Our 1970s view of West Street, Gateshead, looking North towards the Tyne Bridge and Newcastle city centre will surely evoke a strong feeling of nostalgia in anyone who remembers it?
Fifty years later, the location is much-transformed and there's no trace of the famous department store we see standing on the right of our photograph. Shephards of Gateshead was a firm favourite for decades and countless thousands of shoppers entered its doors enticed by the retail delights.
The store even had its own catchy TV advert jingle which helped attract people from all over Tyneside: “Shephards of Gateshead, the biggest and the best store/ Shephards of Gateshead have what you’re looking for/ There’s so much to see, and the car park is free/ Come shopping at Shephards for the whole family.”
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Originally founded in 1908 by Emerson Shephard, the store first traded on Swinburne Street, then relocated to a new site on West Street. At first it sold mainly shoes and boots, but became so successful that by 1924 there were 10 Shephards branches across the region, selling a wide range of household goods.
Ten years later, the Gateshead store was given a makeover and extended to three floors which housed 30 departments. But in 1946 a fire destroyed the building, and a replacement store had to be built. Shephards, as most folk today will remember it, re-opened in 1949 and later became well-known for its plush top-floor Panorama restaurant which afforded fantastic views across the Tyne - while the store even had its own plastic currency.
For kids growing up in the 1970s, Shephards' toy department at Christmas - apart from Fenwick’s in Newcastle - was without parallel. Packed with games, toys and Raleigh Chopper bikes, a visit there heightened the anticipation and excitement as the festive period approached. There was also a popular Santa’s grotto and a Christmas sleigh ride. One Chronicle reader recalled: “You would go in one door, sit on the Christmas ride, then leave out of the same door - but it wasn’t where you went in! I was always amazed.”.
A gradual decline in business and change in retail tastes over time finally brought about Shephards’ demise. In 1980, the store was taken over by Shopping City, a concept which offered a mix of brands and where retailers could rent their own space. At first business was brisk, but the emergence of the Tyne and Wear Metro system after 1980 and competition from other retail centres proved damaging.
The lure of Newcastle city centre and the American mall experience of Eldon Square shopping centre was a blow to Gateshead. Then, in 1986, the opening of the nearby Metrocentre, Europe’s biggest out-of-town mall, helped sound the death knell for Shopping City and it was eventually pulled down.
More than 40 years on from the closure of Shephards, that area of Gateshead town centre has been transformed. The notorious, brutalist, multi-storey car park and shopping centre once situated next door to the department store have also gone.
Today, the re-built Trinity Square is at the heart of Gateshead’s rejuvenated shopping area. Opened in 2013, it boasts leading retailers, big-name chain restaurants, and the state-of-the-art Vue Cinema.
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