Bradley Stoke’s new town centre is a step closer to completion after hoardings around the site were removed this week.
The new ‘retail terrace’ of six large non-food outlets is now fully open to public view along with two smaller units on the north-western side of the Town Square, one of which is now decorated with the Ladbrokes logo.
The route of the new bus lane along the edge of the Town Square is now fully visible and a bus stop (with shelter) has been installed in the covered section just before the junction with the public access road.
Buses will enter the site via a barrier controlled slip road off Bradley Stoke Way and proceed along the side of the mall building before skirting the Town Square and then leaving the site with a left turn onto the public access road.
As predicted earlier this week, ‘under offer’ banners have appeared on various units around the site. In the retail terrace, two units (3 & 5) are shown as under offer, with a further four units (4, 6a, 6b and 10) in the mall.
The retail terrace assignments differ from information shown in the Alder King marketing brochure, where unit 2 is shown as being under offer to Brantano and unit 3 under offer to New Look, but it is unknown at this stage whether this means that Brantano has pulled out or just chosen another unit.
Of the units under offer in the mall, unit 4 is between Carphone Warehouse and O2, while units 6a and 6b (one of which is very small) are between the mall side entrance and O2. Unit 10 is the large one at the eastern end of the mall, which also has entrances from Bradley Stoke Way and the shoppers’ car park.
The Westworld mobility and lifestyle store shown in the marketing brochure as occupying Town Square unit 8 (next to Ladbrokes) is not one of those shown as being under offer.
The tenants of the ‘under offer’ units are expected to be officially named within the next two weeks.
Animal superstore Pets at Home could be among the names as the group has recently posted job advertisements for full-time and part-time positions at its “Bradley Stoke New Store”. There has also been speculation that a bike shop might take mall unit 10, which has been reconfigured since the initial opening of the Willow Brook Centre in October 2008.
See the latest Willow Brook photos on PicasaWeb: album; slideshow.
What do you think of the range of shops and services available at the Willow Brook Centre? Which stores would you like to see there? Are you disappointed that there aren’t more community services like a post office and council drop-in centre? Let us know using our comments facility.
It would be great if the new Bradley Stoke “District Centre” could encompass some more varied and practical shops such as a Dry Cleaners etc. The current area consists of large shops and is not a community space or meeting place.
Also why not hold a farmers market in the centre space when the area is nearly completed.
A cycle shop with a service and repair facility would be excellent for the center
We were promised a Town Centre that would serve as a focal point for the community and ideal meeting venue. What we have got is a collection of disparate fast food outlets, estate agents and soon a bookies!
In short there is nothing which would cause me to visit this area, or linger for any length of time. But at least Tesco will be pleased as there are no units occupied that could be viewed as competition to them.
Come on BSTC, sort it out and deliver on your promises.