Bristol Broadmead Before The Galleries

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Re: Bristol Broadmead Before The Galleries

Wasn't there a huge HMV in Broadmead as well as the Virgin Megastore?

There was a Virgin Megastore in The Galleries, that became Zavvi and most recently Head (which to the best of my knowledge is still trading there). That said, I originally launched this thread to discuss Bristol Broadmead before The Galleries Shopping Centre was ever built, i.e. 1970s and most of the 1980s.

Late December 1987 I went with my family to Bristol Broadmead and saw a shop in Merchant Street called "Games Centre". We went in there, and I remember seeing Virgin price tags on the merchandise, so evidently that place must have been run by Virgin. IIRC, it sold mostly home computer games.

[Gothic]

Re: Bristol Broadmead Before The Galleries

Wasn't there a huge HMV in Broadmead as well as the Virgin Megastore?

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Re: Bristol Broadmead Before The Galleries

There was a Tesco near Littlewoods too, it didn't sell food IIRC. Got about five years of toys for six months worth of pocket money when it closed down.

The Tesco store you're referring to was their Home 'n' Wear store in The Horsefair, about half way between Debenhams and Littlewoods. The said Tesco store was two-storey, you could go in via The Horsefair (front) entrance to the ground floor, up the stairs at the back to Bond Street entrance landing level (about two thirds of the way between ground and first floors), then do a U-turn and up a few more steps to the first floor. I think that store closed circa 1982/1983. It was empty for a while afterwards. Since then I think that's been split up; I think part of it is now Blacks (two floors), and part of it is now CEX Entertainment.

C&A was awful

What was wrong with C&A? I used to like to go in there with my family to go up and down all 4 escalators. However there was more to it than that. Do you remember circa 1977 / 1978 the Gear Clear at the back (Bond Street) end of the lower ground floor, where all those coloured spotlights were? By 1980 (or thereabouts) that had gone. IIRC once (spring 1982 I think) my family got me some trousers there in the kids dept (that would have been when I was 10 years old).

Do you remember a shop opposite the front (Penn Street) entrance to C&A called Snob? My family never went in there, I just saw it whenever we came out of C&A the Penn Street entrance/exit.

[Retrogames]

Re: Bristol Broadmead Before The Galleries

There was a Tesco near Littlewoods too, it didn't sell food IIRC. Got about five years of toys for six months worth of pocket money when it closed down. C&A was awful, I spent many bored hours outside of the changing rooms waiting for my mother. The two-storey record shop opposite c&a was awesome, as was the Virgin Megastore near the entrance to Fairfax House.

On a negative note I was really glad to leave Bristol at 18, i've lived all over the world since and still consider Bristol to be the most racist, small-minded place i've ever lived. Visits back over the last decade always indicate it hasnt changed.

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Who can remember Bristol Broadmead Shopping Centre before The Galleries was ever built?

When I was a kid my family lived at Long Sutton in Somerset, therefore we only went to Bristol occasionally from circa 1977 onwards, as it was nearly 40 miles drive to Bristol Broadmead. However I always used to enjoy trips to Broadmead very much, not least for going up and down so many escalators in so many shops. Nonetheless, from our occasional visits, I remember Broadmead from the late 1970s to late 1980s remarkably well.

There used to be a big Woolworths between Broadmead and Fairfax Street, which had a brief stint as https://forums.doyouremember.co.uk/threads/8303-21st-Century-Shopping-Broadmead-Bristol 21st Century Shopping late 1982 to early 1983.

Who can forget the long and narrow Fairfax House, aka Co-op department store? Due to its design it wasn't particularly easy to find your way around; one bad thing about it was the second floor being in 2 parts (separated by the car park entrance from Newgate road hill by Castle Park).

Who can remember Lewis's, the shopping mecca of Broadmead? I can. Whenever I went with my family we used to always go up to the 4th floor via the escalators, and have a good value for money meal in the self service restaurant. Afterwards we'd always go into the Toy Fair at the lift end of the 4th floor, and I'd always want something. On the ground floor was the food hall, my Grandad always bought some of the large Swiss roll that was filled with cream and fruit for us to take home, yummy. What a pity it closed late 1980 / early 1981, and by spring 1981 John Lewis took the place over, with no food hall and the 4th floor was no longer a sales floor. However the escalators between 3rd & 4th floors continued to run, for staff use only.

Boots was really two or three shops connected together to form an L shape. There was the Broadmead part, which is the present day front bit. Then they had another building (I think two neighbouring ones actually with the wall removed between them) in Merchant St; at the right back corner on both the ground and first floors there was an opening to the Broadmead part That Merchant St bit was demolished late 1980s to make way for The Galleries, but they were reimbursed in sales space by having Galleries units on the bottom and middle floor to connect back to back to the still standing Broadmead part when The Galleries opened.

I can remember when, during the 1970s, Littlewoods in The Horsefair had only the ground floor as a sales floor, with an upper balcony for restaurant only. There was a staircase on both sides of the store to access the balcony. In 1980 the store underwent major alterations, and in spring 1981 it was completed. From then on it had two floors: ground floor and first floor. There was an up escalator and stairs on both sides of the store. That was rather pointless really having 2 up escalators, one ought to have been down. Late 1990s (autumn 1997 is the earliest I remember spotting it) the escalator on the right hand side of the store (Horsefair entrance behind you) was set to run downwards, much better having one up and one down.

I could spend hours writing loads more to the extent it would have to go on my blog and be linked from here, but I'll leave it for now. By all means add more memories; perhaps you lived in or close to Bristol and visited Broadmead much oftener than me and my family.