UK's 'saddest shopping centre' with just one store still open gets major update
Plans have been announced for the future of the UK’s saddest shopping mall, which has just one store left open.
Once a bustling shopping district, St Catherine's Place in Bedminster, south Bristol, has slowly lost every retailer over the past 20 years with only a solitary Farm Foods shop still left open.
Empty streets and boarded-up shop fronts surround any curious visitors that venture inside the sad former shopping centre, while the only people there use seemingly it as a convenient shortcut into town.
The main entrance to St Catherine's Place is on East Street, which is Bristol's largest retail area outside of the city centre. While it too has had years of decline, with some big names moving out - including Argos and Bonmarche - there are signs that things are on the up in East Street, even while St Catherine's continues to decline.
A picture of the front of St Catherine's Place which has now been boarded up (Bristol Live/BPM Media)Developers have now said they want to convert the derelict shopping centre in Bedminster into apartments. St Catherine’s Place was dubbed the “UK’s saddest shopping centre” after years of decline and recently the entrance to the centre has now been boarded up.
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The latest plans, put forward by developers Firmstone Consortia One Ltd, include converting the buildings into 22 apartments. Several other former shops along Bristol’s East Street are also currently being converted into flats.
St Catherine's Place shopping centre itself and the land immediately next to it have been earmarked for 180 flats as part of the wider Bedminster Green development, Bristol Live reports.
In June last year, it was revealed that Firmstone applied to convert most of the empty shops inside the shopping centre into residential apartments, and council planning officers quietly gave that permission back in July without it going before a public committee.
The new applications seek to determine if prior approval is required for the proposed change of use, from commercial units to homes. While nearby East Street has seen something of a revival in recent years, with independent shops moving into vacant units, it remains to be seen what will happen to the abandoned, echoing spaces inside St Catherine’s Place.
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