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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.
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.
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