New Look and Next (formerly Woolworths), Perth (24 Nov 2011). Photograph by Steve Hack

The fashion retailers Next and New Look opened the doors to their new stores in Perth yesterday (24 November), on the site of the town’s former Woolworths store (#197). My friend Steve Hack was there, and took these photographs for Soult’s Retail View an hour or two before the stores’ official openings.

I understand that both Next and New Look have relocated from existing premises in Perth, with the new stores providing a significant increase in space and range. While neither Next nor New Look have been significant takers of ex-Woolies sites across the country, both have used the opportunity to improve their offer in selected locations – previously, for example, I wrote about Next’s move into the former Woolworths in Darlington, replacing two older, smaller stores.

Next (formerly Woolworths), Perth (24 Nov 2011). Photograph by Steve Hack

Though Scotland only makes occasional appearances in this blog – partly due to my fairly sporadic visits – Perth’s Woolworths has some significance as one of the first that I photographed, back in February 2009, just a few weeks after Woolworths’ demise.

Former Woolworths, Perth (23 Feb 2009)

When I stopped off in Perth, Soult’s Retail View was still five months off being launched, and – though it seems remarkable now – I didn’t bother to track down or photograph Aberdeen’s former Woolworths when I’d visited there earlier the same weekend. That would certainly never happen today!

Though Woolworths had occupied its spot at at 111-119 High Street since 26 September 1925, the building’s current appearance dates from its 1966 reskinning. It’s fair to say that when I visited, the building wasn’t looking its best – it had a generally careworn look, made worse by the blank frontage of the old Woolworths shop, and a strangely unsymmetrical appearance due to a Thorntons shoehorned into the side. While the 1966 image at 100thBirthday.co.uk shows that the modern-day frontage was always divided in this way (with a branch of Salisburys, the erstwhile bag retailer, in place of Thorntons), it was clear that successive shopfront and fascia interventions over time had made the join more apparent and incongruous.

It’s therefore a pleasure to see that the property’s latest revamp has markedly improved its appearance. On the ground floor, Thorntons’ move to new premises along the street has allowed the insertion of sleek, modern shopfronts across its whole width that better match the proportions of the floors above. Indeed, the appearance of the first floor has been improved too, with some of the infill panels removed and new glazing inserted.

Part of the reason for the Perth Woolworths site being empty for so long is that there were, until quite recently, plans to demolish it and create a new street that would connect the High Street with the Concert Hall.

For a building that nearly got the chop, you do have to say it’s scrubbed up pretty well.

Former Woolworths in Houghton-le-Spring

Though I can’t claim to make a habit of visiting six old Woolies stores in the same day (including Houghton-le-Spring, above), I have managed to build up a pretty good collection of former Woolworths pics over the last year or so – snapping them as I spot them, and, it must be admitted, making the occasional detour expressly to get another one.

I figured that it was therefore time to bring together all the photos of old Woolies that haven’t featured in Soult’s Retail View already, together with some of the ones that we’ve seen before. As you would expect it’s certainly an interesting mix, with some success stories but also plenty of properties that remain unoccupied nine months after Woolies’ demise.

Woolworths, Whitley Bay (26 Dec 2008)

To kick off, this photo of the store in Whitley Bay was taken on Boxing Day last year, a few days prior to closure. Sadly, I understand that the store is still empty, with little sign of anything happening. On the plus side, nothing seems to have come of the suggestion, from no less than the (now former) Elected Mayor, that the building should be turned into a new library; if Whitley Bay is to have any future as a retail centre, taking the town’s largest and most prominent shop unit out of retail use surely seems like a crazy idea.

Back in March I emailed the northern variety store retailer Boyes to suggest that Whitley Bay would be a perfect location for one of its shops. Whitley Bay, I argued, needed “a store like yours that sells a wide range of products at reasonable prices” – in my view, it’s this type of useful, everyday retailer that is most likely to get shoppers popping back into the town centre on a regular basis. Anyone who’s ever visited a Boyes store will appreciate that it’s the epitome of this kind of shop – truly a treasure trove of handy stuff such as homewares, toys, stationery, toiletries and clothing.

To Boyes’ great credit, I promptly got a personal email back from no less a figure than the company’s chairman, Andrew Boyes, confirming that the retailer was “interested in expansion into the [Tyne and Wear] area” and was “looking at opportunities”. So, though nothing has happened yet, the door for Boyes to pick up some old Woolies seemingly remains ajar.

Still in December last year, being in Chesterfield for my cousin’s wedding presented me with an opportunity to tick off another old Woolies that had closed down just three days earlier, in the town’s Vicar Lane Shopping Centre. Despite being a good-looking and well-located unit, the Vicar Lane store guide indicates that this store too remains empty almost ten months on.

Former Woolworths, Chesterfield (30 Dec 2008)

Moving north of the border, another vacant unit is the store in Perth, captured not long after closure in February. As far as I can gather, however, this store also remains unoccupied.

Former Woolworths, Perth (23 Feb 2009)

Some good news now, and the old Woolworths in Hexham, in Northumberland – one of the very first tranche of 51 Woolies stores to be acquired by Iceland, back in January. This shot was taken in August, a couple of weeks before the store opened.

Former Woolworths, Hexham (8 Aug 2009)

Iceland acquired another Northumberland store, in Morpeth, at the same time. This photo was also taken in August, with the supermarket already trading. To Iceland’s credit, it has done a good job in both Hexham and Morpeth of sprucing up two properties that were looking in need of some TLC while in Woolworths’ care.

Former Woolworths, Morpeth (15 Aug 2009)

I’ve already written, in some depth, about my recent visit to Durham. As I noted then, the new Tesco Metro in the former Market Place Woolworths seems to be nicely mopping up those city centre shoppers left adrift by last year’s departure of Waitrose.

Former Woolworths, Durham (11 Sep 2009)

There’s no need to repeat the photos that you’ve already seen of former Woolworths in Redcar, Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Hartlepool and Gateshead – all taken on 17 September – or the shot I used last week of the empty MetroCentre branch.

So let’s end, for the moment, with this shot of the recently opened Home Bargains in Tamworth, Staffordshire.

Former Woolworths, Tamworth (19 Sep 2009)

Tamworth and I go back a long way – it’s the place where I went to school, and is somewhere I still visit from time to time. So, I was pleased to see that Home Bargains had done such a good job of turning the slightly tired Woolworths premises in George Street into a really bright and modern store. Indeed, Home Bargains’ comprehensive refit of the unit, including a smart new shopfront, has successfully avoided the problem of the building still feeling like an old Woolworths (cf. Redcar or Middlesbrough).

It was also the first time I’d seen a tweaked Home Bargains fascia – in burgundy and grey, instead of the more garish red and bright blue – but it does work well in conveying a slightly more quality image for the retailer, as well as being more in keeping with the overall look of the street.

That’s all for now – but you can look forward to part 2 in due course which will feature a selection of Welsh former Woolworths stores – Holyhead, Porthmadog, Prestatyn, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay and Llandudno – as well as a few more local ones in Byker, Gosforth, Newcastle and Consett.

Time for a lie down, I think.