La Senza closing down in Newcastle (2 Jan 2012)

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

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

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

Northumberland Street

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

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

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

BHS site, Northumberland Street (1 Jan 2012)

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

Site of Primark extension, Newcastle (1 Jan 2012)

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

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

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

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

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

La Senza closing down in Newcastle (2 Jan 2012)

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

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

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

Blacks, Newcastle (8 Aug 2011)

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

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

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

HMV Newcastle (1 Jan 2012)

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

Monument Mall

Wallis closing down, Newcastle (1 Jan 2012)

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

Evans closing down, Newcastle (1 Jan 2011)

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

Monument Mall, Newcastle (26 Oct 2011)

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

Peacocks, Northumberland Street (25 Jun 2010)

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

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

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

Eldon Square

Northumberland Street entrance to Eldon Square (17 Jun 2010)

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

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

New Next, Newcastle (10 May 2011)

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

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

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

Summary

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

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

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 to me like a wasted opportunity given the evident interest among local shoppers – after all, for the best part of a year, searches relating to Newcastle’s new BHS have been one of the biggest drivers of traffic to Soult’s Retail View.

Now, however, signage announcing BHS’s forthcoming arrival in Northumberland Street has finally appeared, though the ‘opens 2012′ message leaves the exact timing rather vague. The banner is also looking rather worse for wear, given that it can only have been in place for a couple of weeks at most.

Site of new Newcastle BHS (29 Nov 2011)

Though the building’s frontage was fully wrapped up when I went past today, the shot above – from a month ago – shows the windows of the ex-Next store already removed ahead of the property’s radical refronting. I’m told that the scaffolding is due to come down in March, which would suggest a store opening sometime in the spring.

Newcastle's Primark extension underway (29 Nov 2011)

With work also progressing well on Primark’s nearby extension into the old BHS – and, I understand, at least one other major Northumberland Street unit being quietly marketed, pending relocation elsewhere in the city centre – 2012 already promises plenty of interest for Newcastle’s retail watchers.

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 yet) new-concept BHS stores, reviewed by Retail Week’s John Ryan shortly after its June opening, and described by him as “without doubt the best shop in Swindon.” Given the store’s similarity to the new BHS shops that will be opening soon in Hartlepool and Newcastle, I was keen to take a look for myself.

Render of Newcastle's new BHS (prior to latest changes). Image by Dalziel & Pow

As you may recall from my previous blogs, BHS is taking over the prominent former Woolworths unit in Hartlepool’s Middleton Grange Shopping Centre, though the opening has been put back from this autumn to early next year as a result of the unit’s redevelopment taking “longer than expected.”

Meanwhile, in Newcastle, BHS’s planning application to revamp the old Next store was ‘granted conditionally’ last month. The core design is unchanged, though the main logo (now slightly smaller) and building surround (now York stone instead of aluminium) have been tweaked in response to council officers’ criticism of the original proposals.

At this stage there’s no official opening date, but Arcadia’s PR person tells me that an opening early next year is now more likely, rather than the autumn of this year as had been originally planned. Given the scale of building work involved, that’s not terribly surprising, particularly as any new store would ideally want to open well before Christmas rather than in the midst of festive trading.

Former BHS, Swindon (4 Jan 2010). Photograph by Brian Robert Marshall

While the upcoming BHS stores in Hartlepool and Newcastle involve a comprehensive revamp of existing buildings – including, in both cases, a new frontage – Swindon’s is a complete new build, constructed on the site of the previous rather tired BHS store (above). Many older BHS shops, such as the now-closed Newcastle store, feel sprawling and overspaced, and it’s telling that the redevelopment has provided room for a more compact, two-storey BHS (but still with a selling area of 27,000 sq ft) as well as several other new arrivals – Topshop/Topman, USC, and a funky and eyecatching River Island.

New River Island, Swindon (11 Sep 2011)

On the outside, the BHS store’s double-height glazing, bold signage and stone surround all give a real flavour of what we can expect to see on Newcastle’s Northumberland Street. Inside, the joy of the new shop is that it still feels roomy, as well as much brighter and fresher than the BHS stores of old.

New BHS, Swindon (11 Sep 2011)

Crucially, the infusion of natural light and more compact footprint ensure that the store has none of the dark and dreary corners that characterise BHS’s older estate. For example, rather than being hidden away at the back of the store, the BHS Café is now a core part of it, its location at the front of the first floor offering great views over the busy street.

Similarly, the lighting department – always a BHS strength, yet not always showcased to best advantage – sits in the middle of the first floor, providing an immediate wow factor as you step off the escalator. Indeed, throughout the store, it’s remarkable quite how much the modern setting enhances the visual appeal of BHS’s own-label product.

Where the first new-concept store in Uxbridge featured several Arcadia concessions – as introduced previously in locations such as Middlesbrough – Swindon’s is what John Ryan terms a “monobrand BHS store.” Given the existing strong presence of Arcadia’s other brands in Newcastle, I’d expect the Northumberland Street store to have a similar focus on BHS’s own ranges, though its four-floor configuration will create new and interesting opportunities for display and navigation.

Rear of BHS Reading (19 Aug 2011)

The problem, of course, is that shiny new BHS stores reinforce quite how tired many of the older ones are – and with a 183-strong estate, updating all of them fully to the new format will be both costly and time consuming. Reading, for example, has had the new logo applied to its existing street frontages; it’s a slightly clunky juxtaposition, however, and almost makes one long for the storefronts to be given a Swindon- or Newcastle-style full-on makeover.

Front of BHS Reading (19 Aug 2011)

As I’ve observed previously, some BHS stores seem to have had little or no investment in the last twenty years. In Exeter last week, for example, I spotted an unmodernised BHS still featuring the old ‘ribbon’ logo that was replaced in 1995. As if to emphasise the point, the store also featured the signature logo (1995-2010) over one of the entrance doors, and the new capitalised logo (2010-) on its window posters. In a city that has a new Debenhams, a decent House of Fraser, and John Lewis on the way, this really isn’t good enough.

BHS Exeter (6 Sep 2011)

Assuming the new BHS format is a success – and it is said, by the chain’s MD, to be “making a difference” – I suspect that we will see further stores relocating to more suitable premises, as has happened in Newcastle, potentially freeing up larger-footprint sites for other expanding retailers. BHS owner Sir Philip Green offloaded ten stores to Primark at the start of last year, at the same time as opening others, and there is persistent speculation that Primark might acquire more.

Meanwhile, just as BHS has taken advantage of Woolworths’ demise to move into Hartlepool for the first time, I’d be surprised if some of the 51 sites left vacant by TJ Hughes’ collapse don’t end up in BHS’s hands. In Sunderland, for example, the TJ Hughes site in High Street West is more comparable in size to the Swindon BHS than the current small store opposite, while few people would complain if BHS wished to work its magic on the unremittingly ugly TJ Hughes store frontage.

TJ Hughes, Sunderland, prior to closure (7 Sep 2009)

Whatever the exact permutations, I suspect that the next few years will see the BHS estate evolving into something that comprises slightly fewer but much better stores. This is likely to be good for those locations that gain the new investment, good for shoppers, and good for the future of one of Britain’s most long-established yet historically undervalued retail brands.

Thank you to Brian Robert Marshall for the shot of the former BHS in Swindon, which is © Copyright Brian Robert Marshall, and licensed for re-use under this Creative Commons Licence.

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 in Northumberland Street, adverts on the local radio, and even a wraparound on this morning’s edition of the Metro free paper.

The new store opens its doors at 10am tomorrow (Wednesday 24 August), but I was allowed in for a sneak preview this morning to see what shoppers can expect from the North East’s first Clas Ohlson shop.

Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

Externally, as I’ve noted before, the narrow street frontage that provides lift and escalator access to the basement store makes it harder than usual to draw people in. However, Clas Ohlson has made the best use of the limited space available by creating an eyecatching portal in its corporate blue. Next to the more subdued shopfront of its neighbour H&M, and against the backdrop of a generally dreary building, the bright new frontage is hard to miss.

Display window, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

Once inside, display windows have been slotted in on either side of the entrance lobby. Though not very deep, they are an effective way of ensuring that customers get a taste of Clas Ohlson’s product range even before they descend to the store proper, and help to counter the lack of any display frontage onto the street.

Escalator, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

The escalator and lift that whisk customers down to the shopfloor are the only features that remain from the old Collectables store, and the extent of the transformation becomes clear as shoppers emerge downstairs. Essentially, the new store is unrecognisable from the one that it replaced.

Descending the escalator, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

The layout and appearance of the store will be broadly familiar to anyone who’s visited one of Clas Ohlson’s other shops, such as those in Leeds or Kingston-upon-Thames. Shoppers are greeted by a display table featuring key offers, set against a backdrop of navigational signage and a diagrammatical plan of the store.

Store plan, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

A wall featuring the covers of previous Clas Ohlson catalogues is also a nice touch, and a visually bold way of celebrating the retailer’s long heritage – something that has been a key message within the Newcastle store’s marketing campaign. The launch of the latest catalogue, incidentally, has been brought forward a day to coincide with the opening of the Newcastle store.

Catalogues wall, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

The bold and fun use of graphics extends throughout the shop. Blown-up images of Clas Ohlson products are used both as a visual aid, to help customers navigate the store, and as a more decorative device to greet customers – and to remind them what Clas Ohlson is all about – as they exit the lift.

Lift area, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

With the cash desks located to the left of the entrance area, the natural route into the store is to the right, beginning with the ‘Home’ department before moving on through ‘Electrical’, ‘Hardware’, ‘Multimedia’ and finally ‘Leisure’.

Kitchen products, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

Lighting products, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

Rather like fellow Swedish retailer Ikea, Clas Ohlson likes to guide customers on a particular journey through the store, though frequent cut-throughs – more obvious than those in Ikea – make it easy to break away from the defined route.

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

As in other Clas Ohlson stores, the distinctive feel of the store design – vaguely industrial, yet sleek and modern – creates a simple backdrop that allows the products to really stand out. The retailer’s Scandinavian origins are evident in the elegant presentation throughout, as is its quirkiness and sense of humour. Inventive, fun and colourful ways of displaying product help to make even the most unglamorous items catch the eye.

Nails, screws and fixings, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

Stationery, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

Headphones, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

Some parts of the store also feature display innovations that are unique to the Newcastle store. The extensive light bulb section, for example, allows shoppers to see the size, colour and brightness of the bulbs on offer, while shelves suspended from the ceiling provide an effective platform for showing off colourful products such as radios.

Light bulbs, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

Radios, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

As you may have spotted in the shots above, each small section of the Clas Ohlson store has a unique number ID, rather like in the Ikea warehouse. Computer terminals throughout the store allow customers to search the store’s 10,000-strong product range by keyword or item number, and to then print off a list showing the exact location of all those products instore.

Search terminal, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

Once Clas Ohlson’s promised transactional website launches in early 2012, I suspect that the terminals will form part of the multichannel shopping experience, for example in allowing customers to browse instore and to then order products for home delivery.

Checkouts, Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (23 Aug 2011)

The checkouts and customer service desk, finally, occupy the area at the side of the lift and escalator – a logical use of an awkward-shaped area, and convenient for customers being able to exit the store again.

So, overall, it’s hard not to be impressed by what Clas Ohlson has done with the space, turning it into a store that feels large, bright, modern and fun – and that’s packed, of course, with useful stuff, much of it usually found out of town rather than on the high street.

With the pre-opening marketing blitz nearly done, and the final preparations being made to the store ahead of tomorrow’s opening, all that now remains is for Newcastle shoppers to take the new arrival to their hearts. As the only Clas Ohlson store to open in the UK this year, and with short-term expansion plans scaled back, the chain’s bosses will no doubt be keeping a close eye on its performance.

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 marketing push going on to build local awareness of the Clas Ohlson brand.

Hanging signage at new Clas Ohlson store, Newcastle (8 Aug 2011)

Out and about on Monday, I spotted at least two billboards (in Gateshead) and posters at various Metro stations, including Jarrow, below. Under the tagline “Prepare to have a new favourite shop”, the posters emphasise Clas Ohlson’s range of “practical products” as well as celebrating the retailer’s Scandinavian heritage.

Clas Ohlson poster on Metro (8 Aug 2011)

As a relatively new entrant to the UK market – Newcastle is its twelfth store – Clas Ohlson’s need to raise awareness and understanding of its brand mirrors the position of the US electronics giant, Best Buy, which currently has 11 UK sites.

When I’ve mentioned Clas Ohlson’s arrival to people I know here in the North East, most have never heard of the chain; however, with the nearest store currently in Leeds, that’s hardly surprising.

While the hoardings around the site have been prominently plugging the store’s imminent opening for the last couple of months, there’s clearly a job to do in telling Newcastle shoppers about what Clas Ohlson is – especially as the store’s lower-ground-floor location (previously occupied by Collectables) will make it more challenging than usual to attract unknowing people in off the street.

Best Buy recently began a nationwide TV campaign on the back of launching its transactional UK website late last year, and this activity has potential to drive multichannel traffic, encouraging visits to the online store, big-box locations or both.

Clas Ohlson website (10 Aug 2011)

Clas Ohlson, similarly, has been building up its physical store presence ahead of launching its online shop, which, according to its website, is set to go live early next year. Being able to reach customers anywhere in the UK will be a critical stage in Clas Ohlson’s penetration of the British market, and, like with Best Buy, will make it worthwhile marketing the brand at a national as well as a local level. The hope will be that traffic to the physical and online stores reinforces one another, as well as potentially paving the way for further high-street store openings through 2012 and 2013.

For now, Newcastle is set to be Clas Ohlson’s only UK store opening of 2011, but the launch of the online store in 2012 should ensure that shoppers elsewhere – be it Bristol, Southampton or Glasgow – are more clued up in advance should a Clas Ohlson eventually set up shop on their high street.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Northumberland Street

Cotswold, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (14 Mar 2011)

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

Grainger Town

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

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

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

Eldon Square

Eldon Square extension (16 Feb 2010)

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

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

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

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 former Next building.

Back in March, a notice posted at the old, closed-down BHS stated that the relocated store would be opening “in the autumn”, giving a fairly short 5-6 month window for the Next site to be redeveloped, once vacated in May. On this basis, I’d assumed that BHS would focus its attention on stripping out and rebuilding the store interior, and that the building’s frontage would see little change beyond a new shopfront and signage.

Next, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (now closed) (14 Mar 2011)

In fact, BHS’s plans envisage an entirely new front elevation, replacing the existing dressed stone façade (above) with one comprising full-height glazing and powder-coated aluminium cladding. I’m told by Arcadia Group, however, that the store is still set to open in the “latter part of this year.”

The drawings also reveal that the BHS shopfloor will span four levels – one more than Next occupied – including menswear in the basement, womenswear on the ground floor, lingerie on the first floor, and the BHS Café on the second floor, while the third floor will be used for storage. Homeware and childrenswear are also expected to feature, though their locations within the store are not clear.

Just like the first new-generation BHS store that was unveiled in Uxbridge a year ago, the Newcastle shop is the work of top London-based design consultancy Dalziel & Pow. Last year, Retail Week described Dalziel & Pow as “the low-profile leader of the UK retail design industry”, responsible for “new formats that set the pace on the high street in the UK.” Coincidentally, the company was also behind the design of Next’s new store in Eldon Square.

The boldness of the proposed design will surely divide opinion, and even I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it will be a shame to lose the existing frontage, given that it’s really quite handsome, and – as I noted last year – is the last remnant of the building that used to occupy the full extent of the site currently occupied by the ex-BHS, ex-Next and Primark (below).

Old postcard of ex-BHS prior to rebuilding, Northumberland Street, Newcastle

On the other hand, Northumberland Street’s lack of a coherent architectural style makes it the only location in Newcastle city centre where ‘glass box’ shops really work. Indeed, there is a long history of older properties in the street being given shiny new frontages, such as the present HMV store (a new skin on the old Callers building), and, only last year, the transformation of the Currys/PC World and Cotswold Outdoor property.

Cotswold, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (14 Mar 2011)

Like those redevelopments before it, BHS’s investment will be a powerful – and very visible – indicator of confidence in the future of Newcastle’s premier shopping street.

Former Next, Northumberland Street (6 Jun 2011)

Whichever argument eventually wins me over, the building certainly loses some of its visual appeal now that the shop windows are empty and the Next signage removed (above).

As I’ve remarked several times before, shopfronts and fascias can hide a multitude of sins beneath, and the removal of Next’s signs has revealed the remains of what appears to be two separate fascias. A photograph on the Newcastle Libraries Flickr stream shows the property in 1975 – some years before Next’s arrival – housing a store called Penberthys, but it’s entirely possible that the space accommodated two separate shops at some point in the past.

Former BHS, Newcastle (6 Jun 2011)

Meanwhile, work seems to be progressing at the ex-BHS site a couple of doors away (above), which is set to be occupied by an extended Primark store. No planning application has been submitted yet, however, so I assume that current works are focusing on stripping out the old BHS interior.

Former BHS, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (14 Mar 2011)

In due course, it will be fascinating to see what Primark proposes for the site, given that the frontages of the ex-BHS and current Primark stores (above) will need, somehow, to be unified.

One thing’s for sure – as one of Northumberland Street’s ugliest buildings, there probably isn’t a property in the street that’s more in need of a refronting. Here’s hoping that Dalziel & Pow – or someone else – will be drafted in to work some magic with glass and aluminium.

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 – reveal the opening date, and provide Newcastle shoppers with some background about Clas Ohlson’s 93-year history of “solving everyday practical problems.”

The site as Collectables (14 Mar 2011)

The store’s key product ranges – including home, multimedia, electrical, leisure and hardware – are also highlighted, giving passing shoppers a taste of what they can expect when the new store opens its doors.

Clas Ohlson, Newcastle (6 Jun 2011)

The shop’s fitout work is being carried out by the Midlands-based property services company DRC, whose head office is, coincidentally, located close to my old hometown of Tamworth. I had the pleasure of chatting to DRC’s Louise Bolton yesterday, who explained that the company has worked with Clas Ohlson before, completing the shopfits of the mall-based Merry Hill store and the three-storey former Zavvi unit at Liverpool’s Clayton Square.

Clas Ohlson, Merry Hill (20 Feb 2011). Photograph by Martin Jarvis

The Newcastle store’s basement location makes it one of the more challenging projects to manage, though the retention of the existing public lift and escalator – confirmed by Louise – makes things a little easier. Louise told me that all material has to be brought in and out of the site using the rear goods lift – and with the existing shopfloor being stripped down to a shell and rebuilt from scratch, that’s quite a lot of material to shift.

Nevertheless, Louise assured me that work on site – which began on 4 May, just a couple of weeks after Collectables’ closure – is all “on time and on programme”, with handover to Clas Ohlson scheduled for four to five weeks before the store’s opening date. Louise explained that a few DRC staff will remain on site until the store opens its doors, in order to deal with any adjustments to lighting or fixtures that might be required.

Though DRC will no doubt be in contention to work on future Clas Ohlson fitouts, Newcastle remains, for the moment, the only UK store scheduled to open during 2011. It will be the chain’s twelfth, and most northerly, British store since it entered the UK market in November 2008, and the first one to open since Cardiff, Doncaster and Norwich launched in quick succession in December last year.

Clas Ohlson catalogue

As I’ve noted before, Clas Ohlson’s preference for publishing total sales figures rather than like-for-likes makes it hard to unpack quite how its UK stores are performing. The latest figures (for April 2011) show that the UK stores turned over SEK 16m that month, compared to SEK 11m a year earlier – up 49% in SEK, or a healthier 62% in GBP.

Clas Ohlson from top of Briggate, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

However, April 2010′s figures were based on just five stores (plus a couple of days’ trading from Leeds and Liverpool), whereas April 2011′s are based on 11. This suggests that while store numbers have more than doubled over the period, sales haven’t grown at quite the same rate.

In short, it seems like Clas Ohlson’s decision to slow its UK expansion is a wise one, given that there’s still some work to do in raising awareness of the Clas Ohlson brand and offer in those locations where it’s already represented. Come August, it will certainly be fascinating to see what the people of Newcastle make of this new and quirky retail experience on their doorstep.

Northumberland Street, Newcastle (14 Mar 2011)

I took advantage of today’s gorgeous weather, and the fact that I was in town anyway, to capture some shots of Newcastle’s Northumberland Street before the quite significant changes to its retail tenants get underway next month.

I’m always conscious of taking relatively few photos of Northumberland Street, largely due to a combination of obstructions – lots of people, obviously, but also the pedestrianised street’s tendency to be cluttered up with street furniture, market stalls, delivery vehicles and people digging it up. However, given that at least two current retailers on the street will have moved on by the end of next month, it seemed a timely opportunity to head down there with my camera.

Rereading my piece last week about Clas Ohlson coming to Newcastle, I was aware that, in all the excitement, I’d barely reflected at all upon Collectables’ departure to make way for the Swedish retailer.

Collectables in Northumberland Street, Newcastle (14 Mar 2011)

The property housing the store has quite an interesting history – it was Littlewoods for many years, before being subdivided into H&M, Collectables and WHSmith in 1999, all of which have traded there ever since.

Collectables is something of a North East success story, growing from a single barrow at MetroCentre in 1986 to today’s chain of 12 stores from Castleford to Alnwick selling a wide range of glass, china, handbags, jewellery and kitchenware. However, even before Clas Ohlson’s announcement last week – which, I understand, precipitated Collectables’ own announcement later the same day – there were clues that something was afoot with the Newcastle store.

Collectables newspaper ad, 16 February 2011

A month ago, the store was closed for several days ahead of a £1.1m ‘Bad Weather Clearance Sale’, while stock was transfered in from other branches. This did make me wonder about Collectables’ long-term plans for the site.

Visiting the store today, the clearance basically seems to have evolved into a ‘Closing Down’ sale, with posters confirming the shop’s permanent closure due to the ‘end of lease’, but making reference to its planned relocation to an as-yet-unconfirmed “out-of-town-location”.

The shop was packed when I visited today, with the perennially popular instore restaurant doing a roaring trade. I doubt that Clas Ohlson plans to retain it, but there’s no doubt that the restaurant currently does a great job of bringing people into and through the store.

Echoing the information on Collectables’ website, a staff member confirmed to me that the store is set to close by April 19th, giving Clas Ohlson at least three months to undertake its transformation.

I’m curious to see how Clas Ohlson deals with the narrow street frontage and the need to entice people down the escalator into the basement store. You can achieve a lot with some creativity, colour and bold signage, and all those ingredients will be important here.

Cotswold, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (14 Mar 2011)

A little further along the street, one store that has already had to deal with a narrow street frontage is the recently opened Cotswold Outdoor, which occupies the first and second floors – formerly the Hustler Pool Club and Leo’s Restaurant – above the combined Currys and PC World. Though I blogged about the store during its development last summer, I was aware of not having made any comment since it opened back in October.

The store’s entrance and signage certainly makes bold use of the corporate red, while a mock rockface makes a striking impression upon entry. Once up the escalator, the amount of space over the two sales floors is surprising, immediately making Cotswold the flagship outdoor store in Newcastle. When I last visited, I was particularly impressed by the store’s superb range of walking and travel guides, an area in which many outdoor stores disappoint. Overall, the impression that Cotswold’s Newcastle store gives is of a quality retailer that is an authority in its field. I hope it does well, and I’ll certainly check out the store again in advance of my next walking holiday.

Bank, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (14 Mar 2011)

Another new arrival last October that I hadn’t yet captured in its finished state is Bank, the JD-owned young fashion chain, which I previously photographed in July. The clean, modern shopfront and elegant signage is undoubtedly a vast improvement on the Priceless Shoes store that it replaced.

Next, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (14 Mar 2011)

Further along, another store set to join Collectables in leaving the street next month is Newcastle’s current Next, when it moves into the new, 55,000 sq ft premises in Eldon Square that I last wrote about a fortnight ago. This will give BHS the best part of six months to transform the site ahead of the planned opening of its new store in October.

Former BHS, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (14 Mar 2011)

Meanwhile, the old BHS – which closed its doors last month – had all its logos removed not long after closure and looks to be awaiting its incorporation into the existing Primark store next door. A notice in the former BHS window thanks shoppers for their “custom over the years”, and confirms that “we will open again in Newcastle in the autumn and look forward to welcoming you to our new store.”

Notice at former Newcastle BHS (14 Mar 2011)

Again, it will be interesting to see the extent of any changes to the building’s external appearance as Primark merges BHS’s lower-ground and ground floors with its own existing ground and first floors. Primark’s first floor window was a recent insertion, punched into the blank frontage when it took over the premises from C&A in 2000. Though the symmetry works with Primark’s existing entrance and signage, it will start to look odd when one retailer occupies the entire building.

I hadn’t realised that when Primark acquired its 50,000 sq ft Newcastle site 11 years ago, it was, at the time, the retailer’s largest store. It’s a sign of Primark’s incredible success over the last decade that this store is now considered relatively compact, and will almost double in size once the incorporation of the old BHS site is complete.

Overall, it’s certainly proving a busy time for movements on Northumberland Street, despite research by property consultants Cushman & Wakefield last September suggesting that it was still the seventh most expensive retail thoroughfare in the UK in terms of annual rent per square foot. In the current economic and consumer spending climate, it’s got to be a pretty good vote of confidence to have new tenants lined up for the Collectables, Next and BHS units even before those stores have closed.

Clas Ohlson, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

I’m not sure if my persistent badgering has had any effect, but it’s finally happening – Clas Ohlson is coming to Newcastle!

The news was announced in a press release this morning, revealing that the store will be on the city’s prime Northumberland Street, will comprise retail space of 1,889 sqm (20,333 sq ft), and will open in August this year. This will make the shop almost identical in size to Clas Ohlson’s inaugural UK store, opened in Croydon in November 2008.

Northumberland Street, Newcastle (27 Sep 2009)

With large footprint stores at a premium on Northumberland Street, perhaps the most interesting piece of information is the one thing not included in the press release – the new store’s actual location within the street. I just spoke to Bo Heyman, Clas Ohlson’s Director of Establishment, who told me that the store will be located next to H&M, in the lower ground floor unit currently occupied by Collectables.

Window display at Clas Ohlson, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

Founded in Sweden in 1918, Clas Ohlson’s eclectic product range – including hardware, electricals, multimedia, and home and leisure products – makes it something like a hybrid of Maplin, Robert Dyas, Ikea and Wilkinson, and potentially an effective footfall driver.

Clas Ohlson, Merry Hill (20 Feb 2011). Photograph by Martin Jarvis

Having entered the UK market more than two years ago, the chain has been steadily expanding, opening stores in Croydon, Manchester, Watford, Kingston upon Thames (a former Woolies site), Reading, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Cardiff, Doncaster and Norwich. Newcastle will be the twelfth UK store, and the most northerly to date.

With Northumberland Street having gained Bank and Peacocks last year, and with a new BHS and enlarged Primark on the way, it’s shaping up to be quite an exciting time for the street after several years of fairly limited movement.

UPDATE, 10 March: Today’s Evening Chronicle reports that Collectables is to maintain a Newcastle presence, with plans to “relocate to out of the city centre”. According to the article, the chain hopes to “announce the exact whereabouts of their new store within weeks.”

Old-style BHS logo, Carlisle (14 Dec 2010)

Back in September 2009, Soult’s Retail View readers seemed to enjoy my exposé of an old-style WHSmith logo at the rear of the branch in Redcar – well over a decade after that logo was supposedly retired.

In November last year, the early 1980s ‘Woolworth’ logo that I spotted in Burton upon Trent also attracted some interest. So, it seems there’s still quite a bit of mileage in hunting out the shop signs that time – and the retailers who own them – forgot!

This time, BHS is the focus of attention – a company that has had a fairly bewildering range of name and logo tweaks over the last quarter of a century. Just as Marks & Spencer was widely referred to as M&S long before it started using that brand itself, the business previously known as British Home Stores only began labelling itself ’BhS’ (with the ‘h’ in lowercase) in 1986.

Although the ‘ribbon’ logo introduced at that time was replaced in 1995, Carlisle’s store – which I recently photographed, above – is one of a few unmodernised stores to still use it on its frontage.

BHS in Newcastle (7 Mar 2010)

The Newcastle store, which is about to close down, features the more recent ‘signature’ logo on a greeny blue background, and with the business name now written as ‘Bhs’ (only the ‘B’ capitalised).

This fascia was was used from 1995 until the mid-2000s, when new and refitted stores – such as those in Middlesbrough and Leicester – started to feature the signature logo on a new black background, coinciding with the introduction of other Arcadia brands instore.

BHS, Middlesbrough (24 Feb 2010)

BHS, Leicester (24 Aug 2010)

Since last year, however, the signature logo has been superseded by a new visual identity – still featuring white text on a dark background, but with the business restyled as ‘BHS’, all in uppercase lettering. This new look is yet to be introduced to many stores, but has already been rolled out across the retailer’s website, POS displays, instore signage and carrier bags.

New BHS logo from website (19 Jan 2011)

The new logo is certainly bold and modern, and seems like a deliberate break from the past – signalling that the brand-new BHS stores have quite a different feel from their predecessors. I do wonder, however, if it’s lost some of the personality of the old BHS logo, given that so many other retailers – Barratts or Warehouse, for example – use a very similar, understated uppercase typeface.

Still, it won’t be too long until we get to see the new logo and store design in the flesh at BHS’s relocated Newcastle store. On current form, Carlisle, meanwhile, may have to wait until the next logo revamp in 2025…

Closing down sale at BHS Newcastle (14 Jan 2011)

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

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

1930s postcard of BHS, Northumberland Street, Newcastle

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

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

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

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

Site of new Next, Newcastle (14 Jan 2011)

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

Former Woolworths in Shields Road. Photo from Newcastle City Council, P&T Image Archive

Since I first wrote about back it in January, we’re still yet to establish whether the A&S Discount Store building in Byker’s Shields Road (below) was ever an old Woolies.

It’s not for want of trying, though – with 16 comments and rising, my initial blog about the property has attracted more reaction than any other to date.

An old Woolies? Maybe, maybe not

However, thanks to everyone’s comments and a bit of digging around of my own, we can piece together a fair bit about the building in Shields Road that definitely was a former Woolworths – the present Decorflair property at number 63, next to the old Beavan’s department store. (Incidentally, someone who knows better than I do told me off last week for mispronouncing Beavan’s – apparently its name was pronounced as ‘Be-vans’, not as ‘Bee-vans’. Sorry!)

Previous accounts from Mike and Peter had indicated that the Woolies store was certainly around on that site in about 1963, and was still there in the early 1980s. Now, the simultaneous unearthing of an old photo (above) by both Peter and George Tullin, shows the store in what was presumably its 1950s or 60s heyday. Here’s a cropped version of the image, showing the Woolworths store closer up, with its gold signage and carmine fascia clearly discernable – even in black and white:

Closer up view of former Woolworths in Shields Road. Photo from Newcastle City Council, P&T Image Archive

Peter also flagged up another shot of the store – this time in colour, and taken from the opposite direction – that is probably from a few years later.

Fifty years or so on, it’s remarkable how similar the building looked then to how it does now – even down to the blocked-off first-floor windows. As is the case with most old Woolies, however, the historic shopfront and fascia are long gone, replaced with something much more ordinary:

Former Woolworths (now Decorflair), Shields Road, Byker

Previously I wrote about how an old copy of the Woolies staff magazine, The New Bond, had alerted me to the presence of an old Woolworths site in Benwell, another Newcastle suburb. I’m pleased to report that The New Bond once again proved a useful source here, with an issue that I recently acquired shedding just a little more light onto Woolworths’ presence in Byker.

Cover of The New Bond, April 1941

Published in April 1941, this particular 122-page issue of The New Bond is rather moving. Badged as a ‘Forces Souvenir Issue’, it features news, letters and photographs from those staff members engaged in the British forces or civilian defence. The final page includes a list of those promoted, commissioned, missing or killed in action, as well as a lovely, surpringly cheerful letter from Pte Terence Hannan, sent from a German POW camp, with the name of his former store – South Shields, 104 – underneath.

Terence Hannan's letter (click to enlarge)

The reference to Byker, however, is on page 92, where the caption beneath a photograph of AC2 (Aircraftman Second Class) S. Corson, from the RAF, shows that he was previously engaged at ‘Byker, 276′.

AC2 S. Corson from Byker 276

As I explained before, each Woolies had a unique store number, usually allocated sequentially from the earliest (1, in Liverpool) to the newest (e.g. 1256 for Byker’s Newcastle Shopping Park store, only opened in 2004). However, prior to spotting this reference in The New Bond, I hadn’t known the store number of the old Byker branch.

Helpfully, the store numbering system means that even if you don’t know the opening date of a particular store, knowing its store number allows you to make a very good estimate, simply by finding out when the stores either side of it opened. By referring to the useful (but incomplete) store list at 100thBirthday.co.uk, we can establish that store #274, in Rochdale, opened on 23 July 1927, and store #280, in North Finchley, on 17 September 1927.

This suggests that the Byker store opened in August or September 1927 – once again raising the possibility that the  Decorflair building (which, admittedly, is hard to date due to the lack of architectural features) may not have been Woolies’ original site in Byker.

After all, the 1920s and 30s was when the distinctive Woolies architectural style was prevalent in the chain’s newly built stores. Take a look, for example, at the old London Road Woolworths in Brighton - store #288 – which opened on 29 October 1927 (long since demolished, sadly, and replaced by a building that now houses Aldi). It may just be coincidence, but the property’s architectural similarity to Byker’s A&S Discount Store building is uncanny.

Is this an old Woolies? The jury's still out

So, we have an opening date – but what about when the store closed? Well, there’s progress on that front too.

Visiting Newcastle’s excellent Local Studies Library a few months ago, I was searching through old retail-related cuttings for something else entirely, but spotted an article – from the Evening Chronicle on 30 April 1985 – about the closure announcement of the Byker Woolworths.

How the Chronicle broke the news

Under the heading ‘Another Woolies to close’ (the ‘another’ referring, presumably, to the flagship Northumberland Street store (#27) which had closed down in, I believe, 1984), the article read as follows:

Another Tyneside Woolworth store has been sold and starts its closing down sale tomorrow. The store in Shields Road, Byker, Newcastle, will finally close on June 1, with the loss of 22 jobs.

This is another blow to Shields Road as a shopping centre. Mr Brian Blackburn, who has been managing the store for 14 months and with Woolworth for 12 years, said: “It is a very sad day.”

The premises have been sold to J. T. Clough whose registered office is in Blyth, but it is not yet known what the site will operate as. Of the 22 jobs to go, eight are full time and 14 are part time.

Mr Blackburn, 31, said: “The company will be making arrangements to try to find alternative employment for the permanent staff in other branches.”

Woolworth had given the store a short extension to its life in the hope overheads could be reduced and store profits increased.

The last big store closure to hit Shields Road was in last July when the J. T. Parrish department store closed. However, it was leased to rival company Michael Parrish Ltd., who started trading in September.

So there we have it – Byker’s Woolies seemingly opened in 1927, and closed on 1 June 1985 – though the unanswered question of whether it occupied the same site for all that time looks like it will run and run…

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

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

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

How it looked six weeks ago (25 Jun 2010)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wooly Minded, Clayton Street, Newcastle (24 Jul 2010)

Passing through Newcastle city centre yesterday afternoon, I was able to see what was happening with several incoming stores that I’ve blogged about previously.

In Clayton Street, Wooly Minded has now been trading for a week or two, and indeed features the palette of flying sheep, lime green and black that I was earlier promised.

I have to confess that I really dislike the sign’s use of Comic Sans, a font that is widely derided and overused – often in situations where something with a little more gravitas would work better. (Erin Valois, for example, recently described Comic Sans as “generally reserved for older ladies sending out chain emails about kittens or preteens flirting on MSN Messenger circa 2002″.)

Window display, Wooly Minded, Newcastle (24 Jul 2010)

Still, the overall effect is undeniably eyecatching, and where Wooly Minded’s existing shops in North and South Shields are hampered by quite long, thin shopwindows, the Newcastle store’s full height glazing has allowed for a bolder, fresher treatment. Crucially, while both the Shields shops feature densely packed window displays (including posters and signs stuck to the inside of the glass), the relative simplicity of the Clayton Street window treatment ensures that passing shoppers get a clear view into the shop.

Card Factory, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (24 Jul 2010)

Another new store with bold signage is the recently opened Card Factory on Northumberland Street, whose blue and yellow fascia can never be termed discreet. The end result looks OK, however, with much of the shopfront and fascia kept as white, and is certainly an improvement on the tired Foot Locker frontage that it has replaced. The shop is apparently Card Factory’s 500th store, and certainly seemed busy when I passed by.

How it looked before (17 Jun 2010)

Despite its stone frontage, the property itself is arguably one of the ugliest in Northumberland Street – strangely ageless and devoid of character with its assymetrical facade and drab blank windows to the upper floors. If Card Factory’s bright shopfront stops people looking any higher up, it’s perhaps not such a bad thing in this particular instance.

Upcoming Bank store, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (24 Jul 2010)

The final stop on this occasion is just a couple of doors further down Northumberland Street, where the JD-owned young fashion chain Bank – previously mentioned here – is now clearly announcing its arrival in the former Priceless Shoes unit. Offering what it describes as “the latest fashion for women and men from your favourite designer brands such as Paul’s Boutique, Lipsy, Superdry and Henleys”, I’m not quite clear how many of Bank’s brands simply duplicate names that are in the city centre already – Superdry, for example, has a prominent store of its own in St Andrew’s Way, while Lipsy and Paul’s Boutique are both available in Fenwick’s.

Typical Bank store. Image courtesy of Bank

Still, with the nearest Bank stores currently in Middlesbrough and Stockton, it’s positive to see a new name coming to a prime site in Newcastle city centre. Perhaps more importantly, images on the retailer’s own website suggest that Bank stores have a modern, open feel that wouldn’t be out of place in the Eldon Square extension. If the new Northumberland Street store looks anything like this, it should bring a little glamour to a location that, as Priceless Shoes, has had all the retail pizzazz of a jumble sale.

Upcoming PC World and Currys store in Northumberland Street, Newcastle (17 Jun 2010)

I was curious to read Retail Week’s recent article about the electricals retailer DSGi trialling a small-size dual fascia Currys and PC World store at Bluewater, following its successful introduction of two-in-one megastores in retail park locations such as Leeds, Fulham, Bristol, Hedge End and Merry Hill.

Though not mentioned in the article, anyone walking along Northumberland Street in recent weeks will have noticed that Newcastle city centre is getting a combined high street Currys and PC World too, replacing what was previously Currys.digital and, before that, Dixons. According to the signs on site, the new store is set to open on 12 August, following quite significant renovations to the property.

Northumberland Street scene, Newcastle (17 June 2010)

I understand, incidentally, that the first floor of the Currys building – until recently the Hustler Pool Club and Leo’s Restaurant – is to become a branch of Cotswold Outdoor, while Hustler’s and Leo’s will be opening up in new premises elsewhere in the city centre.

At the same time, DSGi is apparently not the only large footprint retailer looking at more compact sites in urban centres. The DIY market leader B&Q is reportedly set to “open small-format city centre stores in the UK after the success of similar pilot stores run by parent Kingfisher overseas.”

B&Q store. Photograph by David Wright

When it says ‘small’, it’s important to recognise that these will still be good sized stores – though more compact than B&Q’s present smallest sites, 35,000 to 40,000 sq ft is still double the floorspace of a typical Clas Ohlson store, one of the retailers with which a homeware-focused city centre B&Q might be expected to compete.

It does open up interesting possibilities for the types of unit that B&Q might bring back into use, particularly if the retailer is prepared to go for premises that occupy more than one level – former department stores, for example. However, with the first new format stores not set to open for 18 months or so, it will still be a little while before we get to see exactly what B&Q’s venture into town and city centres will look like.

Typical Card Factory fascia

Newcastle City Council has recently received a planning application for the “display of internally illuminated fascia sign and non illuminated projecting sign to front elevation” for 55-57 Northumberland Street. The applicant, I understand, is the rapidly expanding greetings card chain Card Factory.

As far as I can tell, no retailer name is mentioned anywhere in the planning application, but a little bit of detective work soon reveals the ‘Applicant Address’ as Card Factory’s head office in Wakefield, and the ‘Applicant Name’ as the firm’s Property Administrator.

Only established in 1997, Card Factory has been one of the quiet retail successes of recent years. Following a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, the business has expanded to 490 stores nationwide, making it the second largest UK greetings card retailer after Clinton Cards.

Clinton Cards store in South Shields (18 Jun 2010)

Of the two, however, Card Factory has enjoyed the recent momentum, delivering year-on-year sales growth of 27% in 2009, and a £29.4m pre-tax profit on a turnover of nearly £168m. Clinton, in contrast, had to turn over £345m – double that of Card Factory – in order to generate a similar pre-tax profit (£24.1m). Just this April, Card Factory’s founders, Dean and Janet Hoyle, enjoyed a “multi-million pound windfall” after selling a £350m majority stake in the company to the London-based private equity firm Charterhouse.

Card Factory's South Shields store (18 Jun 2010)

Card Factory has already become an established presence in the North East, with Tyneside alone having branches in Gateshead, Blaydon, Wallsend, Jarrow, North Shields, South Shields and Whitley Bay. However, Northumberland Street will be the retailer’s first foray into Newcastle, and is certainly a bold choice for a chain that tends to be associated with the value end of the greetings card market.

Site of new Card Factory store in Newcastle (17 Jun 2010)

55-57 Northumberland Street, let’s not forget, is very much at the heart of what has traditionally been Newcastle’s prime retail pitch, sat between the Fenwick department store and the main Eldon Way entrance to Eldon Square. Previously Foot Locker, the unit became vacant as part of the reshuffle of Newcastle city centre retailers that has followed the opening of Eldon Square South. Republic, you’ll recall, kicked things off by moving from its previous store in Douglas Way to a new flagship in St Andrew’s Way, paving the way for Foot Locker to move into the more fashion-focused pitch freed up by Republic.

Northumberland Street entrance to Eldon Square (17 Jun 2010)

I like Card Factory – the prices are reasonable, and the quality and range excellent – and I certainly prefer its lively, unpretentious stores over the strangely soulless experience that I tend to find at Clinton’s. However, news of Card Factory’s planned Newcastle store does reinforce what seems to be Northumberland Street’s shift towards the value end of retail, coming hot on the heels of the new Peacocks store.

Peacocks, Monument Mall, Newcastle (11 Jun 2010)

To some extent, of course, this is merely a reflection of those retailers that are currently doing well and looking to expand. On the other hand, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to imagine top-end names opening up on Northumberland Street. When toy retailer Hamleys had its ill-fated foray into the provinces in the 1980s, it seemed natural for its Newcastle store to open up in Northumberland Street (in the premises now occupied by HMV). If it were doing the same today, you’d have to imagine it heading straight for St Andrew’s Way, and a berth among Apple Store, Guess, Hollister and All Saints.

The tide could yet, of course, shift back in Northumberland Street’s favour. The JD-owned branded fashion chain Bank is set to open in the nearby Priceless Shoes unit, and will surely be an improvement on the increasingly unappealing and tacky-looking store that’s there now. 

Next, Northumberland Street, Newcastle (5 Feb 2010)

The big test, however, will be on what occupies the unit that Next will leave empty when it moves into its new Eldon Square flagship. Received wisdom seems to be that the site represents the perfect opportunity for Zara to make a return to Northumberland Street, after its short-lived stint – in a unit that was too small for it – a few years ago.

In my view, Zara’s the kind of midmarket but well regarded retailer that Northumberland Street needs to attract if its to hang on to its status as Newcastle’s premier shopping thoroughfare. With Next due to move out early in 2011, it may not be very long before we know the answer.

No missing the fact that Peacocks is coming... (20 May 2010)

The opening of St Andrew’s Way back in February – and Hollister, belatedly, in April – may have been this year’s biggest retail events in Newcastle, but, three months on, there continue to be interesting and significant developments in fashion retail elsewhere in the city centre.

At Monument Mall, work is now well underway on the new Peacocks store, occupying the three-storey, 17,000 sq ft unit that formerly housed Zavvi, the Virgin Megastore, and before that Woolworths.

You can’t see anything happening inside from the ground floor of the Mall, or from Northumberland Street, as both frontages are boarded off. Rather, one of the most noticable things is that the Mall smells different to usual – of paint and wood, rather than Millies Cookies!

Northumberland Street frontage of new Peacocks store (20 May 2010)

However, go up or down a level and you can see right into the shop – shiny white tiled floors, escalators and stairs are all visible, with work looking well progressed ahead of the reported opening on 1 July. I’d have taken some pictures closer up, but there will still men in there working at 5:30, and I didn’t fancy being accosted for taking illicit snaps…

New Peacocks store from basement level of Monument Mall (20 May 2010)

Across town on the corner of Newgate Street and Blackett Street, work has also started on redeveloping the recently vacated Arcadia space into a new Next store, which – at 55,000 sq ft – will be one of the fashion retailer’s largest stores in Britain when it opens early in 2011.

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

...and the same view back in January

Again, there’s not a great deal to see yet, but the Topman and Topshop signs have been taken down, the site screened off, and some mysterious holes punched into the brick façade facing Newgate Street.

As far as I’m aware, there’s no further news on which retailer might replace Next’s current shop on Northumberland Street, but there’s still plenty of time for details to emerge. One sure thing is that we’re likely to be seeing Newcastle’s fashion retailers playing musical shops for some time yet, as new units are carved out and existing ones freed up.

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?

Former Zavvi, Newcastle (27 Sep 2009)

Well, that’s a surprise! I’ve only just discovered that I’ve been photographing and blogging about a former Woolworths store – here, and more recently here – without even realising it. 

While I was vaguely aware that there had been a Woolies in Newcastle’s Northumberland Street many years ago, I hadn’t realised that it occupied the soon-to-be-Peacocks former Zavvi building. 

Woolworths, Northumberland Street, c.1970?. Photograph from Newcastle Libraries

The presence of the Fenwick department store in both shots above is the giveaway – and Newcastle Libraries’ superb Flickr stream has quite a few more images that show the Woolies store in all its glory. Interestingly, one great shot shows the Woolworths store still open in 1983; presumably someone out there can shed light on when it closed, and whether the property was anything else prior to becoming the Virgin Megastore. [UPDATE, 29 October 2010: I've sourced some old newspaper articles referring to Next's takeover of the site in 1985, and which infer that Woolies shut in 1984. More of that in a future post, I hope.]

The fate of the Northumberland Street shop seems to have mirrored that of many other large, city centre Woolworths stores across the UK. Between the 1950s and 1970s, Woolworths developed many flagship shops – department stores, essentially – in major city centres, occupying several floors and a prominent location. At the same time, there was often a smaller store at the other end of town – just like the branch in Newcastle’s Clayton Street. 

However, the 1980s saw Woolies downsizing or closing many of these flagship stores, at the same time as withdrawing from certain product areas (such as adult clothing and groceries) to focus upon the ranges for which it latterly became best known – toys, confectionery, homewares, entertainment and children’s clothing. Thus, cities such as Leeds and Newcastle lost their main Woolworths store at this time, but kept the smaller one. 

Similarly, when I lived in Sheffield in the 1990s, I remember hearing about the Woolworths store in Haymarket that had closed down some years before, having been rebuilt in the 1950s following war damage. The unit later became Dunnes Stores (which closed down and then reopened in the same spot a few years later), and currently houses a large branch of Wilkinson. 

Meanwhile, Sheffield’s second branch, on The Moor, lasted right through to Woolies’ ultimate demise at the end of 2008. In a neat twist, bringing us back to where this blog post started, that site too is reportedly going to become a Peacocks.

With thanks to Newcastle Libraries for the use of the historic photograph of Woolworths in Northumberland Street.