Curly's Corner Shop, the blog!

Around the locality

Yes I know, it’s hardly the weather to be thinking about dragging your feet around the shops looking for bargains, but it’s something I’ll have to be doing today.

Shopping experiences in South Shields and South Tyneside can vary enormously from year to year depending on the district that you choose to visit, at present our main shopping areas in King Street and the Market Place fill me with despair, I urgently need some shock cord from a lady who has a stall in the market, but unless I am there before 3:00 pm today I am virtually guaranteed to find that the stallholders will have packed up and gone (those that bothered turning up in the rain). It’s getting to be a regular practice, yet people are turning up from all over the north east to find we have no market late in the afternoon, it’s a discouragement and a major disappointment for some.

The prime retail end of King Street is near the Market Place and yet there are four empty retail units facing you there and we have also recently seen the introduction of another charity outlet in this prime location. With the prospect of the new Asda supermarket in Coronation Street attracting footfall to this end of the town centre one would hope to see increased efforts to persuade retailers to grab the opportunity of taking a spot at the Market end of King Street, tentative ideas to spread the retailing experience to the Chapter Row and Barrington Street area will also demand more of King Street. We have more problems in the Denmark Centre, at the foot of Fowler Street, South Shields where there appears to be more empty units than occupied ones, and this is a relatively new centre!

However, all is not doom and gloom in the Corner Shop sector of the economy, Mr. and Mrs. Curly have taken to making regular visits to Jarrow recently and the once dreadful 1960s edifice called the Viking Centre is vibrant, busy, bustling with shoppers and offers an altogether better experiance. It’s appearance has been smartened and sharpened, it’s colour schemes are more attractive, and people like it.

The Frederick Street area in South Shields has been in decline for many years too, this was once a very busy shopping area on a par with King Street on Saturdays, but the wholesale demolition of the slum properties around it in the mid 1970s robbed it of it’s market and customers, it was doomed to a long period of decline since then. However the factory which replaced the houses has now been demolished too (Plesseys, Via Systems, Circatex – flattened) in a few years time Frederick Street will have a market of customers around it again as new houses are built immediately behind, and even as I type small shoots of economic recovery are growing in the area that I loved so much as a lad. The old upper bingo hall which had been allowed to fall into ruin, has been totally renovated and now contains luxury flats and apartments available for rent directly above the shops. New shops have opened including two decent sized supermarkets catering for asian and eastern foods (not sure about a weightlifting gym though). There is a smaller expanse of aluminium shutters during the daytime, and some of the shops are opening for slightly longer hours. It is ever so slightly busier than it has been in recent years, people are looking at future plans and are prepared to take a few risks,  although one must acknowledge that there is a long way to go before we can utter the words “full recovery”.

One thing which is a common denominator between Frederick Street and Jarrow though is as obvious as the nose on your face, and something which you will not find in King Street or the Market Place – Free Parking!

Would it be too much trouble for South Tyneside Council to look at options which offer free parking for shoppers in the town centre? Either a partnership scheme with retailers where the parking fee is refunded at the checkout on production of one half of the ticket and a minimum spend, or a free ticket to be displayed in the car for the first two hours of the parking duration.  I have discussed these ideas here previously, and if our town centre is to compete with places like Jarrow, Washington Galleries, the Royal Quays, Dalton Park and the Metro Centre etc.then we have to offer what shoppers are looking for in terms of the variety and mix of retail units and adequate free parking.

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