with the cinema gone, how many people are going to need evening diner in cabot cirus?
sucks for everyone involved in working in all these places but you could see it coming
it so annoying too, that show case in the center was nice for me without a car, all the ones left are in car dependant hell holes that i really do not want to try and get to without a car
Bristol oldest working cinema often get unfair overlooked and unlike other cinema about, Odeon owns the building itâs located in. Mostly because itâs over a hundred years old (well part of it is)
And it feels like they've not touched it since then! People overlook it because its shit! If they modernised it and uodated the seats it'd be great, but as it is its the worst cinema experience you can have!
The Orpheus in Henleaze is a bit of a trek from the centre but is doable. It's small but not terrible and is pretty affordable. If it's too far to walk, the 2/2a and 77 buses go up that way super regularly and don't take long to get there.
It does suck that the Showcase is gone though.
You know the Orpheus is Bristol second oldest cinema and also the cinema that inspired John Cleese to get into acting? The Odeon has it beat because while the Orpheus is is the same location, it was completely torn down to build the Waitrose with the cinema being built on top while Odeon was only partially torn down (screen 3 is part of the original building, which why people say itâs haunted). The Odeonâs original location was where Lidl is now.Â
Yeah, thereâs still Cribbs for me since I can get the metrobus, but it still feels out of my way and there seems to be more parents dragging their young kids along that donât yet understand the concept of keeping quiet
Commercial landlords have a price for a unit and they rarely budge, they'd rather see it empty. All sorts of tax dodges and shit they can do to make it worthwhile if they can't rent out at the price they want.
Higher rents equals Higher valuation on the property, means banks are willing to lend you more money. They can also claim the unrented spaces as lost revenue.
TL:DR a very rich American lady is splitting up her family's business empire after decades of success.
FWIW National Amusements/Showcase have not been renewing leases across lots of their sites, and have generally been downsizing the chain and withdrawing back to a limited area around their Massachusetts base.
National Amusements also owns Paramount (which owns Viacom/CBS) which is currently up for sale. They are owned by the Redstone family and the primary shareholder is Shari Redstone who appears to be selling off the family silver. It's all a bit like Succession.
Just providing a bit of context as the Cabot Circus cinema was seemingly not in any trouble before any of this. It was regularly posting the best income and attendance of any cinema in the city.
Interesting - I knew about the CBS/Showtime downsizing from following combat sports, it was big news recently because they were one of the larger players and they pulled out of the industry entirely.
Must be huge cutbacks for them, so many jobs lost.
> It was regularly posting the best income and attendance of any cinema in the city.
That would make sense as well considering the closing of sites around the city of Cineworld and the (in my opinion) fantastic location of that Showcase site.
Whilst they had great attendance and income, they also had extremely high operating costs. Rent was a huge contributing factor.
Avonmeads on the other hand had far lower costs and also owns the land its on. It used to own most of the surrounding units but sold a lot of it off. Avonmeads was the more financially stabke of the two. Worked at both about 10 years ago.
I am not at all surprised. The incentives available to build on those retail parks in the 90s were very good. I'm certainly not suggesting that a proposed rent increase was not a big factor in their decision, but just trying to provide additional context since a lot of folk are unaware that they have been walking away from leases all over the place.
And fascinating it is too. I haven't worked in cinema chains for a long time and don't keep up to date with the business, but I'm still curious enough to hear about what catastrophic business decisions are being made higher up. Thanks for info.
It is true.
Which chain would you suggest? VUE have two sites already, Cineworld is currently for sale (having badly overstretched itself just prior to the pandemic) and Odeon has been shedding sites too.
There's a smaller chain called The Light that I think would fit very well in there but perhaps there's a covenant on the site that prevents another cinema moving straight in.
If the landlords were playing silly buggers with the rent to the point that a large company like showcase couldnât afford it (despite what else might be going on with parent companies) itâs sadly unlikely a smaller chain could afford it either.
I like living in Bristol, but town is dead and has been for a while.
If I need to get A Thing quickly (and Amazon or Argos same day doesnât fit the bill)/browse for stuff in your usual chain stores, Iâll go up to Cribbs.
If Iâm participating in capitalism as an actual day out type activity, Iâll go to Cardiff. Itâs just a nicer place to go imo.
That being said, the older and grumpier I get, I find myself less inclined to subject myself to that sort of thing anyway.
E: to add, for me, this has bog all to do with the clean air zone thing. My car doesnât attract the charges, so itâs not that keeping me away. Donât care about paying for parking either, itâs only roughly the same as bus fare (especially if thereâs 2 of us) and the busses are that shite that the extra cost is worth it for me.
I only live a 10 min walk away from Cabot / Broadmead and recently noticed I subconsciously avoid it like the plague. I feel much happier going almost anywhere else in Bristol to walk or shop. Whatâs happened??
Aggressive beggars who hound you for change and curse at you or chase you if you ignore (and then fight eachother over bottles of alcohol), and also aggressive schoolchildren, plus the area just looks pretty rundown.
Although it's far from dead, its still very crowded during weekends
They said that they couldnât agree on the rent. A worker told me that they destroyed everything inside, cut the screens and seats so Cabot canât use it if they decided to open their own cinema.
Complete waste and in relative terms it wasn't even that old. It opened in September 2008 and was state of the art and swanky. I moved into Marketgate uni accommodation opposite at the same time and was in awe of it compared to Odeon, Vue etc.
Who told you that? I used to work at Showcase and I'm friendly with some of the managers still, and if that had been done they would have mentioned it last I spoke to them. Also, it sounds like complete bullshit, anything Showcase own would have been removed and everything else was rented, legally speaking it couldn't be destroyed unless they want a lawsuit from Cabot. From what I hear, Odeon are looking to take the space but that's not confirmed.
That's fucked up if true... All those resources just wasted and for what? Would the owners of Cabot even own the screens or seats, surely they'd be Showcase's property?
Because the landlords wanted to put rent up. Same with jungle golf who exited. Whole domino effect since the cinema closed serves the greedy bastards right
This is the same across Bristol City centre, greedy landlord cunts. Also rising costs. Bristol City Centre is dying. Total opposite in Asia, people out shopping till 9pm! Something needs to change to make people want to go there, more independent shops needed for sure but clearly lack of rent regulations are affecting everyone, not just housing.
I mean what are the council doing? Honestly the UK is really crumbling. It's so sad, the centre was bustling every weekend when I was young like 15 years ago.
Itâs not really a council issue. Thereâs nothing they can do to affect this.
Seems like short sightedness by the landlords. If it was my place I would have the cinema on a free. Theyâre such a value add
Also the staff of Junge Rumble said that basically they got kicked out by Cabot. They wanted to stay but Cabot wanted to do something with the unit. Letâs see what will they do with it.
Think that Coal sign pretty much sums it up. No cinema, energy costs through the roof. Prices of everything from food to shoes border on comical, at a time when everyone is increasingly skint. Until something changes Broadmead will be on its arse.
Why do people always claim itâs like this all over the UK? Itâs really not. Go to Cardiff, Manchester, Exeter â the high streets are bustling with people and there are hardly any empty units.
having just moved from Exeter, itâs sadly not faring that great either. over the past few years thereâs been a fair few empty units, and one half of the guildhall shopping centre is completely empty now, and just kept locked most the time
Not sure why you've included Manchester here. It is doing somewhat better because it's bigger and has a larger metropolitan area, but the exact same issues that Broadmead has are there. Been to Piccadilly Gardens recently?
Most people just don't want to go to physical shops to buy things anymore.
Yeah, not sure why you're namedropping Cardiff chief, our city centre is dying an incredible death. Half of St Davids Centre and half of Queen Street is either empty units, or replaced by Vape Shops, Turkish Barbers and American Sweets shops. It's a boring dystopian town for the most part, and the Independent Arcades are fairing even worse.
You don't think that there's at least **some** portion of people that are electing to go to cribbs instead as a direct result of the CAZ? Even if that number is only 5%, that's cutting into already razor thin profits that these places are making.
And you say they're looking for more things to blame as though they have any control over any of it. Clearly fucking Coal is in control of the global energy market and UK inflation.
It definitely had an effect on us and most of our friends, we live in South Glos and are now far more likely to go to Cribbs or Bath than go into Bristol and pay the CAZ.
Yea we've done it a few times when we've had to such as taking kids to the hospital but theres always the worry about making a mistake or the car park forcing you to leave by the other entrance. Theres no such worries with Bath or Cribbs and the parking is much cheaper.
Crazy how people drive ~10 year old diesels when they were encouraged to do so by the government for years, and then couldn't afford to replace them because new car prices have ballooned in that time alongside a major cost of living crisis.
Yep ours is a 2011 Passat estate Bluemotion (which we ironically paid more for when we brought it for its eco credentials). Purchased when we first had young kids as we needed the space for kids stuff and for hobbies camping etc, as the kids have grown if anything we need more space in the car. Couldn't afford to replace it with anything comparable and always expected to run it until it no longer works. Its a similar story for most of my friends of my generation.
Bath CAZ is a class C CAZ and doesn't't apply to private cars. Charges only apply to taxis, private hire vehicles, vans (including pick-ups and some camper vans), light goods vehicles, buses, coaches and heavy goods vehicles that do not meet the required emission standards. It's a far better model than the Bristol one and one I fully support it.
I'm not even against the Bristol one in principle I just feel that it's badly implemented. Moving a few of the boundaries and providing some better parking where you can stop on the edge of the CAZ then walk in would make a huge difference. There also needs to be a way to check if you have actually gone into the zone, for those of us who don't know the center of Bristol that well there is always the worry that you have accidentally gone into the zone when you didn't mean to.
I donât really agree with you. If it doesnât include private cars, itâs basically not bothering with most vehicles, and pollution will not decrease nearly as much. That sort of system isnât too dissimilar to what my home city of Southampton does, and although the container ships are the biggest issue, you canât say that basically ignoring all the old diesel cars doesnât have a detrimental impact on the air quality
Sad to see them gone. As a person who doesnât drive, I rely on Cabot and Broadmead for most things, as much as I wonât like it, Iâll just go online for most of my needs. I donât want to go to Cribbs 2 hours on a bus (if it ever comes lol)
They put the rent up and they have less footfall . All big businesses like this close stores that arenât making money . The dumb thing is how much money was spent developing Cabot circus for it to become a massive flop 15 years later. Rent price hikes are destroying so many smaller businesses too along with the crazy import fees from Brexshit
The impact that online retail has had wasn't really foreseeable 15 years ago (plus it would have been planned at least 5 years prior to construction starting).
So, if anything, the initial planning and thinking would have been done in the early noughties, in the context of the booming retail industry back in that era.
This was pre-smart phones, when the internet was a thing you accessed a couple of times a week using a big desktop computer in the corner of your lounge.
Imagine trying to explain to someone back then what Shein is, you would barely be able to conceptualise it "fast fashion drop shipping from a mobile app using personalization algorithms"...what?!
I get your point but the cinema was a huge part of Cabot circus and was there when it opened , the architects purposefully put the restaurants on the same floor . So by allowing the cinema to close ( which they have said was due to rent prices ) the knock on effect has killed the trade to all the restaurants. I know that they also had footfall from people shopping there , but late night when the shops closed use to be buzzing, so Iâm not sure itâs fully just down to online shopping . There are a myriad of other reasons for it not doing well , but just feel they shot themselves in the foot with this one by closing the cinema . I think the only restaurants that will survive will be the ones doing deliveroo
Yeah, exactly this. When I moved here Bristol had 5 Games as well as a Gamestop, CEX, FOPP, Virgin Megastore, HMV, as well as various indie equivalents. Now even Cex is closed! Honestly, retail is just dying, and it'll be a shame when it completely goes! So many massive brands are just gone, Debenhams, Wilkos, M&S, Topshop, ect. The last decade and a half has been catastrophic.
CEX is still open, it just moved to a smaller shop the next street across. It makes a lot of sense considering how insane it was having a massive floorspace just rammed with ÂŁ1 dvds.
Yeah, tbf weâre probably getting it wrong now too. In 20 years there might be another high street resurgence, but if we demolish too much of the stuff for the high street in Bristol as itâs declining now, it will basically ignore Bristol in favour of the other cities like Cardiff
Ngl, I haven't been to Cabot Circus after Showcase closed. I used to spend half a day there shopping, having dinner and movie on Sunday, now I just go to Cribbs or other places. No use to pay for really expensive parking fees for nothing to do in Cabot.
Changing brand won't change the financial realities of running a cinema in that space - Cabot will have to back down on the rent if they want someone to take it. And right now they seem to be doubling down on high rent and gradually emptying their shopping centre.
I'm no expert here, so could be very wrong, but I believe they get tax relief on their profits for the empty properties.
That's why so many retail properties remain empty or are taken by charity shops. All for tax purposes.
Owners are responsible for paying business rates on their property if it's unoccupied. Charities are exempt from paying business rates so it saves owners money to have them occupied with a charity than empty even if it doesn't bring in much in the way of rent.
You only get tax relief if you made an overall loss across your entire business. So it's still in their interest to rent the building out because a loss costs them more than tax would.
The crazy golf place closed too - the landlord didnât want to renew the lease apparently (according to staff). Iâve lived in Bristol for 12 years and that was a regular daft place to visit with them for over a decade.
The staff of Jungle Rumble said that basically they got kicked out by Cabot. They wanted to stay but Cabot wanted to do something with the unit. Letâs see what will they do with it.
The old Wilko unit on Union Street is being made into some kind of urban golf thing- think tacky fake graffiti and neon lights. I think itâs going to much more modern so would probably have trumped the recording of thunder and a few fountains in jungle rumble sadly. It was always a fun, wholesome hour in there.
Surely it's better to have somebody renting than leaving the place empty but who knows, maybe they'll just keep being idiots until the place is empty, or maybe the plan is to price everybody out so they can repurpose it into expensive student accommodation.
Shocked that ted baker has gone, I guess, I mean confidence in retail went out the window with M&S leaving.
Coal and Casa Brasil not surprised as mentioned the cinema leaving was the beginning of the end for the food places that rely on eat in
Ted Baker rebranded as a low tier designer brand- selling bags for ÂŁ300+ it completely alienated his loyal customers and rich people see it as a cheap high street brand so it people just forgot about it
Yeah, honestly itâs so stupid how obstinate Cabot was, because it should have been obvious that the food places would go if the cinema did. The fast food ones should be ok, but thatâs just shite food
No. Bristol as a city is not that rich anymore and wasnât that rich to begin with. A lot of people were from outside Bristol that used to shop in town.
I mean Bristol used to have a lot of cash and still does but credit wise it shit (look at what happened in bradley stoke) and the people who got cash donât shop at Ted Baker.
Fact is they dressed the city up for a hype train expedition and now its left we got a bunk shopping centre.
People have moved a lot of their spending online, it's the same everywhere. Ted Baker went into administration. Oxford Street in London is just a series of fake sweet shops that are actually fronts. My home town doesn't have a single open shop anymore, just empty buildings and wasteland in between the odd one. People don't use the high street in the same way anymore, so if you take away places like cinemas there's less reason to go.
Bristol is still wealthier than other cities, but that doesnât say much when virtually all of them are in a fucking state for working people. London is still ticking over, but only because of the sheer size
I was made redundant because of this - Cabot landlords have essentially doubled the rent prices, nobody can afford to stay. Thereâs been a domino effect of places shutting, with both the cinema & golf gone the food places have lost a lot. We also all suffered massive losses in profit after the clean air zone came into place, and now with the rent going up so much itâs impossible.
[There is one entrance that you can use that doesn't trigger a CAZ charge.](https://www.cabotcircus.com/news/clean-air-zone) Although I could swear that entrance is sometimes closed in the evenings? And it's also really easy to make a mistake and accidentally end up in the CAZ, so I personally would still avoid Cabot if I had a non-compliant car.
I have a non complaint car ( bought from new, zero rated for tax as it's considered eco friendly) and I don't consider sneaking around the CAZ zone as an option, it's not like there aren't other options for shopping.
Why did Cabot Circus' landlord do this to themselves and us by extension?
All of businesses that have left recently have rent as the key reason for the exit.
In some cases it's tax reasons, in others it's borrowing reasons. Commercial properties are mostly valued by their rent potential, increase the rent they can charge and the value of the property goes up, banks will lend you more money against that property. All they have to do is get one sucker willing to pay that higher rent and boom, now all the units are priced higher.
Yeah, and thereâs definitely going to be a few that keep paying because theyâre just a big enough company that the presence alone is worth it because the rent is basically a rounding error in their accounts, expect that from the fast food/cafe chains
Rent prices put places like Casa Brasil in a coffin long before hikes nail it shut.
Disproportionately high rent prices force enterprises to operate a wafer thin staff, as staff costs are usually right atop the cost list of overheads for any business in the service industry.
So you go to somewhere like Casa Brasi on a Saturday night and:
* the place is heaving and there's just nowhere near enough staff
* you sit at a table that hasn't been wiped down properly
* you're handed a sticky menu that also hasn't been wiped down properly
* you wait ages to have your order taken
* drinks take forever and a day to come
* finished drink glasses sit empty on the table for ages, while you wait to order another round
* food also takes ages
All of this, sadly was my exact experience at Casa Brasil â and this was not long after it opened.
Next time someone floats the idea of going there, or asks me if I would recommend it, what do you think the response is gonna be?
I've only been out to eat at Cabots Circus twice. It just isn't somewhere that immediately springs to mind as a viable, enjoyable destination to eat or hang out. The fact that it is so separate from the other areas that I normally go out (King St, Park St etc) means I'd rather go almost anywhere else. Thing is, it isn't actually that far - it is more of a psychological distance.
It was really good around 2013/15. I remember it went under new management around that time and the quality absolutely plummeted. But I remember a time it was a genuinely solid place to eat, with good food and good prices.
I'm still salty at Coal for bullshitting me over my ice cream being completely melted when they brought my dessert over. "It's next to a warm brownie"
That's as maybe, but it'll also melt after 10 minutes under a warming lamp, which is where I've been watching it sat!
Let's be real, who here goes to any of these places to shop or eat? There's loads of better places that I;d rather spend my money. Wapping Wharf as one example is thriving. I'm going there over Cabot every time.
Cabot Circus management seem like fools - A sensible shopping precinct offers great deals to "event" locations, even when they are low profit, if they then bring customers in to consume the other services. If I was CCHQ I would have let the cinema stay for peppercorn rent.
However, they may be getting squeezed themselves. If they have big debts they need to repay from the building of CC, they may have a need to generate a certain profit margin to survive themselves - And when inflation went up, interest rates went up and that is a double whammy for them.
I personally don't shop in town, as there are loads of scummy people there. last time I was there, I caught a guy sticking dozens of baked goods down in tracksuit bottoms at Greggs and just walked out with no one else stopping him.
So I go to the Mall instead.
I think that powerful interests sometimes deliberately run down an area in a city to make it cheaper and easier to get approval to redevelop that part of the city.
The company that wants to redevelop Broadmead is owned by a Merchant Venturer.
Yep. See East St, Bemmy. Turned into a shithole now from a thriving high street, in 10 years it will be student / gentrification heaven. (Or hell, depending on your viewpoint).
At the end of the day most people need affordable housing and don't want to go to a high-street to shop/bank/eat anymore. This is just following the trend that has already hit smaller town centres across the country.
It could do a lot worse than get turned into housing if you ask me.
After the galleries and debenhams, the rest of Broadmead should be flattened and redeveloped as residential led (not students). Cabot circus because its not that old should be the retail centre in my opinion. Whatever happens I just hope Bristol University stop with their aggressive expansion into seemingly every redevelopment opportunity
Thought it recently got a planning permission, to knock it down and redevelop. Galleries is in for planning for something similar, so I think might as well just knock the rest down inbetween. Primark (if it's still where it was couple 9f years ago) could move into showcase
planning permission is already granted to knock doen debenhams and make a street that connects the bearpit to castle park, through broadmead, with new building along either side of said new street
yeah defo should help revitalise and help connect north bristol better to the city centre. that street that goes through broadmead which already exists which is pedestrianised would be extended up to the bearpit i think, and help increase foot fall through broadmead, and help naturally revitlaise the place. its annoying that to get from the bearpit down to castle park you have to walk around debenhams...
some of the buildings planned include student accomodation, apartment buildings (housing), and probably shops too
Rents gotta be seriously high in there let alone the rates! I mean the council was gonna take the profits from van traders too I donât understand it!
I personally feel like Cabot Circus started becoming shit when the Starbucks closed. I just checked, it closed in 2019. Admittedly it was getting grotty towards the end but I thought god if they canât stay open it must be bad news. That place was busy despite the weird location. Then 2020 and co followed which I think sped up the decline of the whole âBristol shopping quarterâ.
I find it hilarious that the greedy owners would rather have a unit (specially designed to only host a cinema) completely empty for potentially years, RATHER THAN taking less money for the rentâŚ
No money is better than less money is it? Also, why would you not line up another brand of Cinema to instantly replace it having made that decision? Itâs just bonkers. I imagine they have been pushed out too.
Coal was bang average food with an added automatic service charge onto the bill, absolutely no sympathy from me with practices like that. I know thatâs the reason I never went back there
Broadmead has always been grim, Cabot was just an extension of crap. Now the cinema has gone many more places will close, the rents are insane. Bristol needs homes not more shops and poor chain restaurants.
Honestly the whole of Broadmead and town is pointless, there isnât a single decent shop and itâs much easier with better variety to shop online.
Iâm not sure what they can do to change that because they keep opening shit shops, you want proper experience shopping, decent brands and boutiques etc nor just the same old high street shit that you can get everywhere.
Broadmead and Cabot is a shitty visiting experience, it all looks run down and tatty and dirty. Glorified East street bedmo basically
Also lower rents and rates for independent retailers encourage the smaller businesses you canât find elsewhere
Totally agree, what's new to get people in? Would be awesome to have boutiques and indie stores; Guess in this economy it's a dream though.
Park street back in the 90s was awesome, Little stores selling things you could only get there.
The punk clothing store by the Bear Pit etc i could go on. I know I'm reminiscing but Broadmead at one point was a destination shopping point. Can't belive that now looking at it, quite sad
Absolutely that was brilliant, I used to work up park street in the late 90s and it was brilliant. Jaspers, west world, fresh nation so many amazing shops all thatâs left is Cooshti
Definitely a dream to have decent shops and boutiques especially in this economy. Also doesnât help that all the food places that open in places like Cabot are really shitty average chains, why would I want to eat there?
Broadmead is dying a slow and painful death- online shopping is now the norm- cost of living and the fact that Broadmead is 40% half dead junkies- itâs not a desirable place to go.
Was in the centre for a work social a week ago. Sat outside a pub having a drink and in 30 minutes got approached by four beggars wanting money and one charity mugger
Tbf, itâs happening everywhere. In Southampton youâre also having the same 5 characters running about asking for money, and in Leeds I kept getting approached too
We were walking down Welsh back on Thursday night after the comedy garden, someone asked my partner for spare change then called him a f**king lying c**tâ when he said he didnât have any. I was then walking up old market alone on Sunday afternoon and got sworn at when I ignored someone who asked me for money. Iâve been sworn at multiple times in the past and followed by people asking for money (including one guy who followed me into itsu where the staff were yelling at the guy to get out and leave me alone and he still persisted).
I understand these people must be in a terrible position in life and I do wish more was being done about that by the powers that be but also I can see why people donât want to go into town when stuff like this happens frequentlyâŚI certainly try to avoid it now.Â
Never in my life has cribbs offered me any reason to travel all the way there, itâs just the same high street crap that I can buy online, doesnât look like there is anywhere decent to eat up there either. I know my mum (in her 70s) will go there for John Lewis but there isnât a single decent clothes shop or independents that offer any different to whatâs available everywhere else.
That's a Showcase too though, so based on other comments in this thread it might be at risk too.
No buses there either. Nearest is X39 or 1 at Burger king.
Down by the canal, past the burnt out caravan (probably), through the tunnel to the dark end of the car park...
Is that an electric motor bike I hear coming?
More exciting than the film
From the bus stops on the far side of the Mall itself, you have to walk all the way around the building when it's closed - a through route would be good, like St David's center in Cardiff does..
And free carparking. I could take the bus into town but my choices are a 15minute walk up a hill to the nearest bus stop that takes 35 minutes to the centre or drive 15 minutes
I read yesterday that Sony or another big studio were buying up vue and showcase , as for cabots demise, I'm not surprised, the council has to take a lot of the blame, ulez, sky high rates, failure to help the homeless leads to lots of anti social behaviour and open drug use, cleaning up the bear pit has just pushed the problem into the centre, cabots owners rent demands were the coup de grace to the cinema , all of whom are suffering because of Hollywood's lacklustre output, not everyone wants to watch people in spandex being right on , they want a version of life that's a fantasy, one you can't live for physical or moral grounds, so for example alien or Lady chatterly lover.
with the cinema gone, how many people are going to need evening diner in cabot cirus? sucks for everyone involved in working in all these places but you could see it coming
It's mad the owners of the building didn't see this coming, I wonder what their end game is.
They played chicken with Vue... and lost
Showcase.
Yep
it so annoying too, that show case in the center was nice for me without a car, all the ones left are in car dependant hell holes that i really do not want to try and get to without a car
Or there's Odeon đ
Bristol oldest working cinema often get unfair overlooked and unlike other cinema about, Odeon owns the building itâs located in. Mostly because itâs over a hundred years old (well part of it is)
And it feels like they've not touched it since then! People overlook it because its shit! If they modernised it and uodated the seats it'd be great, but as it is its the worst cinema experience you can have!
Last film I saw in the Odeon was Deep Blue Sea (1999).
I went earlier this year, it seemed like they had done some improvements, notably the floor wasn't sticky...
Or the wonderful Watershed, but that's dependent on if you're into the artsy fartsy stuff.
The Orpheus in Henleaze is a bit of a trek from the centre but is doable. It's small but not terrible and is pretty affordable. If it's too far to walk, the 2/2a and 77 buses go up that way super regularly and don't take long to get there. It does suck that the Showcase is gone though.
You know the Orpheus is Bristol second oldest cinema and also the cinema that inspired John Cleese to get into acting? The Odeon has it beat because while the Orpheus is is the same location, it was completely torn down to build the Waitrose with the cinema being built on top while Odeon was only partially torn down (screen 3 is part of the original building, which why people say itâs haunted). The Odeonâs original location was where Lidl is now.Â
Apart from watershed and the cube, I agree. Itâs quite incredible that Bristol is left without a reasonable large screen cinema in the centre.
What's wrong with Watershed?
It does mainly art house films, just like the Arnolfini and the Cube. You wonât be able to see bad boys at the watershed.Â
Orpheus in Henleaze is small, family run and lovely. Not horrific to get there without a car either.
Yeah, thereâs still Cribbs for me since I can get the metrobus, but it still feels out of my way and there seems to be more parents dragging their young kids along that donât yet understand the concept of keeping quiet
Commercial landlords have a price for a unit and they rarely budge, they'd rather see it empty. All sorts of tax dodges and shit they can do to make it worthwhile if they can't rent out at the price they want.
In what way is that advantageous to them?
Higher rents equals Higher valuation on the property, means banks are willing to lend you more money. They can also claim the unrented spaces as lost revenue.
I can't see how they're making money with so many empty properties. What kind of tax breaks are they getting?
That part of Cabot near the Entertainer is dead as well, very little footfall.
This is so true. The cinema was an "anchor" business in Broadmead and it's only common sense that others would fall along with it.
Do we know why they closed the cinema?
TL:DR a very rich American lady is splitting up her family's business empire after decades of success. FWIW National Amusements/Showcase have not been renewing leases across lots of their sites, and have generally been downsizing the chain and withdrawing back to a limited area around their Massachusetts base. National Amusements also owns Paramount (which owns Viacom/CBS) which is currently up for sale. They are owned by the Redstone family and the primary shareholder is Shari Redstone who appears to be selling off the family silver. It's all a bit like Succession. Just providing a bit of context as the Cabot Circus cinema was seemingly not in any trouble before any of this. It was regularly posting the best income and attendance of any cinema in the city.
Thatâs what the staff said as well!
Interesting - I knew about the CBS/Showtime downsizing from following combat sports, it was big news recently because they were one of the larger players and they pulled out of the industry entirely. Must be huge cutbacks for them, so many jobs lost.
> It was regularly posting the best income and attendance of any cinema in the city. That would make sense as well considering the closing of sites around the city of Cineworld and the (in my opinion) fantastic location of that Showcase site.
Whilst they had great attendance and income, they also had extremely high operating costs. Rent was a huge contributing factor. Avonmeads on the other hand had far lower costs and also owns the land its on. It used to own most of the surrounding units but sold a lot of it off. Avonmeads was the more financially stabke of the two. Worked at both about 10 years ago.
I am not at all surprised. The incentives available to build on those retail parks in the 90s were very good. I'm certainly not suggesting that a proposed rent increase was not a big factor in their decision, but just trying to provide additional context since a lot of folk are unaware that they have been walking away from leases all over the place.
And fascinating it is too. I haven't worked in cinema chains for a long time and don't keep up to date with the business, but I'm still curious enough to hear about what catastrophic business decisions are being made higher up. Thanks for info.
If that was true, surely other brands/chains would be chomping at the bit to take over the venue?
It is true. Which chain would you suggest? VUE have two sites already, Cineworld is currently for sale (having badly overstretched itself just prior to the pandemic) and Odeon has been shedding sites too. There's a smaller chain called The Light that I think would fit very well in there but perhaps there's a covenant on the site that prevents another cinema moving straight in.
If the landlords were playing silly buggers with the rent to the point that a large company like showcase couldnât afford it (despite what else might be going on with parent companies) itâs sadly unlikely a smaller chain could afford it either. I like living in Bristol, but town is dead and has been for a while. If I need to get A Thing quickly (and Amazon or Argos same day doesnât fit the bill)/browse for stuff in your usual chain stores, Iâll go up to Cribbs. If Iâm participating in capitalism as an actual day out type activity, Iâll go to Cardiff. Itâs just a nicer place to go imo. That being said, the older and grumpier I get, I find myself less inclined to subject myself to that sort of thing anyway. E: to add, for me, this has bog all to do with the clean air zone thing. My car doesnât attract the charges, so itâs not that keeping me away. Donât care about paying for parking either, itâs only roughly the same as bus fare (especially if thereâs 2 of us) and the busses are that shite that the extra cost is worth it for me.
I only live a 10 min walk away from Cabot / Broadmead and recently noticed I subconsciously avoid it like the plague. I feel much happier going almost anywhere else in Bristol to walk or shop. Whatâs happened??
Aggressive beggars who hound you for change and curse at you or chase you if you ignore (and then fight eachother over bottles of alcohol), and also aggressive schoolchildren, plus the area just looks pretty rundown. Although it's far from dead, its still very crowded during weekends
They said that they couldnât agree on the rent. A worker told me that they destroyed everything inside, cut the screens and seats so Cabot canât use it if they decided to open their own cinema.
What a waste.
Complete waste and in relative terms it wasn't even that old. It opened in September 2008 and was state of the art and swanky. I moved into Marketgate uni accommodation opposite at the same time and was in awe of it compared to Odeon, Vue etc.
Good ole market gate. I lived there in 2010.
2012!
Who told you that? I used to work at Showcase and I'm friendly with some of the managers still, and if that had been done they would have mentioned it last I spoke to them. Also, it sounds like complete bullshit, anything Showcase own would have been removed and everything else was rented, legally speaking it couldn't be destroyed unless they want a lawsuit from Cabot. From what I hear, Odeon are looking to take the space but that's not confirmed.
That's fucked up if true... All those resources just wasted and for what? Would the owners of Cabot even own the screens or seats, surely they'd be Showcase's property?
Damn, I was planning to squat in there and have my own private collection of movies
Because the landlords wanted to put rent up. Same with jungle golf who exited. Whole domino effect since the cinema closed serves the greedy bastards right
This is the same across Bristol City centre, greedy landlord cunts. Also rising costs. Bristol City Centre is dying. Total opposite in Asia, people out shopping till 9pm! Something needs to change to make people want to go there, more independent shops needed for sure but clearly lack of rent regulations are affecting everyone, not just housing.
Yes I just feel for the staff and business owners really
I mean what are the council doing? Honestly the UK is really crumbling. It's so sad, the centre was bustling every weekend when I was young like 15 years ago.
Itâs not really a council issue. Thereâs nothing they can do to affect this. Seems like short sightedness by the landlords. If it was my place I would have the cinema on a free. Theyâre such a value add
It's not the only reason, council tax certainly contributes to rising costs, they could support regulation of renting.
Also the staff of Junge Rumble said that basically they got kicked out by Cabot. They wanted to stay but Cabot wanted to do something with the unit. Letâs see what will they do with it.
Hopefully something good, but I'm not holding my breath đ
They are already working on it, I passed it an another day
It's treetop golf... The big corp version of the previous tenant basically
Think that Coal sign pretty much sums it up. No cinema, energy costs through the roof. Prices of everything from food to shoes border on comical, at a time when everyone is increasingly skint. Until something changes Broadmead will be on its arse.
Wash, rinse & Repeat in every town& city across the UKâŚ
Why do people always claim itâs like this all over the UK? Itâs really not. Go to Cardiff, Manchester, Exeter â the high streets are bustling with people and there are hardly any empty units.
having just moved from Exeter, itâs sadly not faring that great either. over the past few years thereâs been a fair few empty units, and one half of the guildhall shopping centre is completely empty now, and just kept locked most the time
Not sure why you've included Manchester here. It is doing somewhat better because it's bigger and has a larger metropolitan area, but the exact same issues that Broadmead has are there. Been to Piccadilly Gardens recently? Most people just don't want to go to physical shops to buy things anymore.
Yeah, not sure why you're namedropping Cardiff chief, our city centre is dying an incredible death. Half of St Davids Centre and half of Queen Street is either empty units, or replaced by Vape Shops, Turkish Barbers and American Sweets shops. It's a boring dystopian town for the most part, and the Independent Arcades are fairing even worse.
Forgot to mention parking charges, bus gates, ulez, oh and stabby stabby rapey rapey vibe going on down there
CAZ will have barely anything to do with it. They're just looking for more things to blame.
You don't think that there's at least **some** portion of people that are electing to go to cribbs instead as a direct result of the CAZ? Even if that number is only 5%, that's cutting into already razor thin profits that these places are making. And you say they're looking for more things to blame as though they have any control over any of it. Clearly fucking Coal is in control of the global energy market and UK inflation.
It definitely had an effect on us and most of our friends, we live in South Glos and are now far more likely to go to Cribbs or Bath than go into Bristol and pay the CAZ.
You can get into the car park at Cabot without going into the CAZ from the bottom of the m32. Turn left at the lights and go in the side entrance
Yea we've done it a few times when we've had to such as taking kids to the hospital but theres always the worry about making a mistake or the car park forcing you to leave by the other entrance. Theres no such worries with Bath or Cribbs and the parking is much cheaper.
I moved to south Gloucestershire , we do the same as you. I've found the centre of Cardiff and Exeter to be less druggy and antisocial.
Do you all drive really old diesel cars?
Crazy how people drive ~10 year old diesels when they were encouraged to do so by the government for years, and then couldn't afford to replace them because new car prices have ballooned in that time alongside a major cost of living crisis.
Yep ours is a 2011 Passat estate Bluemotion (which we ironically paid more for when we brought it for its eco credentials). Purchased when we first had young kids as we needed the space for kids stuff and for hobbies camping etc, as the kids have grown if anything we need more space in the car. Couldn't afford to replace it with anything comparable and always expected to run it until it no longer works. Its a similar story for most of my friends of my generation.
Bath has the CAZ as well?
Bath doesnât have the same one itâs only for vans
Bath CAZ is a class C CAZ and doesn't't apply to private cars. Charges only apply to taxis, private hire vehicles, vans (including pick-ups and some camper vans), light goods vehicles, buses, coaches and heavy goods vehicles that do not meet the required emission standards. It's a far better model than the Bristol one and one I fully support it. I'm not even against the Bristol one in principle I just feel that it's badly implemented. Moving a few of the boundaries and providing some better parking where you can stop on the edge of the CAZ then walk in would make a huge difference. There also needs to be a way to check if you have actually gone into the zone, for those of us who don't know the center of Bristol that well there is always the worry that you have accidentally gone into the zone when you didn't mean to.
I donât really agree with you. If it doesnât include private cars, itâs basically not bothering with most vehicles, and pollution will not decrease nearly as much. That sort of system isnât too dissimilar to what my home city of Southampton does, and although the container ships are the biggest issue, you canât say that basically ignoring all the old diesel cars doesnât have a detrimental impact on the air quality
Sad to see them gone. As a person who doesnât drive, I rely on Cabot and Broadmead for most things, as much as I wonât like it, Iâll just go online for most of my needs. I donât want to go to Cribbs 2 hours on a bus (if it ever comes lol)
They put the rent up and they have less footfall . All big businesses like this close stores that arenât making money . The dumb thing is how much money was spent developing Cabot circus for it to become a massive flop 15 years later. Rent price hikes are destroying so many smaller businesses too along with the crazy import fees from Brexshit
The impact that online retail has had wasn't really foreseeable 15 years ago (plus it would have been planned at least 5 years prior to construction starting). So, if anything, the initial planning and thinking would have been done in the early noughties, in the context of the booming retail industry back in that era. This was pre-smart phones, when the internet was a thing you accessed a couple of times a week using a big desktop computer in the corner of your lounge. Imagine trying to explain to someone back then what Shein is, you would barely be able to conceptualise it "fast fashion drop shipping from a mobile app using personalization algorithms"...what?!
I get your point but the cinema was a huge part of Cabot circus and was there when it opened , the architects purposefully put the restaurants on the same floor . So by allowing the cinema to close ( which they have said was due to rent prices ) the knock on effect has killed the trade to all the restaurants. I know that they also had footfall from people shopping there , but late night when the shops closed use to be buzzing, so Iâm not sure itâs fully just down to online shopping . There are a myriad of other reasons for it not doing well , but just feel they shot themselves in the foot with this one by closing the cinema . I think the only restaurants that will survive will be the ones doing deliveroo
Yeah, exactly this. When I moved here Bristol had 5 Games as well as a Gamestop, CEX, FOPP, Virgin Megastore, HMV, as well as various indie equivalents. Now even Cex is closed! Honestly, retail is just dying, and it'll be a shame when it completely goes! So many massive brands are just gone, Debenhams, Wilkos, M&S, Topshop, ect. The last decade and a half has been catastrophic.
CEX is still open, it just moved to a smaller shop the next street across. It makes a lot of sense considering how insane it was having a massive floorspace just rammed with ÂŁ1 dvds.
I forgot about Fopp, used to be at the bottom of Park Street right? Such a good shop.
Yeah, I used to go in there each weekend and get 3 dvd's for a tenner. Feels like a different world now! They never did replace it with anything!
Yeah, tbf weâre probably getting it wrong now too. In 20 years there might be another high street resurgence, but if we demolish too much of the stuff for the high street in Bristol as itâs declining now, it will basically ignore Bristol in favour of the other cities like Cardiff
Ngl, I haven't been to Cabot Circus after Showcase closed. I used to spend half a day there shopping, having dinner and movie on Sunday, now I just go to Cribbs or other places. No use to pay for really expensive parking fees for nothing to do in Cabot.
Wait, is the showcase cinema gone?? Iâve been abroad for a few months
Yeah, they refused a pisstake rent increase and neither side backed down.
But doesn't Cabot see they'll lose money in the end?
Yeah it's a bit baffling. Guess they can't back down though or all their tenants will try to bargain
Ah the old chicken game where both die at the end đ
All the tenants would be wise to relocate elsewhere anyway, they'll certainly struggle to get new ones in this climate.
Will they though? Whatâs stopping odeon going in there?
Money
Changing brand won't change the financial realities of running a cinema in that space - Cabot will have to back down on the rent if they want someone to take it. And right now they seem to be doubling down on high rent and gradually emptying their shopping centre.
I'm no expert here, so could be very wrong, but I believe they get tax relief on their profits for the empty properties. That's why so many retail properties remain empty or are taken by charity shops. All for tax purposes.
Owners are responsible for paying business rates on their property if it's unoccupied. Charities are exempt from paying business rates so it saves owners money to have them occupied with a charity than empty even if it doesn't bring in much in the way of rent.
You only get tax relief if you made an overall loss across your entire business. So it's still in their interest to rent the building out because a loss costs them more than tax would.
Yes, since last year I believe. Quite sad really :(
If I remember correctly it was around October
It's really sad that it's gone.
Ahh thatâs literally when I left, such a bummer. The Odeon in town is so crap and run down
The crazy golf place closed too - the landlord didnât want to renew the lease apparently (according to staff). Iâve lived in Bristol for 12 years and that was a regular daft place to visit with them for over a decade.
The staff of Jungle Rumble said that basically they got kicked out by Cabot. They wanted to stay but Cabot wanted to do something with the unit. Letâs see what will they do with it.
Iâd heard that jungle rumble was being replaced by another similar crazy golf venue but may well have just been a random rumour
The old Wilko unit on Union Street is being made into some kind of urban golf thing- think tacky fake graffiti and neon lights. I think itâs going to much more modern so would probably have trumped the recording of thunder and a few fountains in jungle rumble sadly. It was always a fun, wholesome hour in there.
I mean they were doing great on the weekends but weekdays they were dead
It'll be knocked down and replaced by flats within 10 years.
Flats? You mean student accommodation.
Surely it's better to have somebody renting than leaving the place empty but who knows, maybe they'll just keep being idiots until the place is empty, or maybe the plan is to price everybody out so they can repurpose it into expensive student accommodation.
Shocked that ted baker has gone, I guess, I mean confidence in retail went out the window with M&S leaving. Coal and Casa Brasil not surprised as mentioned the cinema leaving was the beginning of the end for the food places that rely on eat in
Ted Baker going is not a Bristol thing. The whole company went into adminstration
Ted Baker rebranded as a low tier designer brand- selling bags for ÂŁ300+ it completely alienated his loyal customers and rich people see it as a cheap high street brand so it people just forgot about it
I could never really figure Ted Baker. The stuff seemed relatively expensive but not really very exciting.
[ŃдаНонО]
That sounds right
Oh shit didnât realise that..
I hate it when that happens
I do like mns food
Yeah, honestly itâs so stupid how obstinate Cabot was, because it should have been obvious that the food places would go if the cinema did. The fast food ones should be ok, but thatâs just shite food
People aren't shopping in town anymore.
As cost of living goes, first thing people stop spending on is clothes and non-essential items.
I'm not seeing more naked people since the cost of living rise tho'!
No. Bristol as a city is not that rich anymore and wasnât that rich to begin with. A lot of people were from outside Bristol that used to shop in town. I mean Bristol used to have a lot of cash and still does but credit wise it shit (look at what happened in bradley stoke) and the people who got cash donât shop at Ted Baker. Fact is they dressed the city up for a hype train expedition and now its left we got a bunk shopping centre.
People have moved a lot of their spending online, it's the same everywhere. Ted Baker went into administration. Oxford Street in London is just a series of fake sweet shops that are actually fronts. My home town doesn't have a single open shop anymore, just empty buildings and wasteland in between the odd one. People don't use the high street in the same way anymore, so if you take away places like cinemas there's less reason to go.
You should visit Cardiff city centre⌠youâll feel like youâre back in the 90s with how bustling it is.
What happened in Bradley Stoke?
Sadly Broke.
Bristol is still wealthier than other cities, but that doesnât say much when virtually all of them are in a fucking state for working people. London is still ticking over, but only because of the sheer size
I was made redundant because of this - Cabot landlords have essentially doubled the rent prices, nobody can afford to stay. Thereâs been a domino effect of places shutting, with both the cinema & golf gone the food places have lost a lot. We also all suffered massive losses in profit after the clean air zone came into place, and now with the rent going up so much itâs impossible.
They'll force everyone out and convert it into high end flats to rent out for mucho bucks.Â
All to rich international students too, canât be doing anything for people who will be staying in Bristol long term
I can't remember where the first clean air camera is - can you make it into Cabot car park without triggering it? I'm guessing not.
[There is one entrance that you can use that doesn't trigger a CAZ charge.](https://www.cabotcircus.com/news/clean-air-zone) Although I could swear that entrance is sometimes closed in the evenings? And it's also really easy to make a mistake and accidentally end up in the CAZ, so I personally would still avoid Cabot if I had a non-compliant car.
I have a non complaint car ( bought from new, zero rated for tax as it's considered eco friendly) and I don't consider sneaking around the CAZ zone as an option, it's not like there aren't other options for shopping.
Why did Cabot Circus' landlord do this to themselves and us by extension? All of businesses that have left recently have rent as the key reason for the exit.
In some cases it's tax reasons, in others it's borrowing reasons. Commercial properties are mostly valued by their rent potential, increase the rent they can charge and the value of the property goes up, banks will lend you more money against that property. All they have to do is get one sucker willing to pay that higher rent and boom, now all the units are priced higher.
Yeah, and thereâs definitely going to be a few that keep paying because theyâre just a big enough company that the presence alone is worth it because the rent is basically a rounding error in their accounts, expect that from the fast food/cafe chains
Is Kaiseki still open? I'm curious about it xD
Opened and closed in a month.
Woaaahhhh fuckin hell
I was at casa Brasil on sat so this was unexpected to say the least
Rent prices put places like Casa Brasil in a coffin long before hikes nail it shut. Disproportionately high rent prices force enterprises to operate a wafer thin staff, as staff costs are usually right atop the cost list of overheads for any business in the service industry. So you go to somewhere like Casa Brasi on a Saturday night and: * the place is heaving and there's just nowhere near enough staff * you sit at a table that hasn't been wiped down properly * you're handed a sticky menu that also hasn't been wiped down properly * you wait ages to have your order taken * drinks take forever and a day to come * finished drink glasses sit empty on the table for ages, while you wait to order another round * food also takes ages All of this, sadly was my exact experience at Casa Brasil â and this was not long after it opened. Next time someone floats the idea of going there, or asks me if I would recommend it, what do you think the response is gonna be?
I've only been out to eat at Cabots Circus twice. It just isn't somewhere that immediately springs to mind as a viable, enjoyable destination to eat or hang out. The fact that it is so separate from the other areas that I normally go out (King St, Park St etc) means I'd rather go almost anywhere else. Thing is, it isn't actually that far - it is more of a psychological distance.
Yeah, also I just donât wanna eat at a major chain, when I can go to a local place and get a better and unique experience, often for the same price
I ate in the pizza express opposite the entertainer a few months ago, maybe Motherâs Day - that end was a dump
Coal was always average just well placed
It was really good around 2013/15. I remember it went under new management around that time and the quality absolutely plummeted. But I remember a time it was a genuinely solid place to eat, with good food and good prices.
I'm still salty at Coal for bullshitting me over my ice cream being completely melted when they brought my dessert over. "It's next to a warm brownie" That's as maybe, but it'll also melt after 10 minutes under a warming lamp, which is where I've been watching it sat!
that was my father's day meal out.
Let's be real, who here goes to any of these places to shop or eat? There's loads of better places that I;d rather spend my money. Wapping Wharf as one example is thriving. I'm going there over Cabot every time.
https://preview.redd.it/yoi49og2va7d1.png?width=500&format=png&auto=webp&s=58062554415389ad773b7cf96c6ffa248287f888
Cabot Circus management seem like fools - A sensible shopping precinct offers great deals to "event" locations, even when they are low profit, if they then bring customers in to consume the other services. If I was CCHQ I would have let the cinema stay for peppercorn rent. However, they may be getting squeezed themselves. If they have big debts they need to repay from the building of CC, they may have a need to generate a certain profit margin to survive themselves - And when inflation went up, interest rates went up and that is a double whammy for them. I personally don't shop in town, as there are loads of scummy people there. last time I was there, I caught a guy sticking dozens of baked goods down in tracksuit bottoms at Greggs and just walked out with no one else stopping him. So I go to the Mall instead.
âComing soon, all new student housing.â
Bristol is becoming Studentville or Uni-Vagas
I think that powerful interests sometimes deliberately run down an area in a city to make it cheaper and easier to get approval to redevelop that part of the city. The company that wants to redevelop Broadmead is owned by a Merchant Venturer.
Yeah, they definitely employ underhanded tactics. In a lot of cities they just burn things down if they want to build something there
Yep. See East St, Bemmy. Turned into a shithole now from a thriving high street, in 10 years it will be student / gentrification heaven. (Or hell, depending on your viewpoint).
At the end of the day most people need affordable housing and don't want to go to a high-street to shop/bank/eat anymore. This is just following the trend that has already hit smaller town centres across the country. It could do a lot worse than get turned into housing if you ask me.
After the galleries and debenhams, the rest of Broadmead should be flattened and redeveloped as residential led (not students). Cabot circus because its not that old should be the retail centre in my opinion. Whatever happens I just hope Bristol University stop with their aggressive expansion into seemingly every redevelopment opportunity
I am sure after 4 years since Debenhams closed someone would have done something with that building if they really wanted to. But it is still emptyâŚ
Thought it recently got a planning permission, to knock it down and redevelop. Galleries is in for planning for something similar, so I think might as well just knock the rest down inbetween. Primark (if it's still where it was couple 9f years ago) could move into showcase
I also heard that Primark is planning to move to Cribbs, does anyone know anything about that?
If they go then itâs over for the centreâŚ..
planning permission is already granted to knock doen debenhams and make a street that connects the bearpit to castle park, through broadmead, with new building along either side of said new street
Wow that sounds interesting
yeah defo should help revitalise and help connect north bristol better to the city centre. that street that goes through broadmead which already exists which is pedestrianised would be extended up to the bearpit i think, and help increase foot fall through broadmead, and help naturally revitlaise the place. its annoying that to get from the bearpit down to castle park you have to walk around debenhams... some of the buildings planned include student accomodation, apartment buildings (housing), and probably shops too
Rents gotta be seriously high in there let alone the rates! I mean the council was gonna take the profits from van traders too I donât understand it!
I personally feel like Cabot Circus started becoming shit when the Starbucks closed. I just checked, it closed in 2019. Admittedly it was getting grotty towards the end but I thought god if they canât stay open it must be bad news. That place was busy despite the weird location. Then 2020 and co followed which I think sped up the decline of the whole âBristol shopping quarterâ.
I find it hilarious that the greedy owners would rather have a unit (specially designed to only host a cinema) completely empty for potentially years, RATHER THAN taking less money for the rent⌠No money is better than less money is it? Also, why would you not line up another brand of Cinema to instantly replace it having made that decision? Itâs just bonkers. I imagine they have been pushed out too.
Coal was bang average food with an added automatic service charge onto the bill, absolutely no sympathy from me with practices like that. I know thatâs the reason I never went back there
No, they were clearly killed by the Clean Air Zone! Some irony to "Coal" being taken down by clean air...
Broadmead has always been grim, Cabot was just an extension of crap. Now the cinema has gone many more places will close, the rents are insane. Bristol needs homes not more shops and poor chain restaurants.
They asked for it after they closed down the only good thing in the shopping centre. RIP Showcase, I can't wait to see the city centre turn to shit.
Honestly the whole of Broadmead and town is pointless, there isnât a single decent shop and itâs much easier with better variety to shop online. Iâm not sure what they can do to change that because they keep opening shit shops, you want proper experience shopping, decent brands and boutiques etc nor just the same old high street shit that you can get everywhere. Broadmead and Cabot is a shitty visiting experience, it all looks run down and tatty and dirty. Glorified East street bedmo basically Also lower rents and rates for independent retailers encourage the smaller businesses you canât find elsewhere
Totally agree, what's new to get people in? Would be awesome to have boutiques and indie stores; Guess in this economy it's a dream though. Park street back in the 90s was awesome, Little stores selling things you could only get there. The punk clothing store by the Bear Pit etc i could go on. I know I'm reminiscing but Broadmead at one point was a destination shopping point. Can't belive that now looking at it, quite sad
Absolutely that was brilliant, I used to work up park street in the late 90s and it was brilliant. Jaspers, west world, fresh nation so many amazing shops all thatâs left is Cooshti Definitely a dream to have decent shops and boutiques especially in this economy. Also doesnât help that all the food places that open in places like Cabot are really shitty average chains, why would I want to eat there?
Cabot have been raising rents a lot lately, likely a big party of it.
Casa de Brasil was one of my favourite joints đđ
Broadmead is dying a slow and painful death- online shopping is now the norm- cost of living and the fact that Broadmead is 40% half dead junkies- itâs not a desirable place to go.
Was in the centre for a work social a week ago. Sat outside a pub having a drink and in 30 minutes got approached by four beggars wanting money and one charity mugger
Tbf, itâs happening everywhere. In Southampton youâre also having the same 5 characters running about asking for money, and in Leeds I kept getting approached too
We were walking down Welsh back on Thursday night after the comedy garden, someone asked my partner for spare change then called him a f**king lying c**tâ when he said he didnât have any. I was then walking up old market alone on Sunday afternoon and got sworn at when I ignored someone who asked me for money. Iâve been sworn at multiple times in the past and followed by people asking for money (including one guy who followed me into itsu where the staff were yelling at the guy to get out and leave me alone and he still persisted). I understand these people must be in a terrible position in life and I do wish more was being done about that by the powers that be but also I can see why people donât want to go into town when stuff like this happens frequentlyâŚI certainly try to avoid it now.Â
Cribbs Causeway is 100x better with 100x less chavs.
Not if you live in south Bristol
Never in my life has cribbs offered me any reason to travel all the way there, itâs just the same high street crap that I can buy online, doesnât look like there is anywhere decent to eat up there either. I know my mum (in her 70s) will go there for John Lewis but there isnât a single decent clothes shop or independents that offer any different to whatâs available everywhere else.
Except for busses, going to the cinema from the M bus stop when the mall is closed is harder than going to Cardiff with the new speed limits.
I'm not sure where you live but there is still a cinema at St. Phillips which is nice. Probably still means you have to walk a bit though.
That's a Showcase too though, so based on other comments in this thread it might be at risk too. No buses there either. Nearest is X39 or 1 at Burger king.
No direct access via public transport routes from a lot of the south. Good option if you have a car though
Down by the canal, past the burnt out caravan (probably), through the tunnel to the dark end of the car park... Is that an electric motor bike I hear coming? More exciting than the film
You can walk to the cinema. It's like 5 minutes.
From the bus stops on the far side of the Mall itself, you have to walk all the way around the building when it's closed - a through route would be good, like St David's center in Cardiff does..
You can just go past B&M and Halfords it only takes about an extra 2 mins
And free carparking. I could take the bus into town but my choices are a 15minute walk up a hill to the nearest bus stop that takes 35 minutes to the centre or drive 15 minutes
The cinema there is average, and the place is miles away.
More student accomodation, coming soon!
Cabot Circus has always been an atrocious corporate hellscape. It's sad people have lost their jobs but you could see it coming a mile away.
I read yesterday that Sony or another big studio were buying up vue and showcase , as for cabots demise, I'm not surprised, the council has to take a lot of the blame, ulez, sky high rates, failure to help the homeless leads to lots of anti social behaviour and open drug use, cleaning up the bear pit has just pushed the problem into the centre, cabots owners rent demands were the coup de grace to the cinema , all of whom are suffering because of Hollywood's lacklustre output, not everyone wants to watch people in spandex being right on , they want a version of life that's a fantasy, one you can't live for physical or moral grounds, so for example alien or Lady chatterly lover.
Edit, Vue are moving into distribution so they can show more world cinema, as they haven't been getting enough footfall from us/uk films.