THE LONG VIEW: The Newport shops of yesteryear

Reynolds

Reynolds was a rather grand department store in a suitably grand Edwardian building on the corner of Charles Street and extended over numbers 149, 150 and 151 of Commercial Street. Ornate carvings adorned and cast bronze panels displayed the shop’s name in raised and polished letters.

Reynolds used to sell drapery and complete house furnishings and the site later housed another department store Owen Owen. On the opposite corner of Charles Street was the Talbot Inn which dated from early Victorian times.

Woolworths

The Talbot Inn would later make way for a piece of classic post-war design hosting a classic of British retailing. Where Body Shop now stands at the corner of Commercial Street and Charles Street used to be home to Woolworths. The much-lamented former store chain collapsed in 2008. Looking every inch a fifties department store, this Newport branch closed in the eighties and was demolished to make way for the existing development. Woolworths in Newport then moved to the Kingsway Centre, which closed at the end of 2008.

Wildings

Moving along Commercial Street is another icon of Newport shopping. Although it still very much part of the Newport landscape, Wildings has changed much through the years.

The famous store was founded by Alfred Wilding from Shropshire, who opened his first shop in Newport in 1874 and it has been a Newport fixture for nearly 150 years. The store moved to its present home on Commercial Street in 1931. Famed for their Christmas window displays, the store was revamped in 2014.

When Newport MP Paul Flynn officially re-opened it in May that year, he summed up the place the store has in the hearts of many in the city: "Wildings is as Newportonian as the Transporter Bridge, as Welsh baseball, as the Chartists. Here since 1874, it’s not a here today, gone tomorrow store like some.”

BHS/Great Universal Stores

A less happy tale is that of British Home Stores. Formerly sited on Griffin Street, the department store used to be known as Great Universal Stores. Its previous home can be seen in the shot also showing Cecil’s on the corner of High Street and Griffin Street. The Art Deco building dates from 1934 and part of this building now houses Tiny Rebel’s Urban Tap House.

As British Homes Stores it moved to Commercial Street next door to Barclays Bank but has recently closed as the illustrious chain folded.

Cecils

Opposite Great Universal Stores on the corner of High Street and Griffin Street was Cecils the outfitters and drapers. Aside from clothing the people of Newport, it kept them entertained with a till system where staff placed customers' money into canisters which were then attached to overhead wires. A pull of a handle would send the canister flying along a wire to a central cashier who sent the change and receipt back along the wire. Such a system would surely attract crowds were it still there today.

Jays

Further up High Street, before it was changed beyond recognition by the building of the Old Green Roundabout were some famous Newport stores. Jays Furniture shop, which was formerly the Shaftsbury Cafe, stood perched on Newport bridge. The store was a particular favourite with children because of its large mirror. In the style of a famous early 1960s comedian Harry Worth, youngsters would stand in front of the mirror with half of their body reflected wave their arms up and down. To the delighted kids and no doubt weary parents this would create the hilarious illusion they were jumping up and down.

Boyd's Music Shop

Boyd’s of Bond Street was one of the classy shops on the Old Green. Often displaying a grand piano and a saxophone in the window, it backed onto Jay’s on the bridge and had an art deco façade.

Other stylish shops included Willy Steiner’s hairdresser’s, known as Newport’s very own ‘Teezie Weezie’. It was equipped with modern electric hoods and was the go-to place for women to have their perms done.

National Fur Shop

Also on the Old Green was the National Fur shop. Now decidedly out of fashion, on the high street at least, then it was the last word in style. It was managed by a woman called Iris Thomas who had, it was said, been carnival queen of Newport. It only ever had, like all modish places, just one item in the window.

London City & Midland Bank

An unusual example of high street continuity is the building on Westgate Square at the bottom of Stow Hill. The solid building, looking every inch a safe place to keep your money has done the same job for well over a century. Originally the London City & Midland Bank, it became the Midland Bank and is now the HSBC Bank.

The London City and Midland Bank was formed in 1891 following the merger of the Birmingham and Midland Bank and the Central Bank of London. This later became simply the Midland Bank.

Newport Arcade

Although still with us, this much-loved part of Newport's life is the movable shopping feast that is the Newport Arcade. Home to a variety of shops including Burtons the tailors, Stanley Jones the bookshop, Wagstaff’s later Winifred Bignall selling cosmetics and costume jewellery. At the High Street end was Crouch Jewellery and gentleman’s outfitters Stuart Kimptons.

In the forties some of the businesses listed included; Salisbury’s selling leather goods, HS Williams, bootmaker, milliners Pritchard Gore (they also had another shop selling baby linen and children's outfitters) and Davies' dairy.

In that little world could be summed up how shopping worked in those days. Everything you could possibly need could be bought in a locally-owned shop.

Shops at the arcade in more recent times have sold skateboards, scented candles and fancy meats. What we use shops for has changed and our shopping streets are seen as places to enjoy our leisure time rather than functional places where the necessities of life could be bought. These pictures tell us how far we have moved from those days.