There’s some comment from me in this interesting and nostalgic Chronicle article about Newcastle’s Eldon Garden – which is, and never has been, anything to do with the adjacent (and rather more lively) Eldon Square.
Why has it never really been successful as a shopping centre, and what might its future look like under its new ownership?
Here’s what I had to say to journalist David Morton:
“Rather than being an exemplar of wider high-street challenges, Eldon Garden’s problem is that it was never really a very successful shopping centre in the first place.
“At the time of its development, in the late 1980s, much was made of the incorporation of the Handyside Arcade roof trusses, yet the new shopping centre managed to jettison much of what had made the old arcade popular – its character, soul, and, crucially, premises that were affordable for local independents.
“To make matters worse, as a high-end shopping centre Eldon Garden was located on the wrong side of traffic-clogged Percy Street, always lacked a proper anchor – Debenhams at Home, then later The Pier, was never a sufficient draw – and as a mall didn’t really lead anywhere useful other than the car park.
“Just a few years after it opened, the ground floor mall was hived off for use as a pub, making the flow between the shopping centre and surrounding areas even less intuitive.
“Later changes, like the addition of PureGym, made good use of the frontage to Percy Street but turned their back on the internal malls, reinforcing the sense of decline inside.
“As seen by recent openings – such as Søstrene Grene in August, and Sephora and Deichmann in the coming weeks – Newcastle city centre continues to be a highly desirable location for big retailers, as long as the right units are available in the right places.
“Under its new ownership, I expect that Eldon Garden will be keen to retain its successful street-facing businesses, but it seems very unlikely that the internal malls will ever return to the “inspirational shopping” that has been the centre’s unlikely promise until now.
“Instead, other functions – such as leisure, workspace, or perhaps even university accommodation – seem a much more likely way of repurposing underused space in this particular part of the city centre.
“And if that means the ugly bridge, which sails over the street to connect Eldon Garden to Eldon Square, is surplus to requirements, all the better.
“Percy Street would be a much more pleasant place with its removal!”
You can also listen to what I had to say about Eldon Garden to BBC Radio Newcastle’s Anna Foster a week ago.
