B&M shop in south Bristol’s Broadwalk Shopping Centre to close

The B&M discount store takes up one of the biggest units in the shopping centre
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B&M is to close its home discount store at Broadwalk Shopping Centre in south Bristol, Bristol World can reveal - resulting in another blow for the run-down shopping centre.

The 50-year-old centre in Knowle has been in decline for some years. Its owners entering administration in 2019 and the site was earmarked for a revamp under the name Redcatch Park in the same year, before being sold to the current owners, Redcatch Development Partnership, in 2021.

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B&M is one of the largest and busiest stores still based within the centre and will close in early April at the end of the lease, the centre owner confirmed to Bristol World in a statement today (February 22). It joins a growing list of stores to leave the centre in recent years.

The news also comes amidst redevelopment plans put foward by the Redcatch Development Partnership for the centre. The plans would see the current 1970s structure demolished and replaced with around 800 flats based in several tower blocks, a cinema, small supermarket, restaurant, library and dentist surgery.

But the Knowle Neighbourhood Planning Group, which has started a petition called Knowle Deserves Better - Stop the Broadwalk Towerblocks, claims the revamp would reduce the number of shops further and limit community facilities.

Knowle councillor Gary Hopkins supports the plans. He said: “There is always toing and froing with these kinds of planning applications but we hope the plans can be in front of the committee next month.

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“If the meeting is delayed again there will be trouble because the centre is in desperate straits with more shops closing all the time. The number of customers using the centre now isn’t remotely close to being enough for businesses to survive - more are looking to leave which is serious for the area.”

The Knowle Community Party councillor hopes approval for the development can be granted on March 15. He estimates it to be a costly project and predicts costs to be upwards of £30million before a brick is laid due to the demolition process and other preparation fees.

Artist impression showing the height of the Redcatch Quarter proposed for Broadwalk Shopping CentreArtist impression showing the height of the Redcatch Quarter proposed for Broadwalk Shopping Centre
Artist impression showing the height of the Redcatch Quarter proposed for Broadwalk Shopping Centre

The planning application has received hundreds of letters of support and objections, with the latter outweighing support for the project. To view the planning application in full, click here.

The B&M store news comes just a day after Iceland announced it was closing its store in St Catherine’s Place in Bedminster. The nearest B&M store to Knowle is at Imperial Park in Hartcliffe.

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