Handyside Arcade was still up and running 40 years ago - but the clock was ticking on the uniquely quirky Newcastle shopping venue.
It was April 11, 1982, and for Brian Sandells, owner of a number of stores in the arcade including the popular Kard Bar, it was the start of another working day.
He would also have been reflecting on news that broke earlier in the year that Handyside Arcade was to be knocked down and replaced by "a new-look arcade that will be linked to the Eldon Square development". In the event, the arcade would soldier on for another five years, but the demolition men were simply biding their time.
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The Edwardian-built arcade on Percy Street was a spectacular glass-roofed, horseshoe-shaped construction housing a range of quirky shops and outlets. It had been the brainchild of George Handyside who died in 1904 – two years before the place opened.
During World War One it was used as a barracks; it became derelict during the Depression; and later enjoyed a renaissance in the 1960s. At the height of the boutique boom of that decade, Handyside Arcade was dubbed “Tyneside’s answer to Carnaby Street” by the local press.
A Chronicle story in 1972 noted some of the items on sale there: "Pop posters, bootleg records, steel jewellery, books on eastern religions and cults, underground magazines, way-out sounds by strangely named groups and, of course, strobe lighting are all available. Yet the arcade also has shops selling bicycles and coins, and it has an electrical wholesaler. Or you can have your watch and clock repaired.”
By the early 1980s, the arcade had gone through its fair share of ups and downs, and certainly needed a lick of paint or two, but was beloved by many, particularly young rock music fans who on Saturdays would congregate in large numbers. “Soon the airy galleries will be packed with young people and the high glass roof will echo with noisy chatter and laughter,” we reported.
“Inside the parade of small shops that line one half of the U-shaped arcade, still more youths hang around against a backdrop of pop posters, badges, brightly-coloured clothes, and foisty old antiques. In the Kard Bar store, a steady stream of kids practice making 10p coins disappear into a Space Invaders machine.”
Brian Sandells, the owner of Kard Bar and several other stores, had been a mainstay of Handyside Arcade since the 1960s. He recalled how in the later years of that decade as the flower power movement briefly flourished, at least 16 small boutiques had opened in the arcade selling kaftans, beads and bells to the young would-be hippies of Tyneside, before flower power quickly wilted and 12 of the 16 outlets closed virtually overnight.
By 1973, Mr Sandells had cornered the market in posters, badges, sew-on patches, postcards, bookmarks and all manner of rock and pop paraphernalia at Kard Bar. He told us he had more than 4,000 poster lines (the largest number in the world he claimed) on sale and sold 2,000 every week - although it was pop stars like David Cassidy and Donny Osmond who were the biggest sellers, rather than the major rock acts of the day.
Later, Kard Bar became the first store to stock the adult comic Viz after it was founded in Newcastle by brothers Simon and Chris Donald. As the '80s wore on, many voices emerged insisting Handyside Arcade should be saved. Professor Miles Danby, chairman of the Northumberland and Newcastle Society, said it had "special qualities" and noted "if it had been in Leeds or London, it would have long ago been refurbished and would have been filled with very good shops".
Newcastle Central MP Piers Merchant added that pulling it down would be a "terrible mistake" and that "Handyside Arcade is one of the bits of Newcastle that is worth preserving". Arcade trader Melanie Howd, meanwhile, said: "It could become such a great tourist attraction if money was spent on it."
The appeals fell on deaf appears and the last traders finally moved out of the down-at heel arcade in May 1987, before it was bulldozed and replaced by Eldon Garden shopping mall which opened in 1989 and has itself struggled for business in recent years.
Brian Sandells and Kard Bar would move to a new city centre premises on Cross Street, but there would be tragedy in December 2015 when fire ripped through the building killing the 81-year-old. Hundreds paid their respects as Mr Sandells was laid to rest at a packed West Road Crematorium in January 2016.
