IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Castlepoint, Castle Lane West, BOURNEMOUTH, BH8 9UZ

Looking along the eastern arm of this ginormous shopping centre; the ASDA superstore projects outward at the end and, beyond that, the B&Q store projects farther still.

Castlepoint is a bust retail park with various shopping facilities

This is the site of the Hampshire Centre, an out-of-town shopping centre which opened in 1968 (the clock tower is pictured here: Image). It was demolished in the late 1990s to make way for Castlepoint. This new centre was opened in 2003 and has seen no end of structural difficulties. See Image

The car park at Image is today being used only by a few young skateboarders. The reason for this unlikely emptiness is that today is Easter Day – see Image

The reason for the line of bras, which extends along this wing and the east wing in the distance, is here: Image

A view across the car park of Image on one of the two days when its barriers are closed – Easter Day, the other being Christmas Day.

Looking out from the Dorothy Perkins/Burton's store across the packed car park at Castlepoint shopping centre, just as the sales have started. The anchor store – Marks & Spencer – Next and the supermarkets Asda and Sainsbury's were not open today, but many other major chains such as TK Maxx, River Island, Waterstone's, Boot's, WH Smith and Top Shop all had their doors open.

Marks & Spencer, New Look, WHSmith, River Island, Barretts, Sports Direct, Argos, and ASDA can all be seen here.

The new Image shopping centre, which opened in 2003, contains many top high street names – Marks & Spencer (its flagship), Sainsbury's and ASDA (both 24-hour), B&Q, Waterstone's, Boot's, WHSmith, Next and many more. The structural soundness of its car park has been called into question numerous times, none more so than December 2005, when the entire complex was closed on Thursday 1st for fear that the upper deck of the car park might collapse – to the consternation of the shops at their busiest time – the run-up to Christmas. Many stores which had other branches in the town centre hurriedly opened up new floors in those stores, and the complex reopened on 18 January 2006, just too late for the bulk of the sales period. Hefty compensation bills face the developers, owners or builders, whenever they can decide who is responsible. Since that time the lower deck of the car park has resembled something of a war-zone, with tarpaulin and reinforcements aplenty, cones and closures, and a generally not very reassuring appearance! Six months on, not a lot had changed: Image; and almost a year on, still no change: Image Links (just a very small selection from the Daily Echo!): http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/search/display.var.1049769.0.the_day_cracks_in_a_retail_dream_were_exposed.php http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/search/display.var.1174648.0.castlepoint_store_to_sue.php http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/search/display.var.1036644.0.castlepoint_car_park_rebuild_stalls_after_rows.php

Small gardens are laid out in the small open-air parts between the shop façades and the car park. There are numerous staircases, escalators and lifts providing access to the lower car park.