Brunel shopping centre to focus less on retail

Swindon’s Brunel shopping centre has announced plans for redevelopment with less of a focus on retail.

According to the BBC , when the shopping centre opened in 1973, it was among the “first” of a new era of shopping precincts. However, 50 years later, many of the shop units are empty, with the town centre losing many of its flagship stores.

The shopping centre was named after the “famous” railway engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and much of the shopping centre’s architecture was designed to look like a train station.

Experts told the BBC that the new Brunel centre “can survive, but just with far fewer shops than the planners of the 1970s imagined”.

The BBC reported that plans were announced in 2022 to reinvigorate the shopping centre with former shops being turned into bars, cafes and restaurants.

Charlotte Jarrett, asset manager at the Brunel Centre told the BBC that Swindon’s high streets are “not only going to focus on retail, but also residential, some commercial offices, but more importantly, a real drive towards leisure, food and evening use which we have a real opportunity here to achieve”.

The plan is to include building two tower blocks containing almost 300 flats on the northern half of the centre to the north of Canal Walk.

Shops, restaurants and bars would be located at its base with a garden above the first-floor leisure space, lounge area, private dining, meeting rooms and co-working spaces.