The Broadway: A Planned Centre

When the plans to develop Darras Hall as a residential estate were first drawn up in 1910, it was always envisaged that there would be land allocated in the centre, next to the railway station, for community purposes such as churches, schools, and of course shops. Up until the end of the 1950’s however this land was still mainly redundant as development had not occurred on the scale which had been expected. In 1960, a large part of the estate was still empty building plots many of which were filled with greenhouses and being used as small market gardens. This was about to change however.

In 1953 a Newcastle Chartered Accountant called Lawrie Barratt bought one of the 5 acre building plots at Darras Hall. On it, he built his own four-bedroomed detached house doing much of the work himself or at least personally overseeing many of the contractors. He saw the potential of Darras Hall and shortly afterwards built two more semi-detached houses across the road which he sold at a profit. Spotting the business opportunity, in 1958 he formed a building company with Lewis Greensitt called Greensitt Brothers. One of their first projects was the new shopping centre at Merton Way, just up the road which they began in 1959. Even before that was completed, plans had been agreed to finally provide shops in Darras Hall itself.

Although the deal had been done with the Management Committee of the Estate, the plans were not popular with the residents. There were stormy meetings and a 400-signature petition against the development. The main fear was it would spoil the rural character and charm of the estate. The protests did not succeed however and the development went ahead. Barratt had further plans to build houses on the estate (Parklands and Woodside) close to where the shops were planned and appreciated that providing essential shopping nearby would make the properties much more marketable.

The shopping centre opened on November 1963. Unlike many of the houses which had been built on the estate the centre had a “modern” contemporary design, very similar to Merton Way, also with flats and maisonettes built above the shops. Unlike Merton Way they were not pedestrianised but they were set back off the main road, with parking in front. Another change was the introduction of a self-service supermarket. In the three years which had elapsed since the opening of Merton Way, these were now making their appearance in the North East. The supermarket was originally a Spar until the shop was taken over by the Co-op. These were revolutionary for the shopper, with everything under one roof, removing the need to visit lots of different shops and having to queue to be served in each one.

The Darras Hall Estate Committee did impose some regulations. There were to be no neon signs, posters or similar forms of advertising.

A major factor in the growing popularity of Darras Hall was the spread of the motor car. Without a car, the estate was very inaccessible. One of the features of the new shopping centre was a Gulf Petrol garage.

Now more than 60 years since its opening, the centre remains remarkably unchanged.