Churchill Square

Image: © Simon Carey Taken: 7 Oct 2011

A view of the eastern entrance half an hour after sunset. The original shopping centre was built in the 1960s and involved the demolition of all the old housing found between West Street and Cannon Place. The newly built centre consisted of an upper and lower level area of shops as well as a couple of office blocks towering above them. The shopping area was uncovered and became a big wind trap in inclement weather as well as being a haunt for drunks and other less than savoury characters out of hours. From the late 1980s shops began to desert the lower levels which in turn attracted unwanted characters who in turn scared the shoppers away causing more shop closures. When Tesco vacated its lower level premises in the early 1990s plans began to be made to do something about it. By now shops were also deserting the upper levels and the centre had aged very badly in comparison to the newer out of town centres then being built. Work began in the mid 1990s to convert it into a modern mall which was completed and opened in 1998 attracting back into it many High Street retailers such as Debenhams, Virgin and HMV. Whilst the current mall is a vast improvement on the grey old concrete monstrosity that it replaced it still feels interchangeable with many others found in towns around the country. The two high rise blocks behind the centre are Chartwell Court and Sussex Heights respectively.

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