Britain’s abandoned malls have more pigeons than customers, yet a top boss of one of the country’s biggest shopping centre owners has insisted they are making a comeback.
Dismayed locals in Kent, Bristol, Essex, and Worcestershire have in recent months bemoaned that their once bustling centres have become deserted ghost malls full of tearaway youths.
Two decades of decline has seen centres left to rot where units lay empty, graffiti is scrawled over shop windows, and used condoms are seen in the car park.
Rita-Rose Gagné, the chief executive of Hammerson – which owns the Bullring in Birmingham and Cabot Circus in Bristol – believes the beleaguered shopping centres that have become an eyesore for residents are on the comeback trail.
‘Years ago, [shopping centre] rents were higher but they’ve been rebased and are more affordable, [whereas] online operations are now extremely costly,’ the 62-year-old told The Times.
Yet Britons recently have been painting a bleaker picture of their abandoned rundown centres.
Worcestershire market town Eversham’s Riverside centre, where only three of more than 40 units are occupied, has been labelled an ’embarrassment’ where one shopper quipped: ‘There are more pigeons in here than people most of the time.’
Sarah, 57, out with her friend Louise, 71, told MailOnline in December: ‘We’re just cutting through. I don’t want to hang around here.
BRISTOL — St Catherine’s Place is now an eerie ghost mall – the result of a steady decline over the past 20 years
BRISTOL — Graffiti is daubed on the shutters and grime covers the masonry of St Catherine’s Place
BRISTOL — Farm Foods, the final tenant, followed suit and quit the shopping centre last year, leaving the beleaguered mall vacant with only pigeons left nesting there
Rita-Rose Gagné, the chief executive of Hammerson, believes the beleagured shopping centres that have become an eyesore for residents are on the comeback trail
‘Years ago it was bustling. All the units were full. There was a Next, a Dorothy Perkins, a Woolworths, a bakery.’
Wychavon District Council has said it is committed to redeveloping the centre by March 2028 ‘and we’re making good progress on that promise’.
The local authority described it as a ‘complex building’ that would need to be bulldozed first.
In the Kent commuter town of Dartford, locals say the town has slipped into a decline since falling into the shadow of the sprawling Bluewater Shopping Centre in 1999.
Complaints have ranged from its crime issues to tearaway youths as well as a deeper issue from its lack of aspiration.
Locals have argued that Temple Hill Square and the High Street, both once bursting with energy, shoppers and retail giants, are now filled with corner shops, a chippy and a cafe.
Miserable looking flats and maisonettes also dominate the square, while the town centre has multiple shops sitting empty.
One local, a fan of the area, describes the square as ‘brutalist architecture’, while another says it is a ‘hellhole’.
BRISTOL — St Catherine’s Place is in a story state with shuttered shops fronts and graffiti
BRISTOL — The once-thriving shopping centre saw all of the retail units pulling out leaving it an eyesore
BRISTOL — Five years ago just six stores remained open in the mall and in 2020 there were only three
BRISTOL — There have been a series of ambitious plans to regenerate the area, but several have failed to materialise due to the uncertain economic outlook and rising costs
BRISTOL — Planners want to demolish many other old structures and replace them with apartments
BRISTOL — New retail units and cafes are also planned as part of the major redevelopment
Much anger is directed at what the 240-acre Bluewater – the fifth biggest shopping centre in the country – has done to the area and how local politicians and planners have responded.
Michael Preston, 56, said in December standards in the area had slipped in recent years.
The decorator said: ‘It is just hell. I’m sure there’s rougher areas but it is so depressing. It is appalling.
‘A zombie apocalypse would do the area a favour. It would cheer the place up. It really is that bad. It’s just grey and miserable. I want to move.
‘There’s always stabbings or crime and anti-social behaviour. I have lived here my entire life and it used to be lovely. Now it’s grim.’
Retired builder Eddie Hemsley, 66, has lived in Dartford most of his life and said Bluewater had ‘ruined’ the town.
He said: ‘Nobody cares about us. The council has just abandoned us. Bluewater came in and sucked the life out of this town.’
In Waterlooville, Hampshire, rows of boarded-up shops also lined the high street as ’empty’ car parks and an ‘awful’ shopping centre remain.
SLOUGH — The depressing shopping scene has forced many locals from the Berkshire town to turn their back on the once beloved high street
SLOUGH — The high street has become particularly neglected with some locals claiming it’s ‘impossible to buy a pair of work trousers’
SLOUGH — Household names have departed and what’s left are dozens of small cafes and eateries, lots of pound-shops and countless numbers of mobile phone repair stores
SLOUGH — Locals have questioned whether the local authority could have done more to save the town’s high street before it was too late
DARTFORD — A look at graffiti on the walls of Temple hill town centre in the Essex town
DARTFORD — Shoppers have claimed that Britain’s deserted ghost shopping centres would be improved ‘by a zombie apocalypse’
DARTFORD — In the Kent commuter town, pictured, locals say the town has slipped into a decline
The town, which has a population of around 64,000, has lost both its ‘lovely little shops’ and bigger stores like Waitrose and Peacocks over the years.
Locals have been left without much choice for clothes shopping, and ‘unattractive’ streets to browse in.
Lee Hathaway, 59, wasn’t having much luck searching for a Chanel perfume for his wife in the town centre when he spoke of the ‘basic’ selection of shops.
‘Visually it’s probably the worst shopping centre I have ever seen,’ he added.
William Owen, 90, has lived in Waterlooville for 54 years, and he thinks that it’s ‘gone downhill’ in that time.
‘It’s awful, isn’t it,’ he said. ‘I’ve lived here for 54 years. It’s gone downhill, really down hill. I go to Havant or Petersfield for my shopping.’
The grandfather now spends over an hour on the bus once a week to go to his nearest butcher’s – he was able to point out the spot where one used to be on Waterlooville’s high street.
Of the time it takes him to get to a butcher’s now, he said: ‘On the bus, if all goes well you can probably do it in an hour and 10, an hour and 15.’
The retired engineer fondly remembers the ‘flower shop’ and ‘fruiters” which also used to feature on the high street.
DARTFORD — Miserable looking flats and maisonettes also dominate the square
DARTFORD — The town centre also has multiple shops sitting empty as many are boarded up
DARTFORD — Locals say the town is in need of life support economically, socially and from a construction point of view
DARTFORD — Much anger is directed at what the 240-acre Bluewater – the fifth biggest shopping centre in the country – has done to the area
WATERLOOVILLE — The high street in the Hampshire town where business once thrived
WATERLOOVILLE — It is now home to one of the worst-looking shopping centres that its locals have ever seen
Wellington Retail Park, which has these shops as well as an M&S, is a short walk from the town’s main shopping street.
Elsewhere, St Catherine’s Place in Bristol, was is an eerie ghost mall when MailOnline visited in March 2024 – the result of a steady decline over the past 20 years.
Five years ago just six stores remained open and in 2020 there were only three.
Farm Foods, the final tenant, followed suit and quit the shopping centre last year, leaving the beleaguered mall vacant with only pigeons left nesting there.
St Catherine’s then closed down entirely with boards placed in windows and shutters going up permanently.
Once home to high street staples including Argos, Iceland and Bon Marche, it is now covered in graffiti and street art.
The state of St Catherine’s Place is in stark contrast to Bristol’s reputation as one of Britain’s hipster capitals.
One local who moved to the area from London, described Bedminster, where the shopping centre is located, as a ‘bit like East London’s Shoreditch’.
WATERLOOVILLE — Shoppers walk by where rows of boarded-up units line the high street
WATERLOOVILLE — Shoppers in the area have lamented the ’empty’ car parks and ‘awful’ shopping centre
WATERLOOVILLE — Locals have been left without much choice for clothes shopping
WATERLOOVILLE — Locals have claimed that the streets are ‘unattractive’ while they browse around
He told the Telegraph: ‘I love all the independent shops of Gloucester Road, exploring trendy ‘Bedmo’ [Bedminster] which is a bit like East London’s Shoreditch, and the fact the train is only 1hr 15 to London – I commute there once a week.’
But as the area becomes gentrified by wealthy out of towners, the future could be bright for its decaying shopping centre.
Over the past decade, more and more shops in Slough have become boarded up, with it slowly turning into a ‘ghost town’ as figures released in January revealing one in five units now vacant.
The depressing shopping scene has forced many locals from the Berkshire town to turn their back on the once beloved high street – instead, opting to carry out errands in nearby leafy Windsor, Uxbridge or even making a two-hour drive to Stratford.
And while it is a well-known fact that high streets up and down Britain are struggling to compete with the onslaught of online shops, Slough’s high street has become particularly neglected with some locals claiming it’s ‘impossible to buy a pair of work trousers’.
The town, which shares a postcode with regal Windsor has long been the butt of jokes.
Shortly before the blitz of World War II the former poet laureate Sir John Betjeman wrote a verse about it which began: ‘Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough! It isn’t fit for humans now, there isn’t grass to graze a cow.’
Sandra Edwards, 64, who now lives in Windsor, told MailOnline: ‘It’s a ghost town. It has died a death. It used to be absolutely amazing; it used to have an outdoor market, it used to have a club where everyone would come dancing – even celebrities.
EVERSHAM — The six-storey car park at the Riverside shopping centre appeared to be deserted when MailOnline visited in December
EVERSHAM — The central feature now is a cordoned off area under the domed, glass roof where strategically placed buckets collect water when it rains
EVERSHAM — Of over 40 units, only three are open – Home Bargains, a small mobile phone shop and the café
EVERSHAM — Pointing to the cordoned off area, one local said: ‘We used to have a fountain there. Now we get a fountain every time it rains’
EVERSHAM — A condom in the car park. Back in 1988 when it opened, this privately-owned centre was thriving
‘Now there is nothing here. It just smells of drugs. You have to watch your purse, your bags. There is a lot of shoplifting here – you see people running out the shops, but the staff can’t do anything about it.
‘I could cry, I’ve got really good memories of the town but it is so different now. Where has this wonderful town gone?’
Colin White, a real estate agent in the area added: ‘It has all got a bit rubbish. It seems to attract a lot of crackheads and druggies, prostitutes, things like that.
According to data from JDM Retail, over the past decade Slough has seen a serious decline with 20 per cent of shops units being vacant – higher than the national average of 14 per cent.
A 2024 report by Lambert Smith Hampton said that about 60 of the UK’s 500 bigger shopping centres are likely to be razed completely, and a further 200 could be partially demolished.
