Andrew Gilhooley's Blog

In the 1960s the Newtown area of Hebburn underwent significant redevelopment.  Most of the buildings inside the red square on the map below would be demolished. The terraced houses in these streets would be replaced by new flats, both in the Newtown and in the School Street development, and the shopping area centred around Station Road and Tennant Street would be replaced by the new Shopping Centre.

The first nineteen retail units in the shopping centre opened in late 1967, while construction continued on the rest of the centre. This photograph shows Walter Willson’s supermarket open while builders continue to work on the new units.

Below is an advertisement for the new shopping centre from October 1967, detailing the shops that were already open and those that were coming soon. As you can see, it promised quite the complete shopping experience!

By 1969, the new centre was complete and open for business. The photograph below, from that year, shows the side of the shopping centre facing Station Road. Callers’ furniture store is visible. The buildings in the background are on Victoria Road West, with the Protestant Conservative Club at the end on the left.

When I was a child in the 1970s, the Newtown shopping centre was bustling. The photograph below from 1971 is looking towards Station Road. You can see Walter Willson’s, Boots the Chemist (which is still there at the time of writing), Duncan’s supermarket, Dobson’s, which sold clothing, and Carr’s shoe shop. All the way in the back of the photograph, on Station Road, that looks like Elsie Ferguson’s women’s clothing shop.

I can remember a walk down to the Newtown as a child being quite an exciting trip, with lots to look at. It was also quite a social event, as my mam would always see people that she knew and got to catch up on what was going on in their lives. 

I’ll try to give my memories of which shops I remember being there. However, my childhood was a long time ago now and my memory may be a little shaky in places. These are some shops I remember from the 1970s and some from the 1980s.

I remember various supermarkets being there over the years, Walter Willson and Lipton, and then later Job Lot and Axe. I remember Axe as being there for a long time. Here’s a photograph showing the old Axe sign that was uncovered in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lots of baked goods were available for sale, as the shopping centre had Greggs of Gosforth (still there at the time of writing), Sheldon’s and Carrick’s, and I believe Gustard’s butcher also sold pies and sausage rolls. I also recall a shop called Maw’s Pies being there at one point. Dewhurst was another butcher’s shop in the shopping centre..

I remember Caller’s furniture store, shown in a photograph above at the Station Road end of the shopping centre, and also have a vague memory of the NEEB having a showroom for electrical appliances, and you could also pay your electric bill there. 

Next door to Callers was, I think, RS McColl’s newsagent and then Toy Fayre, a magnet to us youngsters. Toy Fayre had two storeys, and I think they sold bicycles upstairs and other kinds of toys downstairs. Across from Toy Fayre was the St. James Grill, a small café.

The above picture is from 1978 and shows the Victoria Road West side of the shopping centre. Just out of shot on the left is the TSB Bank. Next door is the Halifax Building Society and Derek Noel Oake’s estate agency. I remember Mr. Oake as always wearing a rather flamboyant bow tie and being quite a character. There is what looks like a carpet shop and a florist’s next to the Halifax. I also remember a shop that sold greetings cards being on this side of the shopping centre, as well as a travel agency and Hayton’s chemist shop at the end. I remember buying hard liquorice sticks from Hayton’s, as well as longer, softer sticks that had one end flattened with some kind of logo stamped into it.

Opposite the Halifax, I can remember a shop owned by Mr. Hall (Sammy?) that sold confectionery and also clocks and watches. An interesting combination! I can remember buying Coconut Mushrooms and Liquorice Cuttings (I was quite the one for liquorice back then) from Hall’s. The shop is out of shot on this photograph.

Michael Redican the Optician’s shop is visible in this shot, and next door to that is Pop-In music shop. I remember Pop-In had some beginner-style acoustic guitars in the window and of course a display of records. Inside the shop, the walls and I think even the ceiling were covered in vinyl records. I remember when punk rock happened and records started to be released on coloured vinyl and even in strange shapes (Gimmix! Play Loud by John Cooper Clarke was triangular!) and they were all hung on the walls of Pop-In. Towards the end of the 1970s, Pop-In also had a Space Invaders machine, which all the local kids liked to play.

At the back of the right hand side of the picture, you can see the Axe supermarket, and on the back row of shops Barclay’s Bank and what was possibly at the time either a fish and chip shop or a Chinese takeaway, the Kai Ming Kitchen.

I used to get my hair cut at Mr. Kimber’s barber shop, which was on the top floor above the bank and takeaway. I think there was also a Solicitor’s office up there.

Here’s an earlier view from the same viewpoint, showing how some of the shops changed over the years. You can see Sheldon’s bakery, Hill’s Wallpaper and Decorating shop, Josephine’s, which sold wool, and Carrick’s, as well as a different supermarket at the end, Hain and Co.? The first shop on the right could be Hall’s. Also note Lobban’s newsagent next door to Barclay’s bank.

I can also remember a fruit and vegetable shop, which would probably have been Danby’s (possibly it was also a florist?) and of course the Hebburn shop that sold a little bit of everything, Lewin’s. If you needed clothesline, coat hangers, a screwdriver or a pair of sandshoes for school, Lewin’s was the place to get it. A hardware store that was like Aladdin’s cave! During the 1980s they also had video cassettes and Atari video game cartridges for rent upstairs. I also remember a shop called Bruce’s which sold wool and possibly baby clothes.

There were two large signs on the wall of the shopping centre, one facing Victoria Road West and one facing Station Road. I remember that for a long time the sign facing Station Road had a letter missing, and so read “HEBBURN HOPPING CENTRE”, much to the amusement of local children.  I think it even made it to national television, on “That’s Life” or some other programme. By my reckoning, the sign with the missing letter stayed up for over 20 years. I remember the letter being missing in the 1970s and this photo was taken in 1997.

Next door to the Shopping Centre on Station Road was the Iona Club, the Post Office and the new (at the time) Library. Across Station Road there was another row of shops, surviving from the original Newtown streets. Elsie Ferguson’s sold women’s clothes; Tallack’s was another clothes shop that allowed customers to buy things “on tick” and pay a little off each week. Ritchies was another magnet for children as it sold bicycles and other toys including an intriguing range of practical jokes such as stink bombs. Thomas and Richley sold televisions and electrical goods and at the end of Station Road nearest Victoria Road West there was Hudson’s Newsagent.

The Co-Op Chemist was across the street from Hudson’s. This was the place where we could buy woody sticks of Liquorice Root to chew on, and which had one of my favourite things in the whole town. Attached to the wall outside the chemist was a map of Hebburn mounted under Perspex, with the town’s landmarks marked with tiny lightbulbs. Underneath the map was a row of buttons labelled with things like “Post Office”, “Council Offices” and “Park”. When you pressed the button, the appropriate lamp would light on the map to show you where the landmark was. No trip to the Newtown was complete without having a look at this map and pressing a few buttons.

I have a very vague, and possibly false, memory of there being two of these maps in Hebburn at one time, but I don’t recall where the second one would have been. 

As an aside, I have searched in vain for years for a photograph of this map and have so far come up with nothing beyond a blurry blob on an aerial photograph from the 1970s. I suppose it isn’t the sort of thing anyone would have conceivably wanted to take a photograph of, but if you’re reading this and have one, please contact me.

This photograph shows the Shopping Centre looking from Victoria Road West in 1979. You can see the scale of the new development as Durham Court, Westmorland Court, Cumberland Court and Northumberland Court are all visible. In the foreground is the Argyle Hotel, another survivor from the original Newtown.

The Newtown Shopping Centre has seen many changes in the time that I have known it, as has the Newtown area itself. All of the flats in the picture above have been demolished except for Durham Court, which itself is slated for demolition in the near future. The Argyle Hotel / Ramada / Roadhouse / Clapps is also gone, replaced by the Paul Younger Energy Centre. Newtown School was demolished in the 1980s and replaced with Fountains Park, which no longer even has a fountain. The Library has been demolished and moved to the new Hebburn Central, which itself was built on the site of the old flats. The list of changes goes on and on.

As for the shopping centre itself, like all shopping centres it has suffered from the rise of online shopping, the COVID pandemic etc. While it may not be the bustling hub it was when I was young, new businesses continue to come to the centre, and some will undoubtedly make a success of it. With all of the new houses being built in Hebburn and more people coming to live there, it’s possible that the shopping centre will be hopping for years to come.