It’s a place in town that always has queues out the door throughout the year, with one month particularly, busy but a popular shop has shut down suddenly, with news of its closure coming via a notice on its door.
If you’ve ever been a student in Newcastle, had to organise a stag or hen do or or just a lover of fancy dress, chances are you will have been to the Magic Box at least once in your life. Whether you’ve been after a mankinki, been tasked with getting you and the lasses Pink Ladies jackets, or have been assigned the job of getting legwarmers and neon paint for an 80s do, the Magic Box was like an Aladdin’s Cave of novelty fancy dress, meaning it was a hit with all ages.
Given that many uni societies have themed nights on a regular basis, not just Halloween, the Magic Box quite often had to operate a ‘one in one out’ entry policy, but it was on and around October 31 that it would be particularly packed out, with queues down the stairs that always spilled out onto the street.
Given that it sold its products for many years, it was little surprise that Magic Box was rebranded as Smiffys in 2022 and was ‘saved’ by a US firm last summer, after falling into administration. However, the new era for the Northumberland Street store has proven to be rather short-lived, as this week signs were spotted on its outsider door confirming tat it had ceased trading. The sign reads: ‘Smiffy’s has closed for business.”
The shutting down of Magic Box means that fancy dress options for people in the Newcastle city centre are massively limited, given that Xtras, the store that too was used to big queues in the run up to Halloween, shut its doors inside Eldon Square back in 2018 and Buddy’s right next to the Tyne Theatre, shut down last year.
View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/magic-box-closed-newcastle-centre-31190627
