Photo update: Gateshead Peacocks prepares for reopening

Peacocks, Gateshead (20 Jun 2012)

Following yesterday’s news that EWM Group is to reopen the previously closed-down Peacocks store in Gateshead, I took an early-evening trip into the town centre to see what was happening on site.

Posters in the windows confirm that the store will reopen tomorrow (Friday 22 June), staff were busying around inside, and the store looked almost fully restocked and ready for opening. Given that the store was still in its post-closure state when I passed by on Sunday – with its empty fixtures and fittings, but nothing else – Peacocks has done a good job in bringing it back to life so quickly. 

Peacocks, Gateshead (20 Jun 2012)

After four months away, it will be interesting to see what differences, if any, Edinburgh Woollen Mill’s ownership has made to the store’s layout, range, positioning and messaging. Certainly, the relatively low-key window posters convey a suitably appreciative message with their “welcome back” headline and “thanks for all your support” tagline, no doubt striking a chord with those Gateshead shoppers who have missed the store during its absence.

Peacocks, Gateshead (20 Jun 2012)

Occupying part of Gateshead’s former Co-op department store building in Jackson Street, Peacocks is one of the town centre’s largest retail units as well as one of the most architecturally handsome. At a challenging time for our high streets, it’s great to see it reoccupied not only by a national retail name, but by one that many Gateshead shoppers never wanted to lose in the first place.

Let’s hope that EWM Group’s faith in the town is justified, and that the resurrected Gateshead Peacocks can go from strength to strength, benefiting from the halo effect of the adjacent Trinity Square development when that opens in a year’s time.