Southgate Place, the central plaza |
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| Location | Bath, Somerset, England |
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| Opening date | 4th November 2009 |
| Developer | Multi Development UK |
| Owner | Lend Lease Group |
| No. of stores and services | 55[1] |
| No. of anchor tenants | 1 (Debenhams) |
| Parking | 860 |
| No. of floors | 1 (Some shops have extra floors) |
| Website | www.southgatebath.com |
SouthGate is a shopping centre in Bath, Somerset, England. It replaced the original shopping centre which was demolished in 2007. The new centre developed by Multi Corporation UK[2] is more than double the size of the previous space and provides 37,000 sq metres of retail space, 3,500 sq metres of leisure space, 2,300 sq metres of restaurant space plus 99 residential units.[1] It was designed by Chapman Taylor to mimic Georgian architecture with a Bath stone facade; the infrastructure of the buildings is modern concrete. The current owners are the Lend Lease Group and it is home to over 50 shops and 6 Restaurants with 860 car park spaces.
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On the site prior to this development was the Southgate Shopping Centre designed by Owen Luder, architect of the Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth and Trinity Square Carpark in Gateshead; and, on the east half of the site, the former Bath bus station. The Bath bus station was demolished and a new bus station was opened to the south of the site and just to the west of the main Bath Spa railway station.
The new SouthGate precinct occupies roughly the west half of an area of land once known as The Ham that existed up until around the time of Jane Austen. The Ham was outside the line of the original city wall, which at one time formed The Ham's north border. (The first section of that wall, starting at the city's south gate, ran east roughly along the present-day New Orchard Street.) The Ham is remembered in the name Ham Gardens, a small street towards the north side of the precinct off Philip Street.
After the area for the new precinct had been cleared of the 1960s/1970s buildings, and before construction of the precinct's underground car park was started, an extensive archaeological project was carried out by Museum of London Archaeology Service to expose, study, and preserve (to the fullest extent possible) underground structures such as sections of the original city wall, the 17th century 'Bum Ditch', a well and cellars from the 18th century, and the 19th century cobbles of the original Marchant's Passage.
The new precinct opened in three phases. Phase one opened on 4 November 2009, Phase two in May 2010, and the final phase in August 2010. The area has 7 pedestrianised streets and a central plaza (Southgate Place), and is bordered by New Orchard Street, Manvers Street, Dorchester Street, and Southgate Street. The names of the new pedestrianised streets within the precinct largely follow the names of the streets that occupied similar positions before the area was cleared for the new precinct.
In total there are six separate buildings forming the new SouthGate: St. Lawrence House, Philip House, Debenhams, Block E/F (which has an arcade, Little SouthGate, running through it at ground level), Marchant House, and Southgate House. There are bridges interconnecting Block E/F with Marchant House, and Marchant House with Southgate House, creating a continuous goods-delivery first-floor corridor between these blocks for the commercial units.
The residential units were released to market on 16 April 2011. These are on the second floor of St. Lawrence House and the second and third floors of Philip House, Marchant House, and Southgate House.
On 23 September 2008, there was a serious fire and explosions on the site, caused by gas cylinders.[3][4][5] There was a large fireball with one of the explosions, reaching higher than the surrounding cranes. Surrounding streets were closed while the fire was tackled. Trains did not stop at the station during the fire for safety. The fire was reported in national newspapers.[6]
The centre is anchored by Debenhams and has over 50 other shops, including Currys, Topman/Topshop, H&M, New Look, Apple Store, Cult, Urban Outfitters, Fat Face, River Island, Republic, and Boots.[7] Restaurants include Pizza Express, Caffè Nero, Krispy Kreme, a branch of Giraffe Restaurants, and Cake Café; and there is also a Sainsbury's Local supermarket.[8] Recent retail openings include Pretty Eccentric[9] and Plain Lazy. Currys is unique in being the only shop that has been continuously present for over forty years: it was in Southgate Street up until the early 1970s, was then in the old Southgate Shopping Centre, and is now in the new SouthGate.
Block E/F was originally designed to accommodate restaurants on the first floor and, on the upper floor, a leisure centre, including a swimming pool under the large central glass roof. Both the first and upper floors feature outdoor balconies facing into Southgate Place through Georgian columns spanning the two levels. Plans for utilisation of the upper floor are now in flux but good progress has been made recently on renting the restaurant level, with Jimmy Spices now at the south end of the floor (entrance on Dorchester Street) and Cosy Club at the north end (entrance on Southgate Place). Cosy Club's space includes the first-floor balcony facing into Southgate Place.