360 places to spend time and money
IT was 1993 and the Metrocentre, today a long-established Tyneside institution, was a mere seven years old.
Online shopping still belonged in the future and had yet to fundamentally alter people’s retail habits.
If you wanted to buy something 30 years ago, you almost certainly had to visit the shops in person – and if you lived in this part of world, that might well mean a trip to the Metrocentre.
Built on the waterlogged ash dump of the former Dunston Power Station on the western outskirts of Gateshead, the complex had opened in 1986. The first stores, in phase one’s Red Mall, began trading in April, with the centre’s full official opening and the arrival of phase two’s Green Mall later that year in October.
In 1987, phases three and four would see the new Blue and Yellow Malls open, as well as a bus station, multi-storey car park, railway station and the UCI cinema.
The new 600-seat Clockworks food court offered plenty of choice, while a new Toys R Us store was said to be “the biggest toy warehouse in the world”. And, in February 1988, a new indoor funfair, Metroland, was launched, soon becoming a Tyneside family favourite.
By April 1993, an advert in the Sunday Sun was boasting the Metrocentre had 360 outlets where you could “spend, spend, spend in a wide selection of small boutiques and stands, as well as the large chain stores”.
The centre also offered the attraction of “extensive eating outlets, 10-pin bowling, the Metroland fun park, and a multiscreen cinema”.
Our photographs from the Sunday Sun archive take us back to that time and place. Shots include one of the Metrocentre malls, individual shops, the entrance to Metroland, the UCI cinema, the IKEA store, and Harry Ramsden’s Fish Restaurant – all as they were back in 1993.