As Cabot Circus celebrates its fifth birthday, stating facts like almost 100 million visitors and Bristol leaping from 27th to 11th in the UK shopping destinations league table, spare a thought for Broadmead.
The shopping centre continues to suck the life out of its down-at-heel neighbour, and not even a lick of paint can disguise the fact that empty units might not get filled for a very long time.
I was amazed when I was last in the city, having not been there for some months. Broadmead was in a truly awful state. Shop after shop empty. As someone who recalls teenage years spent shopping in a bustling and vibrant city centre I was very shocked. Mind you I guess fact I hadn’t been there in so long is part of the problem – would be shoppers now just go elsewhere.
I think the instigator of this post is rather disingenuous or deluded in thinking that Cabot Circus has had that much affect on the decline of parts of Broadmead; It wasn’t doing well even before the former was built.
Many of the units are too small and outdated for most major retailers and too expensive in rents and business rates for most new, smaller or independent businesses; the latter two issues Cabot Circus has no control or arguably effect over, rather it’s the fault of numerous landlords who own property in Broadmead and the government in Whitehall. Even before the Cabot Circus was built rents and business rates were alarmingly high for what was then an incredibly poor retail area.
Another major issue (which seems to be conveniently ignored) is the fact that Cribbs Causeway exists ( and numerous out of town retail parks), which for a decade had a significant effect in drawing away shoppers. If Cabot Circus not been built the effect would be even worse than it is now, at least the latter has brought people back to the city centre and not just to shop.
Had Cabot Circus or a similar development not been built we’d be like Newport, Swansea, or Gloucester city centres are now. Those are not cities Bristol should even remotely be emulating.
People need to get over the idea that Cabot Circus is somehow the worst thing in the world, when it was one the best things to happen in central Bristol for a very long time.
I quite agree with Tim. And you forget that Avonmeads, Imperial Park & Eastgate to name a few, all intercept the citys customers before they get to the middle of town. All recently developed.
Broadmead, despite its flaws, provides a much nicer shopping environment that a cluster of sheds around a glittering car-park