Pictures take you back to Newport's high street icons of the 80s

Marks and Spencer

HIGH STREET FAVOURITE: A picture taken in 1980 of Marks and Spencer on Commercial Street in Newport

This shot was taken just before the pedestrianisation of Commercial Street, when shoppers and cars shared Newport’s main thoroughfare.

Retail giant Marks and Spencer was long a cornerstone of Newport’s shopping streets.

So many were aghast when it was announced they were shutting the doors of their Commercial Street store in 2013.

It was described as a “devastating blow” for Newport which would deprive the city centre of a key retail presence.

The fact that they were staying in Newport, albeit at Spytty Park softened the blow, but it seemed to point to a future where shopping would be out-of-town and our high streets faced constant decline.

But by November 2015, it returned to the city centre with the opening if Friars Walk. Since then the spring is back in the step of shopping in Newport and Marks and Spencer is once again a part of it.

King’s Head Hotel

GRAND: A 1980 shot of The King's Head Hotel in Newport

This 200-year-old hotel started off as a small coaching inn in the centre of Newport but closed in 2012 with the loss of 20 jobs.

The hotel was a popular music venue and hosted concerts by Van Morrison in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Earlier Jerry Lee Lewis played here too.

Here, like Marks and Spencer, we see the hotel before the road was paved over. The shot was taken from where the NCP car park now stands.

By 2014 developers’ plans to convert the building into luxury apartments and offices were approved.

It was later revealed that the owner was one of TV’s Secret Millionaires, Cardiff-based Iranian businessman Jahan Abedi. He was already converting another Newport landmark, the former Shire Hall into luxury flats.

Westgate Hotel

LIVING IN THE EIGHTIES: The Westgate Hotel, taken in 1986, with the Benetton store next to the entrance.

When speaking to the Argus in 2014 about his plans for the King’s Head Hotel, Mr Abedi said his next venture “could be the Westgate Hotel”.

This venture sadly came to nought.

Instead, the Grade II Listed Westgate Hotel has been empty for several years.

It was built on the site of the Chartist uprising in 1839 (this Westgate Hotel was not built when the Chartist revolt took place).

Plans were announced in 2014 to turn the landmark into a hospitality training school.

These too, did not come to fruition and this is one iconic Newport building which hasn’t yet been transformed.

In this shot, another icon – this time from 80s retail, Bennetton, marks the period. In this time its palatial dance hall used to regularly host dinners and balls.

Absent from the front of the hotel here are the three statues, called: ‘Union, Prudence, Energy’ which were erected in 1991, to commemorate the Chartist uprising.

Kingsway

SHOPPING CENTRE: The Kingsway Centre, complete with model Transporter Bridge

Before Friars Walk was a note on an architect’s iPad, Newport already had a shopping centre. Here, we see the Kingsway Centre, with its stairs sweeping down to the ‘IN-shops’.

These were small independent traders and the area above was originally occupied by Tesco but the centre also hosted Newport’s original Argos store.

All the 80s favourites were here: Athena, Top Shop and Newport’s first Body Shop.

You could buy your Marilyn Monroe poster, a pair of leg warmers and some ethically-produced soap made from tangerines all under one roof.

To complete the padded-shoulder glitz, there was a glass elevator too.

Astride it all was a model of the Transporter Bridge spanning the staircase – all in proper 80s tubular steel.

Newport Arcade

FADED: Shot from 1980 of Newport Arcade

Although quite rundown by the time this shot was taken, Newport Arcade is still with us and still a much-loved part of Newport’s shopping life.

It has been 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 this shot, Driscoll’s carries on a tradition of jewellers setting up shop in the ornate arcade.

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.

Owen Owen

DEPARTMENT STORE: Picture taken in 1980 of Owen Owen on the corner of Charles Street and Commercial Street in Newport

Fondly remembered by many as a ‘proper department store’, Owen Owen, at the bottom of Charles Street was Newport’s answer to Grace Brothers or perhaps Debenhams.

While it was the place to buy clothes, bedding and the things you normally would in a department store, it was also the place where you could get your ears pierced.

It was part of a chain of department stores across the UK founded by mid-Wales farmer Owen Owen. He opened his first shop in Liverpool with branches following across England, while the Newport store was the only one in Wales.

It also sounds like it was a great place to work. On the 21st birthday of one lucky employee bosses had a Rolls Royce pick her up and take her to work for her big day.

They didn’t give her the day off, just made sure she arrived in style.

The site was formerly occupied by Reynolds another department store. The Edwardian store made the most of its grand home with ornate carvings and cast bronze panels displaying the shop’s name in raised and polished letters.

By the time this picture was taken, the fashion was for shops hide their architectural looks behind gleaming plastic frontages.

l Tomorrow: look out for our weekly From The Archive feature. This week: St David’s Day