Plenty for your pounds in the popular shops around Pallion
IT DIDN’T MATTER IF YOU WANTED TRIPE OR TOBACCO ... YOU COULD GET IT ALL IN THIS AREA OF SUNDERLAND
Tripe and trotters, shampoos and sets, and pastries to leave your mouth watering.
They were all on offer in the shops of Pallion in 1971.
So how about a trip down Memory Lane to see how many of these favourites you remember.
If it was fresh food you were after, you were spoilt for choice in Pallion.
Frank Goderick in St Luke’s Terrace was the place to go to for seafood and fresh fish and had the logo ‘If it’s quality you want, come to Frank Goderick’.
High class butchers were another plus in Pallion. There was RR Brown which delivered daily. It was in St Luke’s Terrace and Hylton Road.
Or there was JW Bates, the family butcher for ‘quality, value and service’, according to the Sunderland Echo in 1971.
Our report the time said: “Tripe and trotters have a place on the tables of most housewives who frequent the string of pork butchers shops in Pallion Road, Sunderland.
“Their popularity lies undoubtedly in the fact that they are family butchers. Their businesses are family concerns and their customers known to them personally.
“Most do their own cooking of meat and make black puddings to their own recipe.”
But fresh meat was only one product which was made to a high standard at Pallion.
If you had a sweet tooth, how about Walkers where delicious pastries and cakes were made daily.
The Echo reporter at the time clearly felt that Pallion was a bastion for traditional values of what a shopping experience should be.
They said: “While Pallion Road is one of the busiest shopping centres outside of the town centre, it is also one of the friendliest.
“Even in shops where the woman behind the counter is not the owner, there is that personal touch that is fast disappearing under a barrage of high-powered salesmanship.”
There was praise for the “selection of grocery and bakers shops and a string of cut-price food stores,” said the Echo reporter at the time. Outside of the food section, there was Dixon’s the newsagent and tobacconist, which was so much more besides. You could get stationery, musical
wedding and anniversary cards, and a big choice of Christmas cards. “The boon of living near to a shopping area like Pallion,” said the Echo, “means that the housewife can do all her shopping in a self-contained area at low price. “With hardware shops and small drapery businesses stocking reasonably priced children’s wear, many shoppers prefer to take their trade to people they know and whose stock they trust.”
You could keep all your laundry in tip-top condition because Luxdon’s was in Pallion Road.
If it was carpets you were after, Newmill was ideal and was selling broadloom at £2 per square yard with all leading brands available.
Once you’d got the carpets for your house, you would need the furniture to go on top of it.
Three-piece suites, kitchen sets and coffee tables were all available at Home Design.
Other shops in the area included Maxwells where you could get all sorts of glass doors, or Dhobi Appliances at St Luke’s Cross where you could get repairs and services for all sorts of washing machines and vacuum cleaners.
We couldn’t let 1971 pass without a look at some of the other retail favourites around at the time.
There was Saxon’s in Waterloo Place where you could get the very latest in photograph and sound equipment.
Simmons in Fawcett Street described itself as a “world of wonderful furniture”.
Fashion outlets elsewhere in town included Petticoat Boutique where you could get cord and jersey jackets and suits, flared trousers and tank tops.
There was Esquire Boutique in Crowtree Road for boys and men, or West One male store in Holmeside for ‘holiday clothes’ said its August 1971 advert.
And one of the most popular places for the latest fashion items was Liverpool House where you could get blazers for £7.95, and the latest trousers for £8. Once you had bought the clothes, how about the shoes? They came at £1.62 for boys and £1.40 for girls from Sharp in Vine Place.
Give us your 70s retail memories by emailing chris.cordner@jpress.co.uk
“Their customers are known to them personally” ECHO REPORTER, 1971