A view of the corner of the former Binns store and Wesley Church taken from Church Square. 

Taken from the Mail Office, this shows a busy Binns store with old signage in 1964. The top two floors were removed when the store closed. The top one was staff only and in the later years of the store, the second top floor was the cafe, accounts department and hairdresser.

Wesley Church on the right of the photo did not close as a church until 1973 and as can be seen was floodlit at night at the time of the photo.

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Shortly after the store was closed in 1992, it is for sale but the signage had not been removed. The  number 7 bus shows the Hartlepool Corporation livery rather than the Stagecoach livery seen in most towns today.

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A picture of 'Binns Corner'. The store on the corner of Victoria Road and Stockton Street, now Wilkos.

Binns Restauarant on the top floor was always a popular meeting place. This 1952 advert tells us how meals were ' daintily served'.

Binns regularly had sales  throughout the store and also  'White Sales' where sheets, towels and household goods were cut price. People would queue for what would have been genuine bargains. Here, the hat department is selling hats for ten shillings. The photo is from the early 1950s.

Binns' sales were always popular and here there is a sizeable queue in what looks like quite inclement weather and possibly very early morning at the Stockton Street entrance. The photo is from the early 1950s.

Two years after the store closed, the top two floors are being removed prior to Wilkinsons occupying the building. As can be seen, alterations are also being made to the road network around the old library building.

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Taken from Christ Church, the view shows a still empty Binns store. In the top right of the picture, Victory Square is having a 'makeover'.

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Taken when Binns was very much part of the shopping centre( probably in the late 1980s) and the entrance is still below the Cameron's lion sign to the left of the Shop at Binns sign. At this point, Church Square was still a thoroughfare for vehicles.

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Who remembers getting new sandals at Binns and that foot X-ray machine?

Taken in 1953 indicated by the bunting, a band passes Binns in Victoria Road. The Municipal Buildings and Upper Church St are clearly seen in the background. There is a bus stop showing Park and Catcote Road.

Taken on the top floor of Binns where there was also a counting house. At the time, there was a pneumatic tube system in the shop and money was sent from all over the store to the counting house. Here, the customer's bill would be looked at and change would be sent back through the tube system to the department where the custom had made a purchase. 

These images from the early 1950s are from Binns' fashion shows held, from what we can gather,  in the store itself and in Weslet Church Hall which was across the road.

Photo taken from Stockton Street looking at the south side of Ward Street. Behind the houses is the back of the large Binns department store. Robson's is on the left of the photo and part of the Mason's Waverley Cafe on the right.

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Princess Anne visiting Hartlepool to open Middleton Grange Shopping Centre. She is being escorted away from the shopping centre towards the College of Art in Church Square. Accompanying her is Mrs. Tuson the Mayoress, together with various officials and bodyguards. Councillor Ted Leadbitter can be seen walking behind, in between the Princess and the Mayoress. Binns Department Store is in the background with Wesley Church and the Grand Hotel to the right. 

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Erecting the annual Christma tree 1970s.

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Safety Certificate of William Prest 1951

Photograph showing South Road and the War Memorial with Binns in the background.

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Swainson Street with the Grand Hotel on the left and the roof of Binns on the right. Street demolished to make way for the shopping centre.

Swainson Street, Hartlepool, with Binns Store on the corner. Picture taken from Victoria Road.

The photo was from a photographic record of the Central Area of West Hartlepool prepared in 1955/6 at the request of the Town Planning and Redevelopment Committee 'in the hope that it will be of interest to future generations of West Hartlepool'  

The record focuses on areas which were within the next ten years to be completely redeveloped following The Max Lock Plan. It was compiled by WL Taylor and photographs developed by Thomas Clarkson Chemist of Tower Street.

Swainson Street, Hartlepool which has now been replaced by Middleton Grange Shopping Centre. Binns still trading at this point. Note the difference in the name of the shopping area, at this point it was just 'Hartlepool Shopping Centre' not Middleton Grange.

Taken in the early 1950s, this lovely photo is of a so far unknown Asian family walking up Victoria Road with Binns and Christ Church in the background. Does anybody know who they were and why it was taken ?

Victoria Road, Hartlepool at its junction with York Road with Binns Department Store in the background. THe upper floors of the buildings on the left are little changed although the front gardens have gone. Apart from the first building which is still retail, the others on the left are now wine bars.

Inexplicably, the council demolished the beautiful terrace of houses on the right and replaced them with an ugly modern terrace of shops. The shops at the near right remain.

This image is pre. April 1953 as the trolley bus lines were removed then.

Taken on the other side of road to the other photo in Ward St back street. From left is Richard Banyer, Gillian Banyer, Brian Coverdale and June Coverdale in 1952. The War Memorial and beyond that Perry's building can clearly be seen. To the right of the children is the back of Binns Department Store.

Trevor Banyer in Ward Street back street looking towards Stockton St. To the right are Binns 'bicycle sheds' although they were always full of cardboard boxes and a good place for hide and seek . The only danger was Binns staff finding out!

Occupying the ground floor of the old Binns store, Wilkinsons opened in 1995. Note that the top two storeys of the old Binns store have been removed.

On the right of the picture is a puzzling shape which after some thought is the roof of a bus shelter ?

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