Mark and Spencer turns 85

IN early September 1932, British Home Stores on Newcastle’s Northumberland Street opened its doors for the first time.

Sadly BHS wouldn’t be around to celebrate its birthday 85 years later. The famous brand closed its shops last year.

But one Northumberland Street store that is very much still alive and kicking and also began trading eight and a half decades ago is Marks and Spencer.

This wasn’t the city’s first M&S, of course. A much smaller affair, the original Penny Bazaar in the city’s Grainger Market, had opened in 1895.

It still sells goods to this day and is an old Geordie ‘curiosity’ well worth a visit.

The new store on Northumberland Street would become a North East shopping institution.

The first curious shoppers wandered in when the premises opened on Friday, September 16, 1932.

Then as now, Marks and Sparks led the way in British retail.

As the go-to place to buy undies, M&S had unveiled its first women’s bra in 1926.

During the World War II years, the 1941 ‘Making of Civilian Clothing (Restriction Orders)’ meant the company could use only five buttons, two pockets and four metres of stitching for every item of clothing it made.

The 1950s saw glamour come bouncing back with the introduction of the Christian Diorinfluenced ‘New Style’ for some of its women’s clothing.

Into the 1960s, new technology saw chilled - rather than frozen chickens go on sale for the first time.

And if you shopped at M&S during the 1970s, frozen pizzas went on sale in 1972, and curries and Chinese dishes were launched - unsuccessfully at first - in 1974.

Later, the 1980s saw boil-inthe-bag and microwave meals first become available.

As for the Newcastle store thousands of us use every day, it’s undergone many changes and improvements since it opened 85 years ago.

Between 1936 and 1951, it was extended several times. And throughout the 1960s, the store was extended over four stages growing to 71,500 sq ft.

On June 24, 1963, a selfcontained food section was introduced with direct access from Prudhoe Street. increasing the sales floor from 72,000 sq ft to 140,000 sq ft, including a new customer restaurant with 300 seats.

Here to another 85 years...

And by 1996, the store became the second largest M&S store in the country after Marble Arch, following the completion of a major redevelopment programme, Marks and Spencer, Newcastle, 1932 Marks and Spencer, Newcastle, 1936 Marks and Spencer,...