For decades a thriving shopping centre that served the daily needs of people in south Bristol, St Catherine’s Place in East Street, Bedminster, is now derelict and forgotten, with only pigeons visiting on a daily basis.
This week, Farmfoods closed its store in St Catherine’s Place despite claiming it had no plans to leave. It was the last shop to shut in the 1960s-built shopping centre, which had a large branch of Sainsbury’s when it opened in 1969.
In recent years, many local people relied on St Catherine’s Place for its Iceland store but it also housed a cafe, a job centre and a greengrocers.
Eventually dubbed ‘Bristol’s saddest shopping centre’, there had been a long and gradual decline at St Catherine’s Place over the past 20 years.
And now the final store has gone, the future of this once thriving shopping centre remains in doubt more than ever.
Plans to refurbish it appear to be on hold as developer Firmstone said an approved scheme to build 180 new flats on land in and around the centre was no longer economically viable.
Now the developer has signalled its intention to turn the majority of the empty shops into flats. It has written to Bristol City Council asking if it needs to submit full planning applications to convert the ten units into apartments.
In the meantime, St Catherine’s Place is derelict, in an increasingly poor condition and exposed to the elements and anti-social behaviour, only used as a shortcut by people walking to and from nearby Windmill Hill and Victoria Park.
Scroll through these incredible photos to see just how sad Bristol’s ‘saddest shopping centre’ looks today as it awaits its fate.
1. St Catherine’s Place in Bedminster has been dubbed the ‘saddest’ shopping centre in Bristol
2. Messy
The pavements outside the old Iceland store are covered with pigeon mess
3. Graffiti
Graffiti covers the shutters at the East Street entrance
4. Popular
Iceland was one of the main attractions of the shopping centre for many years