All change at Wallsend’s Forum shopping centre
WE step back 25 years to a day Wallsend Forum shopping centre.
It was October 14, 1996, and our photographs show shoppers and stores at the newly revamped centre on the town’s Segedunum Way.
The Chronicle reported how a £3m facelift of the 30-year-old complex would give Wallsend its first covered indoor shopping mall.
“The new glazed roof, supported by columns in the central square and concourse areas, is one of many improvements to secure the town’s long-term retailing future. Other features include automatic doors at the entrance, as well as better lighting and surveillance cameras in the car park and throughout the mall.
“These facilities will improve security for both shoppers and traders, one of the top priorities in the refurbishment. Changes to improve comfort include better seating and landscaping, with a garden and play area, and better toilet facilities.”
The Forum had opened in late 1966, towards the end of a year which had seen England win the World Cup, the mini-skirt come into vogue, and John Lennon declare “The Beatles are bigger than Jesus”.
For shoppers at the new centre back then, a loaf of bread (converted to today’s decimal currency) would have cost 5p, a dozen eggs 15p, and a pint of milk 4p. In the wider world, a pint of beer was 10p, a gallon of petrol 26p, while the average UK house price was around £3,800. All seemingly cheap as chips, but the average UK salary was just £891.
The Forum was one of the many newfangled shopping centres emerging across the towns and cities of the UK as the retail world gradually began to move away the old corner shop experience.
‘Progress’ was in the air and the high street was changing. Across the River Tyne, similar developments at the likes of Jarrow, Gateshead, and Hebburn arrived during the decade. These new centres, built usually in the modernist architectural style of the day, were seen as the place shoppers wanted to indulge in retail therapy as the ‘swinging sixties’ gathered pace.