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From its two-week stint as a pop-up shop on Fawcett Street, to becoming
a celebrated cafe, cultural space, and legitimate live music venue for touring bands, Pop Recs Ltd has probably two, or three-decades’ worth of history crammed into its relatively short-but- storied existence.
Originally opened in 2013, intended primarily to promote the second Frankie and the Heartstrings album, Pop Recs enjoyed such national acclaim and notoriety that it kept on evolving. First from a record store that did
a bit of coffee, to a diverse and accessible social enterprise in one of the city’s most- historic yet neglected buildings.
it’s not for profit. Any money you spend goes back into Pop Recs, supporting young people who find it difficult to get on the employment ladder.”
BINNS’S WINDOW
Pop Recs 3.0 is located on the outskirts of
the city centre, just past Sunniside. Anyone following the development of the new space
will appreciate just how much work it’s taken to turn a thoroughly dilapidated building into what
it is now, a Scandinavian-styled multi-purpose space, complete with a bar of local ales, in-house catering, and gender-neutral toilets. The building actually has a history of its own. Built in 1804, it became Binns Department Store in 1811, where the infamous local retail outlet flourished before its eventual move to Fawcett Street, where most of us recall. But when the Pop Recs gang took over, the site was unrecognisable from the prestigious storefront it once was. No Binns’s window, barely a roof, really.
“People over the age of 30 might remember Binns being located where the William Jameson pub
is, quite a fancy department store, with a life and reputation of its own. This was the original spot. But when we first saw the site, the only life in here was that of pigeons, and the only facilities were half-empty cans, dirty needles, and discarded Pot Noodles. It’s been essentially a 5-year project to renovate. It was unsafe, at risk of falling down. But this is a Grade II listed building, so we needed help from specialists. The Tyne and Wear Building Preservation Trust helped us renovate the exterior of the building, to get it looking like it did originally,
“We thought it would be a bit of a gimmick, really. Like the Beatles, have our own record shop. Fans could come in, buy the album, see some live music,” explains Michael McKnight, guitarist in FATHS and Pop Recs General Manager. “We put on people like James Bay, The Vaccines, The Cribs, Edwyn Collins, etc. People actually enjoyed the concept of the shop more than our album and egged us on to keep it going. I guess it was the first time Sunderland had artists coming to the city regularly. So, we kept the shop going, moved over to Stockton Road next to Park Lane, and started selling more coffees than records! Now we’re at the point where we’re primarily
a coffee shop, but with a 250-capacity live music venue. We’re also a social enterprise, so if you ever come here and have a coffee,
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COFFEE COMUNITY MUSIC & ART
COFFEE COMUNITY MUSIC & ART
COFFEE COMUNITY MUSIC & ART
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COFFEE COMUNITY MUSIC & ART
COFFEE COMUNITY MUSIC & ART
COFFEE COMUNITY MUSIC & ART
COFFEE COMUNITY MUSIC & ART