHS store have been submitted to Newcastle City Council, and propose a more radical than expected transformation of the … Continue Reading

Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (6 Jun 2011)

Clas Ohlson, the Swedish hardware retailer, has confirmed that its new Newcastle store in Northumberland Street will open on Wednesday 24 August.

Recently erected hoardings around the 20,333 sq ft unit – formerly occupied by Collectables – … Continue Reading

Former Woolworths, Felling (17 Jun 2010)

This is my 200th blog post since starting Soult’s Retail View back in July 2009, so it seems only appropriate for it to bring together two of my favourite topics – Woolworths and Tyneside!

Regular readers will recall that I’ve written about all … Continue Reading