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Grotty Shopping Centres
Every town has one.
Here in Nottingham we have the Broadmarsh Centre, some 60s/80s concrete thing filled with budget fashion shops, an abundance of comic sans, poor lighting and a Wimpy. However it has got a pretty good Wilkonsons, and at least two different pix n mix stalls.
I think it's better than the Broad St Mall in Reading, which had a 'food court' upstairs which, after a lengthy refit, remained open for only a few months before being roped off and turned into some kind of spooky abandoned corner of the mall. It has a games workshop I think.
What's your local flea-infested retail hellhole like?
It's called The Howard Centre
Named after Ebenezer Howard, who designed Welwyn Garden City or something. It's pretty shit really, mainly full of women's clothes shops and cafes. Oh, and there's a shop that only sells curtains, and it's been open for years. How does a curtain shop stay open for that long? How many curtains does one need?
I don't know, but I'm sure when it closes
the local papers will have a field day with puns for the headline.
Same as yours.
But you missed BrightHouse, the stench of piss in that alley and the constant presence of SKY salesmen.
Which one's BrightHouse?
I seem to associate Sky with the Victoria centre for some reason..
Near the bus station exit
It's the place you can buy a TV for seven times what it's worth by paying for it monthly - with no credit check!
I never venture that far in..
Wilkos is as deep as I go.
The upstairs bit is pretty creepy, particularly the end furthest away from the Caves of Nottingham bit.
Broad St Mall Games Workshop is no more
Sad day. I remember the heady days of buying Deftones hoodies and Disturbed CDs from the Broad St Mall Sound Machine.
Where's it gone?
I havent been in BSM in years, are there actually any real shops in there (apart from TK MAX)
There's a superdrug
and some kind of New Look Extra.
The sound machine in Broad St closed in 2002 maybe? It was during my first year of uni there.
Zavvi is there
but it doesnt count as it used to be Virgin, and the entrance has changed so you can't say "i'll meet you outside Virgin" like you used to.
Does Pav's still count at BSM?
Does anyone go into Zavvi still?
When I was there it was always kinda empty.. the music was obtrusively loud and they only had about 3 different CDs in stock, and 2 of those were Jet.
Dunno, don't live there anymore
just seems depressing walking round the town centre last time i was back.
I have a £15 Zavvi voucher (not useable online FFS) and am still not wanting to venture in. Not sure what to buy. Maybe Super Smash Bros Brawl
Arndale in Luton
thank god i never have to come here again after Friday.
*massive weight off shoulders lifted*
Oh God
I HATE the Arndale centre. I walked through there once on a Friday night and got so much abuse. I don't just hate Arndale, I hate Luton.
I hate Luton and I've never been there, I just normally associate Luton
with knowing that the M1 is going to get much worse.
That too
I suggest you don't go to Luton unless you absolutely have to.
yes
i've worked here for far too long and i leave on Friday. Winner!
haha I got a tattoo in a store round the corner from that mall
it was dire!
More detail please.
Ah, I can't see it at work!
Description please!
A stone face
with a mouth that's just asking for drunk people to piss in.
Maryhill.
:(
WIMPY,
I loved wimpy burgers! My mum used to take me to the one in Stretford Arndale, which is still grotty, and all the walls are eighties yellow/white
Ah, love for the yellowing walls.
Reminds me of 'Starburger' in Frimley.
the one opposite my work
shops: Boyes, Peters (basically a nicer Greggs if you don't know it), a pet shop, a charity shop, a discount womens clothes shop, a discount shoe shop.
muzak: the kind of 90s trance that got into the singles chart, pop hits like that "hey-heyyyyyy baby OOOH AAAH" song, the "jump to the left, slide to the right, criss-cross" song and the best of Queen.
the hanging basket plants: dead and dying
the roof: leaking
the floor: covered in discarded bits of sausage roll and pastry from little kids dropping them and charvers throwing them at each other.
it calls itself a shopping centre
i don't think it's really earned such a grand title
Haha, the dead hanging baskets..
..has it got poor lighting too?
yep
the glass bit of roof they hang from is so utterly filth covered that it's dark even on sunny days
Princes Quay, Hull?
I remember that place well!
Has ti still got the bizarre budget shops on the 'Top Deck'?
Birmingham Pallasades
Above New Street Station. Oh the horror.
Full of horrible people and shops, only thing keeping it running is the station below and the subway (sandwich shop)
Yeah, that is pretty shitty!
I once got lost in there at 2am and my friend was pretending
he was in a zombie movie when we really needed to find a way home.
That's the kind of thing I do! :)
its totally do-able in there, as its all one level and weird celings
i'd probably be drunk and scare myself and do a runner
Broadmead in Bristol
it's pretty grim. But part of it is being redeveloped and should be open as a swish new shopping/eating/cinema bit. Just right next to the grim bit.
Huddersfield has the Kingsgate Centre
which isn't actually that grotty because it's new, because for ages there wasn't really one. so yeah, it's not grotty, but it's just a generally depressing place full of pillocks
Stretford Mall
Full of inbreds, general freaks and Scabbots Farm chicken shop.
see mine!
Castlegate Centre
It has Woolworths, Boots, Wilkinsons, Iceland, a pound shop, Specsavers, a fresh food section (meat and veg etc) Greggs, Cooplands, Key cutting shop, Phone shop, Jewellers and some furniture shops.
It's not actually that bad thinking about it.
It's the people who go there which is the problem.
Is the key cutting shop run by this man:
http://www.lunacynet.com/league/images/s1_pop.jpg ?
Newgate Centre in Newcastle
Has all the hallmarks of a grotty shopping centre; dirty looking cafes, discount food supermarket, Woolworths, cheque cashing place, Games Workshop, fairly rubbish second hand record store, charity shops round about it, a pawn shop and for some reason a wrestling merchandise shop.
I don't understand how the last one stays in business - Forbidden Plant is just round the corner on a main street with more than enough WWE tatt to satisfy anyone.
Elephant not been mentioned?
Surely nothing is as bad as that.
East Kilbride shopping centre
is absolutly massive and there are nicer bits and grottier bits.
But aside from being a dreadfully average, soulless place; it's okay. Full of neds, mind.
the Broad Street Mall: Reading's Favourite Mall!!
that place had everything, indie music shops, instrument shops a tk max AND a beaties, now what's it got, Hawkins Bazar?! great!
Ah, was it Modern Music
that was up there? To be fair, Guitar Works is pretty decent as a replacement.
it's probably a lot better, but still
the glory days of the broad street mall are no more :(
There were glory days?
when nu metal peaked...
ahhh 2001
a fine year for reading.
The Merrion Centre in Leeds
A Morrisons which is possibly less appealing than having your pubes extracted with tweezers, said Sky salesmen, horrible mobile phone accessory carts, mirrored columns that highlight the fact you are in a place worse than hell, its own shopmobility area for fat bastards who can't be arsed walking, a long walk from the main city centre, an 'Edwards' on the outside for a quick peek at a lower class drunk and the piece de resistance - Oceana is in the roof area.
It is absolutely the pits.
Oceana on the roof? Wow...
do people ever fall of it?
I like the sound of these mobile phone accessory carts- I assume they're all still for nokia 3210s or equivalents?
It is truly shit, but............
it does contain the brilliant Out of Step record store:
http://www.outofstep.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=20
The old market is horrible
We're lacking in decent record shops since Slipped Discs II went bust. Fucking HMVocracy.
The Gates, Durham
Poundland, X catalogue shop, grotty toilets, card shops, discount sports gear and erm.... Waitrose?!
Waitrose? That's unusual...
I like The Gates
But then again I like Durham. My friend has just finished uni there, and although the nightlife isn't amazing it's a lovely place. There's a really scary woman in Waitrose and she was really horrible to me :(
It's lovely looking
but after 20 years it gets really dull (there's so little to do here) and you start to slightly resent the place and want to get out... or at least thats how I feel.
Farnborough Special:
The holy trinity-
Kingsmead- Pretty much like Dead Rising, but with worse shops, I'm sure there's a pet shop that sells dead things. In the Eighties it seemed like the height of glamour, I used to go to the Santas grotto there, and look at subbuteo in the toy shop. Now it's mostly pound shops.. one wing of it is pretty much deserted.
Queensmead- The outside 'High St' type place. Now any remaining shops are clustered down one end, clinging onto the Iceland and Pizza Hut for life. A few years ago someone tried painting mock shop fronts onto the closed shops- I imagined they died from exhaustion.
Princesmead- The newest part, opened in the 90s, linking the High St with some of the retail parks. It was alright in the 90s (http://www.tvha-guildfordroad.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/main/Farnborough21%20%20shopping.jpg) and had some kind of stuffed bear crashing a plane into Burger King diorama which was quite interesting.. the rot's set in the last few years though, not too much left.
i just remembed
you once asked for a 'pain or chocolate' there. megalolz
Was that in Princesmead?
In retrospect, it wasn't too bad back then in the college days. It's a bit naff now..
Our shopping center was built in the late 90's
its sterile white, its clean and efficent but lacks any charecter... the Laine, the other shopping area is really rather special in it's bricky feel and your walking threw narrow laines, its filled with Charity, Alternative and Indie record stores & is brilliant.... London Road is the road to avoid though as everything there run down to hell but it DOES have a Richer Sounds.
suburban shopping centres
are almost all absolute hellholes, far worse than the ones you find in town centres. Take the Ellesmere Centre in Walkden, Salford as an example - 3/4 of the units must be empty (no exaggeration) and walking through it feels being in a scene from 28 Days Later, only very, very real.
The only people brave enough to venture inside are the old folk - presumably all those years of living in Salford have drained all the fear out of them - and the scrotes from Little Hulton. The Walkden precinct is actually a step up from the one in Little Hulton, so you can imagine what that must be like.
The Ellesmere Centre is so shit it doesn't even have a BrightHouse.
Lakeside
They used to have a concrete monstrosity in Bath until last summer, when it got torn down.
That's the nearest grotty one I can think of.
It used to be certainly
I think it's a horrible place.
southampton city centre
has FOUR shopping centres.
the fourth is the east street shopping centre.
its like something from a pulp song.
also: the shopping centre in Sutton only has about 2 open shops now.
the most terrifying was of course the shopping levels of the tricorn in pompey.
photos of tricorn:
http://www.garfnet.org.uk/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=168
best photo ever
http://www.garfnet.org.uk/coppermine/albums/2003/06/29/normal_dscf1257.jpg
Wow, that's worse than Farnborough
How did it get to that state?
from wiki:
Constructed in the mid-1960s, it was demolished in 2004. It was home to one of the first Virgin Megastores and housed the largest Laser Quest areana in Europe.
The centre was a well-known example of 1960s architecture, and in the 1980s it was voted the 3rd ugliest building in the UK. In 2001, BBC Radio 4 listeners voted it the most hated building in the UK. Demolition of the Tricorn began on 24 March, 2004 and lasted approximately 9 months.
Opened in 1966, the centre was an attempt to revitalise Portsmouth, costing the city council £2 million. It was hoped that premium stores would occupy the centre, with Marks and Spencer being the anchor tenant, but as the centre was not connected to Portsmouth Town Centre, these stores never moved in. The apartments were never fully occupied owing to problems with cramped living conditions, faulty heating and serious damp. They were boarded up in 1979.
During the 1980s, the centre got seedier and seedier, and the nightclub developed into a casino. The shops slowly left, with the last ones closing in March 2002.
Portsmouth City Council deliberated the demolition of the centre for many years. However, the uniquely designed car-parking block was too useful to the city — providing 400 car parking spaces — to be destroyed until recently. This car park was the site of many suicide attempts, being amongst the highest publicly accessible buildings on the South coast. For this reason, a plaque offering the support of The Samaritans organisation was positioned at this infamous point.
Blimey that actually does
look worse than Elephant.
The Tricorn was incredible........
Student architects used to be taken there from all over the UK in order to observe a masterclass in how NOT to design a building!
It looks like a madman made it..
..I can imagine getting lost!
if you drive into
portsmouth from a certain direction it was one of the first things you saw. we once parked in there. we went back to get the car after about two minutes and parked somewhere else.
Bournemouth is free of these.......
although there are an abundance of little mini arcades with a dozen or so shops.
Neighbouring Poole has The Dolphin Centre, one of the original Arndale shopping malls. It's a terrible place where terrible people shop for terrible clothes.
Nearby Boscombe has The Sovereign Centre which has it's own police station, no more needs to be said about it.
Back in Swansea there's the
St David's Shopping Centre. Grottiest place ever really; it's an ill conceived 1980s development that clearly was only allowed because the developer bought off some local councillors. Seems that when it was proposed there were no retailers committed to moving into there for starters. Now it's a bleak, desolate area with barely any shops in it; there's only an Iceland, Shopmobility, Big Drop Surf Shop and Cranes (music and instrument store) left open, everything else long ago closed down. There's also an upper level that's now completely inaccessible that used to house various local traders in a little market type area but that closed sometime in the late '80s. On the upside though there are plans to redevelop it and all the area surrounding it to try and link the city centre to the seafront and geberally make it much less grotty.
As for the Broadmarsh Centre, that's going to be redeveloped into a Westfield Nottingham (a la Westfield Derby, only much bigger), which could be a good thing, or it could do as it has done in Derby and slowly strangle the life out of the rest of the city centre.
I've seen the plans for the new Westfield place..
..I think it's part of a larger development of that side of the City Centre.
I think it's unlikely that it'll strangle the rest of the city though, but I can imagine the Victoria Centre getting a bit more grotty.
bloody hell
I almost forgot Salford Shopping City. A truly epic shithole, the very definition of a grotty shopping centre. The best thing about it is the fact it has a Greggs, which just underlines how shit it is.
It's in very close proximity to some of the, er, liveliest pubs in Christendom. In fact you don't really need to go into the precinct itself, just sit in one of the nearby pubs and the contents of said precinct will be brought to you by one of the local scallywags.
the friary , guildford
but its not grotty, its amazing.
The Sports Soccer
is pretty grotty.
true
hmv
bon bouche
MADHOUSE
its the best place in the world. and emo island is the place to be seen.
Emo island?
Which bits this? I thought the Emos used to hang out round one of the back exits near the main road?
That said, Guildford's quite nice, there's an ace thai restaurant on top of a building somewhere.
Kingsland Shopping Centre
in Dalston. It's a bit small and a bit of an assault course (stalls selling towels, crap dressing gowns and massage chairs) and only has one good shop (Sainsbury's). There is a shop that sells cheap slippers though.
In childhood it was the Mander Centre in Wolverhampton or Telford Town Centre. The former was a massive shithole, the latter a little newer and better equipped. When lucky I would get to go to Merryhill which obviously ruled.
and had the best GW
never been to a Matalan ever
am I missing out? Plus people die in there
as you probably know
I'm not massively into either of those things
I've also never been into a Wilkinson's in my life either
weird staff or customers?
Wilkos is great
I get loads of useful house-stuff there, like toiletries, kitchen bits and pieces, etc.
The checkout staff are a bit odd though.
better or worse than Woolworths?
or not comparable?
Better
It hasn't got the rubbish kids section, it's like the homeware bit, but expanded.
you forgot to mention the sickening stench of popcorn in kingsland shopping centre.
or nuts. or sweetcorn. or whatever the hell that aroma is. gag.
Elephant And Castle Centre
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
What colour did they colour Jacko in?
I've yet to experience Elephant and Castle centre.
aaah
http://www.timeout.com/london/features/1916.html
good comment
"I went tempin bowling on on wensday and injured my hand (cut it on a bowling ball) i asked for something to clean my hand with and there was not a single first aid box or kit availerbile i was shocked what if it was a case of life or dieth with a child or any one ?????"
another one:
Posted by jade on 08 Jan 2008 12:33
i live near here dont need information duh
To be honest
I think cutting her finger is possibly the least of her problems.
Sheffield has Meadowhall
which is fine actually. Apart from being out of town.
The market in the town centre is like going back in time though. The best way to describe it is imagining about 20 years after nuclear winter and the underground towns are just starting to function. Just.
castle markets
the outside is pretty bad, as are some of the shops but it does have some decent looking butchers/fruit and veg stalls inside.
it also has a haberdashery inside - these kind of places always seem to have a haberdashery. i don't know why.
meadowhall is horrible.
Meadowhall feels sterile.
Apart from that I 'nothing' it, really.
To be fair to castle market the butchers and veg stalls are very good, but all the floors above them frighten me.
Madhouses are pretty common still
or at least were about a year ago. Definitely still big in Shropshire.
There's one in Guildford
I think. Massive 90s jumpers FTW!!
there's one in southampton
city centre!
Wood Green shopping centre
EXCEPT it isn't grotty! it's actually well built and well maintianed. but it's still full of utterly pointless shops.
shopping city, even.
there are also some repulsive social housing units above it.
FLEET!
http://hartshopping.co.uk/index.html
i like how it avoids having any pictures of it, for fear of boring the viewer senseless
Haha, Fleet indeed.
Nothing is open on Sundays! I think my fave might have been the video shop that closed at 5pm on Saturdays.