There was plenty going on in Newcastle in 1932.
At a time when the spectre of economic depression and unemployment stalked Britain and the North East in particular, it was a year which saw Newcastle United lift the FA Cup for the third time - while the city centre continued to evolve as a retail hotbed.
On Newgate Street, the Co-op opened a huge flagship department store, and on Northumberland Street - which was becoming Tyneside's most popular destination for shoppers - three new stores began trading, Marks & Spencer, C&A, and British Home Stores.
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We see the latter store, with queues forming outside, opening for its first day of business 90 years ago on September 2, 1932. The first British Home Stores shop had been opened in Brixton, London, four years earlier by a group of American entrepreneurs keen to emulate the soar-away success of Woolworth.
The ethos of the brand encouraged people to ‘buy British’, and the very name ‘British Home Stores’ - later abbreviated to 'BHS' - appealed to consumers’ patriotism. The company in its early days even claimed 96% of what it sold was manufactured or produced in Britain.
With the first stores popping up around London and the South, the Newcastle store was among those that opened in the North and the midlands during the 1930s. The new branch occupied one wing of a building newly built by architects North & Robin for C&A. In the decades that followed, the Northumberland Street store would become a firm favourite with Geordie shoppers who flocked there to buy its household goods, clothing, and (initially) groceries - as well as enjoying a cuppa in the cafe.
Half a century later, in October, 1983, the Chronicle was reporting how Newcastle United’s 1950s Cup legend Jackie Milburn was on hand to officially re-open the revamped store. Hundreds looked on as 59-year-old Wor Jackie arrived red-faced for the 9am opening, having run all the way from Gosforth to Northumberland Street after his car got caught up in a traffic jam!
In 2011, the Newcastle BHS was on the move, shifting operations to a new premises on Northumberland Street vacated by Next, which was itself moving into Eldon Square. And by 2016, the high street retail landscape was a very different place with old favourites, such as Woolworth, Littlewoods and C&A having already shut up shop for good.
Sadly, BHS was ready to join them that year, as the famous chain collapsed and 144 stores across the country closed, including North East branches in Newcastle, the Metrocentre, Durham, South Shields, Sunderland, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, accounting for around 500 job losses in our region.
Ninety years after British Home Stores opened for business on Northumberland Street, a modern retail giant, clothing firm Primark, trades at the same location.
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