The Specials Ghost Town
When I left school at 16 my Father told me that I had a job starting on the next Monday
morning at Bainbridge’s, a large department store in the centre of Newcastle. I protested that I hadn’t even had a holiday but he told me that if I lived in his house I had to pay my way and that meant a job.
Bainbridge’s was the first department stores in the world started in 1862 and in 1952 it became part of the John Lewis Partnership. In 1964 it was in Market Street Newcastle moving ten years later to Eldon Square.
I loved my time working there, I had money in pocket and the delights of Newcastle to explore with its nightclubs and bars. The town of 1964 was very different to the one today, so much of that vibrant city has been lost, crushed and homogenised but, if you explore the back streets and alleys you might hear the Animals “House of the rising Sun” pounding out from the Club A-GoGo or smell the hashish smoke in the Handyside Arcade.
To listen to an audio recording of this poem click here
Never Knowingly Undersold
She was one hundred and fifteen when they got married
He moved in with her over fifty years ago
When she lived in a warren of corridors and rooms
That stretched from Market Street to the Bigg Market
From the start, it was a trendy modern relationship
They called it a Partnership
Even when they moved up market
To the concrete caves of Eldon Square
She kept her family name above the shop door
Now, we can not call it Bainbridge any more
The signage and bright lights are all the same
As those seen in any city shopping centre
The interior design the same from North to South
The content of the racks and shelves identical
I want to shuffle around arcades of small shops
Run by the people you pay your money to
I want to buy my poetry from Ultima Thule
Pop in for some politics in the “Days of Hope” bookshop
Or share a comic moment with Chris in “Time Slip”
The planners have forgotten what we like about Newcastle
Isn’t that all the shops are the same as any other city
It’s the differences that people come here for
Let’s make room for the individual, bazaars for the bizarre
Malls for the malcontent and choices for the choosy
©Jeff Price May 2017
