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NOTTINGHAM | Broad Marsh- Green Heart Urban Park | U/C

1M views 10K replies 223 participants last post by  PeteB 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
** For context- since this thread was started, the global market crash in 2010 and COVID pandemic caused both retail-led schemes to collapse. This area is now to be split into different development parcels with the former shopping centre partially demolished. As of 2024, the new Broad Marsh library and car park have been delivered and a new urban park called the Green Heart is under construction. The old threads prior to this have been preserved for context and historical record**

Broadmarsh Shopping Centre

Status: Approved
Regen Zone: Southside
Developer: Westfield
Architects: ?
Cost:: £700m
Size: 136,000m²
Use:: Retail (136,000m²)


Links:
SSC Thread
Westfield
New Nottingham Page
Planning Application

Notes:
Westfield plan to triple the size of the existing Broadmarsh centre. The development will come
in a street like form and will be pure retail. It will contain 2 new department stores, a number
other large anchors, a supermarket, a new food court, rooftop parking, a number of open spaces,
and arcades. The aim is to open up spaces around the existing centre by demolishing the two
multi-storey car parks and removing the 'wall' that visitors see as soon as they turn out of
Nottingham's train station. This is designed to draw people in to the city centre and open up views
of the area.

The plan was first submitted in 2001. After brief consultation retailers told Westfield mezzanine
floor were required. This resulted in Westfield revising the 120,000m² application to 136,000m².
and increasing the height of buildings by 9m. Upon completion Broadmarsh will be the largest
city centre shopping mall outside of London.


Current Status:
Nottingham City Council accepted the planning application in April 2007. Anchors M&S and
Debenhams have agreed heads of terms. No construction/demolition has taken place as of yet.















The image below is the latest render to be released by Broadmarsh. Actual exteriors of buildings
are likely to be determined by the demands of the anchor storeholder. The planning application
clearly states that flagship stores (especially the one on the west side) will be an architectural
statement in themself.



This is what the centre looks like now! GOOD RIDDENCE!!





 
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#3,882 ·
Agreed i think its definitely Notiingham's most underutilised assets. Trouble is there are 100's of caves all over the place and they are finding new ones all the time.. The city should market itself with the "Caves" brand but there needs to be some joined up plan so as not to dissapoint people when the actually come to have a look..
 
#3,885 ·
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-26816897

The amount of caves are astonishing. IMO all buildings with caves that are safe and accessible should be allocated a number of some sort so we could develop a 'city of caves trail'

Obviously it would range from the very large - like Broadmarsh and Castle Rock - to the hidden gems like under malt cross and paul smith. It's certainly something unusual that would interest the tourists.
 
#3,886 ·
I had the privilege of having a tour of the caves underneath Malt Cross before and after it was refurbished. The space underneath Malt Cross was once an Indian Restaurant. It closed years ago and was used as storage for a long time. The extent of the caves was unknown until a bricked up archway was knocked out and a series of caverns containing an old well, ale store, an old wrought iron boiler (at least thats what it looked like) and an old hatch that was apparently used by crooks to escape to the surface.
Much of the old restaurant is now a gallery, which used to be on the upper floor that used to overlook the City Library's garden.
The caves were also believed to connect to the cellar of the Bell Inn. Contractors drilled small bore holes and found nothing.
Tours of the caves are available I think. The manager is a good friend of mine so he showed me around.
 
#3,888 ·
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-26816897

The amount of caves are astonishing. IMO all buildings with caves that are safe and accessible should be allocated a number of some sort so we could develop a 'city of caves trail'

Obviously it would range from the very large - like Broadmarsh and Castle Rock - to the hidden gems like under malt cross and paul smith. It's certainly something unusual that would interest the tourists.

Ha! They can't even make a decent fist of anything Robin Hood related so I wouldn't hold out much hope.

Shakespeare, Richard III and Jesus Christ could all have heralded from Nottingham, yet the Council's tourism offering would still be focussed on attracting people to our (steadily declining) shopping.
 
#3,889 ·
Trust me, Mr Pig, theres nobody more scathing about our failure to celebrate the Legend than me.

With the caves though, theyre already there more or less. It would take a significantly lower amount of money to simply co-ordinate them properly so people know they can go to the likes of Malt Cross and see extraordinary caves than it would to raise say, £100m, to build a robin hood attraction.

Be in no doubt though, I think we should be making serious efforts to secure an attraction on the scale of belfasts titanic museum - and using significant public money to aid the bid.
 
#3,890 ·
What's up with the Broadmarsh? - I know it's the run up to Christmas but it's the busiest I've ever seen it (and I used to work in a shop in there back around 2000/2001) and nearly all the shops are now occupied. The main empty one is the old Alders unit (IIRC there are two other empty units and the Santa Grotto) and of course all the units on the top floor.

The whole centre (well the bottom two floors anyway) now looks a lot brighter and cleaner. The scratty entrance near the proposed college site has been massively improved (painted, lighting, electronic doors) too (no walking through clouds of smoke when using it). For far too many years it's been deserted every time you do down there and full of empty shops, but now there is life to the place.

Compared with the grand plans floating around for over a decade it's obviously lacking and can be viewed as polishing a turd, but taken as what you get now it's not too bad. Obviously much of it is lower end retail (which isn't something you can realistically ignore anyway), popup stores on trial and the like, but at least intu are making it look like a viable shopping centre, unlike Westfield where just letting it fall into disrepair. The centre finishes 2014 in a much better place than when the year started.
 
#3,891 ·
What's up with the Broadmarsh? - I know it's the run up to Christmas but it's the busiest I've ever seen it (and I used to work in a shop in there back around 2000/2001) and nearly all the shops are now occupied. The main empty one is the old Alders unit (IIRC there are two other empty units and the Santa Grotto) and of course all the units on the top floor.

The whole centre (well the bottom two floors anyway) now looks a lot brighter and cleaner. The scratty entrance near the proposed college site has been massively improved (painted, lighting, electronic doors) too (no walking through clouds of smoke when using it). For far too many years it's been deserted every time you do down there and full of empty shops, but now there is life to the place.

Compared with the grand plans floating around for over a decade it's obviously lacking and can be viewed as polishing a turd, but taken as what you get now it's not too bad. Obviously much of it is lower end retail (which isn't something you can realistically ignore anyway), popup stores on trial and the like, but at least intu are making it look like a viable shopping centre, unlike Westfield where just letting it fall into disrepair. The centre finishes 2014 in a much better place than when the year started.
And we're definitely not going to end up with a new Meg Mall which is even better news..
 
#3,895 ·
That building is really nice! I love how it responds to the roads infront with a simple curve to the building; sadly it appears to have just been left to rot

This build could be fantastic with some 21st century retail units at the bottom; or just simply convert it to offices/apartments - Perhaps create an extension to the roof to have a few penthouses up there? The views would be stunning!

It's one of those buildings which you probably wouldn't look twice at, but it sub-consciously adds to the streetscape in a positive light
 
#3,896 ·
That building isn't listed then? It seems to have enough merit to be saved to me. Its just the awful traffic situation round here that's the problem - very busy, inadequate pavements.

As for Broadmarsh as a whole, its certainly livelier. Fopp has gone some way towards this, and its certainly increased my regularity of visit. I don't think the inside of Broadmarsh itself has ever been the issue for people. It's always been the poorer relative, and the main hall is wide and reasonably pleasant.

The issue is that it's a shockingly bad addition to the urban landscape. The Berlin Wall effect coming from the station. The lack of ground-floor usage. The dreadful arndale car park attached to it. The minging bus station. That's the problem, not so much the fact Wilkes and Argos are its best retailers.
 
#3,898 ·
Beautiful details on that building, it would be a real landmark with a bit of a spruce up.. Buildings like this should be incorporated into any new developed to help bring some much needed character to what will inevitably be a soulless pile of crap. If this is definitely labelled to be knocked down then we should try make some noise to get this stopped...
 
#3,899 ·
intu are planning to demolish Richmond House (part of the wider Broadmarsh site). I think this is a bit of a landmark building and it seems a shame to get rid of it unless there is anything better in the pipeline... which probably won't be the case.../7530/15856118178_548cca000d.jpg[/img][/url]
Interesting. Where have you seen that Sherwood? I didn't think intu were still looking to cross colin street with their new development? I thought it had been scaled back and would only be revamp of the existing site?

That building isn't listed then?
No. The original Broadmarsh plans including demolishing those too, along with the car park and more or less everything on that side of the street.
 
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