Gateshead man tells of Woolworths obsession

Dec 11 2011 by Richard Fletcher, Sunday Sun

SHOPAHOLIC Graham Soult fulfills his hobby without stepping foot inside a store … as he sets about photographing every former Woolworths building in the North.

Graham, 37, from Gateshead, has already got pictures of the 33 former stores in the North East that closed after the company went bust in 2008, as well as most of the ones in Cumbria and North Yorkshire.

Added to that is a selection from across the country from Inverness to Penzance, taken when he makes a detour while on a journey.

They form part of a collection of about 10,000 pictures of shops taken over the last three years, but the Woolworths pictures hold particular significance.

Graham works as a retail consultant and his hobby also helps him with his job.

Graham said: “I’ll often stop off somewhere and try to work in different towns as I travel around. I do try to shoehorn them in because it’s not always a case of them being on the way.

“It’s a really interesting way of looking at what’s happening in different towns. It’s often a snapshot of a town’s retail history, if you like, and it does tie in perfectly with what I do for a living. It’s a labour of love but it’s useful in helping me keep tabs on what’s happening in the high street. I suppose that part of me goes back to all those years ago when I studied architecture at university. I’ve always loved exploring buildings and places.

“There’s something fascinating about digging around in archives and seeing old photographs and piecing it all together and telling a story. It’s a great feeling to discover, when you uncover things that haven’t been told before or that people have forgotten.”

Graham feels that, because of its huge size – with about 1,300 to 1,400 former sites across the country – Woolworths had a huge impact on the British high street for many years. And although it had shrunk by the time it folded in 2008, its mass closure had a similarly big impact, which is important to record.