Front of a postcard showing Stockton High Street, looking south with the Town Hall in the distance. c1910.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Front of a postcard showing Stockton High Street, looking south with the Town Hall in the distance. c1910.
Larry, from this view you would be looking South standing in the top end of Norton road so nearly everything you see on the Postcard is still there although changed that is up to the Town Hall in the distance. Obviously the odd building has gone or altered and traffic is now rerouted as the centre has become the bus station. From the Town Hall south we still have the Shambles and the Town Cross, the right side of town looking south from there is much the same again with the odd building gone or changed. The left side looking South vanished and is now a red brick covered shopping centre and car park which once again is being altered. All the old building on that side Vane Arms Black Lion and so many others including the huge Empire Building which was knocked down and became an Hotel, now empty and awaiting plans to change that end of Town yet again. You may recognise a part of Yarm road and Bridge road, not much of either left and now the High Street is to be refurbished once more, the plans are passed and it will almost finish the market as we knew it although it is just a shadow of what it once was. All the Market Gardens around the area have gone with houses built on most so all those stall holders have long gone. You would recognise the High Street from the buildings still there, The Parish Church, Town Hall, Shambles and even Maxwells corner looks much the same, the old Globe Cinema still stands with plans to make something of it although the money will not be there for some while now with the cut backs.
Stockton as a progressive Town has moved on, not everyone likes it though, standing still is not an option. The river area is now great with new bridges for foot and traffic, the river now being a large freshwater lake with the Barrage there, the sports scene on the river is taking off, not before time, if you own an asset use it. Stockton will continue to alter as out of town shopping areas increase, the shops still in the centre seem to be coping although the smaller outlets do change hands a lot and we have the usual crop of charity shops. I remember Stockton as it was, went to school in Stockton and started work in the centre of Stockton all before the major changes. Some of it needed to be renewed, the new build was not to everyones taste. There were streets of houses full of people who shopped in town, they went to Roseworth and other estates with their own shops. It is called progress.
Is there anyone out there that can tell me/and the rest of us down south what changes have been made to the High Street? I was only 7/8yrs old the first and last time I stood there, which was 56 years ago! Is ANYTHING the same, I’d like to know please.