An angry tourist has slammed Bristol's shopping quarter and declared the 'depressing dump' isn't woth visiting. Youtuber Turdtowns blasted our shopping centres and concluded that our new Clean Air Zone is 'killing' the city.
During a scathing Youtube podcast, viewed by more than 76K in one day, he told viewers that he couldn't believe the Galleries 'still exists'.
He said: "Built in 1991 this was the main place to come until 2008 when a new shopping area called Cabot Circus opened. That meant a lot of the better shops moved.
READ MORE: Complaint against Bristol City Council over CAZ fines is upheld
"This place is now completely irrelevant, you would never need to come here. Well, this place is doomed, last year it was announced that the Galleries will be knocked down in the next two years.
"It's going to be replaced with coffee shops, student accommodation and offices. The council has given up and they will now destroy the five acres site, essentially there's nothing even wrong with the site."
He also slammed nearby Castle Park as being full of 'crackheads' and said Bristol didn't need more coffee shops as the city was already full of them. Empty shops are everywhere along the main street in Broadmead, he pointed out.
"So it's clearly not just a problem with the Galleries," he said. "We can expect an announcement that this area will be knocked down too in around five years."
Bristol's former 'towering Debenham's building' has been shut since 2019 as he claims 'nobody knows what to do with it'.
"It's massive," he said. "One of the largest buildings in Broadmead. Well good news, because plans have recently been revealed that they are going to knock down the entire building and they are going to replace it with a mixture of student accommodation and affordable homes - that's sure to encourage people to visit Broadmead."
He also slammed Sparks as being an empty department store and wasn't happy that jewellery stores have closed down in Cabot.
"It isn't worth coming here," he concluded. "It's expensive to visit, everything is really spread out, other places offer superior shopping. Broadmead is just a depressing dump.
"I just can't help but think that CAZ is affecting trade in Broadmead. It's definitely got worst since I last visited, it's definitely not dead yet but if they lost Primark or Zara it would be the end of the road for Broadmead. If Bristol continues this way, one day this whole area will be flats and student accommodation."
What the council says about CAZ
Bristol introduced the scheme after the Government set legal limits for pollution. A spokesperson said: "We have introduced a Clean Air Zone to ensure Bristol meets those limits within the shortest possible time. A major source of air pollution in cities is road traffic, particularly diesel engines."
Air pollution affects everyone in Bristol, especially:
- children
- older people
- people with heart, breathing and underlying health conditions
What developers say about new Debenham's development
Those behind the scheme said it would create a new pedestrian route from Broadmead to the Bearpit roundabout and create a new ‘northern gateway’ to the city’s retail heart. Also included in the plans is a two-storey community building which the architects and developers say they want to be a library or health centre.
The developers are calling the plans ‘Barr Street Bristol’. The aim is to recreate the old medieval Barr Street, which used to connect the Horsefair to the St James Barton junction with Stokes Croft before the wholesale redevelopment of the Broadmead area in the 1950s and 60s saw the building that became Debenhams built, which closed off that route. The Debenhams building, which sits facing down Merchant Street to the centre of Broadmead, would be demolished and the two tower blocks built either side of a pedestrianised street.
A spokesperson for the developers said the Debenhams building was not a practical one to convert, so demolition and rebuild was the better option.
“This high street retail decline is a significant challenge facing all areas of the UK including Bristol city centre. At the same time Bristol faces a continuing housing crisis,” he said. “Two years after Bristol’s Debenhams shut its doors for the final time, proposals have been revealed for more than 500 new homes set above a lively, new, tree-lined pedestrian retail street – reinstating the historic Barr’s Street - connecting Broadmead to the Bearpit.
