North East retro: 39 photos show lost shops you may remember, from Binns to BHS, and Presto to Rumbelows

These retro photos show once-popular shops around the North East that have vanished from the high street.

They range from department stores and major supermarket chains to much-loved local fashion and record shops.

The nostalgic images capture a different era of shopping, before the internet and other technological advances changed everything.

Shoppers are seen taking part in trolley dashes, queuing to get their film developed in the days before digital cameras, and gazing through a shop window at TVs for rent at a time when few households could afford to buy one outright.

These pictures take us back to a golden age for department stores, including Binns, Joplings, Blacketts, Doggarts, BHS and Woolworths.

You may remember browsing the goods there, getting your groceries from Presto and Safeways before those supermarket chains disappeared in the 90s and noughties, respectively, or saving up your Green Shield stamps to buy something from one of the famous catalogue shops in the 60s or 70s.

As well as ordinary shoppers and staff, these photos show famous guests opening stores and signing autographs at promotional events, from household names like the Radio 1 DJ David ‘Kid’ Jensen to local celebrities such as Big Phil, from Radio Metro.

How many of these shops do you remember, and what lost store do you miss most?

For more North East nostalgia, you might like this look back at things you can’t do anymore but we wish you could.