SouthGate, Bath
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SouthGate is a
shopping centre A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre ( Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known colle ...
in Bath, Somerset, England, It is home to over fifty shops, ten restaurants, 99 homes and an 860-space underground car park. It replaced a shopping centre which was demolished in 2007. The new centre developed by Multi Corporation UK is more than double the size of the previous space and provides 37,000 square metres of retail space, 3,500 m2 of leisure space, 2,300 m2 of restaurant space plus 99 residential units. It was designed by
Chapman Taylor Chapman Taylor is a global practice of award-winning architects, masterplanners and interior designers, based in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The practice has completed over 3,000 projects and won over 300 design awards over its history, i ...
to mimic Georgian architecture with a Bath stone facade. The first owners were the Aviva Investors. In 2013
British Land The British Land Company plc is one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust when REITs were introduced in the UK in January 2007. It is headquartered in ...
purchased a 50% stake for £101 million, leaving Aviva Investors as owners of the other 50%. The development won the
Georgian Group The Georgian Group is a British charity, and the national authority on Georgian architecture built between 1700 and 1837 in England and Wales. As one of the National Amenity Societies, The Georgian Group is a statutory consultee on alterat ...
Architectural Giles Worsley Award for a New Building in Georgian Context in 2010.


History


Site

On the site prior to this development was the Southgate Shopping Centre designed by Owen Luder, architect of the
Tricorn Centre The Tricorn Centre was a shopping, nightclub and car park complex in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. It was designed in the Brutalist style by Owen Luder and Rodney Gordon and took its name from the site's shape which from the air resembled ...
in
Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...
and Trinity Square Carpark in Gateshead; and, on the east half of the site, the former Bath bus station and Ham Gardens Car Park. The Bath bus station and the car park were 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 Bath Spa railway station is the principal station serving the city of Bath in South West England. It is on the Great Western Main Line, down the line from the zero point at between to the east and to the west. Its three-letter station code ...
. 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-east corner of the precinct, connecting Philip Street to Kingston Road on the south side of
Iceland (supermarket) Iceland Foods Ltd is a British supermarket chain headquartered in Deeside, Wales. It has an emphasis on the sale of frozen foods, including prepared meals and vegetables. They also sell non-frozen grocery items such as produce, meat, dairy a ...
. 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 MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) is an archaeology and built heritage practice and independent charitable company registered with the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA), providing a wide range of professional archaeological servi ...
to expose, study, and preserve 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.


Construction

On 23 September 2008, there was a serious fire on the construction site, caused by gas cylinders. There was a large fireball, with one explosion 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 reasons. 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 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. There are conflicting reports on the cost of the development;
Chapman Taylor Chapman Taylor is a global practice of award-winning architects, masterplanners and interior designers, based in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The practice has completed over 3,000 projects and won over 300 design awards over its history, i ...
reports a cost £140 million and the
Bath Chronicle The ''Bath Chronicle'' is a weekly newspaper, first published under various titles before 1760 in Bath, England. Prior to September 2007, it was published daily. The ''Bath Chronicle'' serves Bath, northern Somerset and west Wiltshire. History ...
a cost of £360 million,


Layout

SouthGate is formed of six buildings: St. Lawrence House, Philip House, the former Debenhams, Block E/F (which originally had an arcade, Little SouthGate, running through it at ground level, that was removed in 2017 and replaced by four new restaurants), Marchant House, and Southgate House. Bridges connecting Block E/F with Marchant House, and Marchant House with Southgate House, provide continuous goods delivery access between these blocks for the commercial units. The area has seven 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 follow the names of streets that previously occupied similar positions on the site (Philip Street, Newark Street, Railway Street, etc.), although Marchant's Passage has been reborn as New Marchant's Passage. The street sign for New Marchant's Passage is missing the apostrophe. Block E/F was 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. The developers were unable to find a tenant to operate the planned leisure centre and the floor has been re-purposed as office space. However, the plans for the first floor were fulfilled with a restaurant, which is now closed (originally Jimmy's World Grill & Bar) taking approximately half the floor (entrance on Dorchester Street) and Cosy Club taking the other half (entrance on SouthGate Place). Cosy Club's space includes the first-floor balcony facing into SouthGate Place.


Brunel Square

In late 2011, Multi started developments to more closely integrate
Bath Spa railway station Bath Spa railway station is the principal station serving the city of Bath in South West England. It is on the Great Western Main Line, down the line from the zero point at between to the east and to the west. Its three-letter station code ...
and Bath bus station with SouthGate, and redevelop some of the railway station car park and northern ramp into a restaurant complex, set amid Brunel's railway arches, at a cost of £12 million. The restaurant complex is named The Vaults Restaurant Quarter.


Retailers

The centre was anchored by
Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain operating in the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and grew to 178 locations across those countries, also owning the Danish ...
, until the store closed in 2021. SouthGate has over 50 other shops, including H&M, New Look,
Apple Store The Apple Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell various Apple products, including Mac personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad tablet computers, Apple Watch smartwatches, Apple TV digital me ...
Urban Outfitters Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) is a multinational lifestyle retail corporation headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Operating in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, select Western European countries, Poland the United Arab Emirates, K ...
,
Fat Face FatFace is a British lifestyle brand, based in Hampshire, which creates product ranges across women's, men's, kids, footwear and accessories. FatFace is a multichannel retailer, with an international digital business as well as over 180 store ...
,
River Island River Island is a London-based, multi-channel fashion brand, founded in 1948 by Bernard Lewis. The retailer has a presence in over 125 of worldwide markets, in stores and online. Best known for its trend focused womenswear offering, River Isl ...
, Hotel Chocolat and
Boots A boot is a type of footwear. Boot or Boots may also refer to: Businesses * Boot Inn, Chester, Cheshire, England * Boots (company), a high-street pharmacy chain and manufacturer of pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom * The Boot, Cromer St ...
. Currys was the only shop that has been continuously present for over sixty 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. Currys closed their Southgate store in 2020 and relocated the store and staff to their bigger store on the Lower Bristol Road.


Restaurants

Restaurants and food outlets in the main SouthGate centre include
Pizza Express PizzaExpress is a British multinational restaurant group, owned by a group of bondholders. It has over 470 restaurants across the United Kingdom and 100 overseas in Europe, Hong Kong, China, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, the Philippines, the Unite ...
, Caffè Nero,
Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain. Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans c ...
,
Pret a Manger Pret A Manger (''prêt à manger'' is French for ''ready to eat'') is an international sandwich shop franchise chain based in the United Kingdom, popularly referred to as Pret, founded in 1983. As of December 2022, Pret had 434 shops in the UK, ...
, a branch of
Giraffe Restaurants Giraffe is a restaurant chain headquartered in Birmingham, England, which was founded in 1998 in Hampstead as Giraffe Restaurants by Juliette Joffe, Russel Joffe and Andrew Jacobs. Giraffe was owned by its founders, with additional financial ba ...
, and Cake Café; and, added in 2017 in the space that was previously Little SouthGate, are Absurd Bird, Tapas Revolution, Thaikun, and Comptoir Libanais. There is also a
Sainsbury's Local Sainsbury's Local (a trading name of Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd) is a chain of 770 convenience shops operated by the UK's second largest supermarket chain Sainsbury's. History In 1998, Sainsbury's piloted its first Local shop in Hammersmith ...
supermarket.Tasty prospects in store for new shopping centre
''SouthWest Business'', 27 May 2010.
Restaurants and food outlets in the Brunel Square vaults include Be At One,
Gourmet Burger Kitchen Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) is a restaurant chain in the United Kingdom and Ireland specialising in gourmet burgers. There is a subtle Kiwi theme throughout the restaurants, a reference to the heritage of the original owners. History The c ...
,
Franco Manca Franco Manca is a sourdough Neapolitan pizza business operating around 70 pizzerias in the UK. It was founded in 2008 by Giuseppe Mascoli and Bridget Hugo. The first store opened on Market Row in Brixton Market. Initially sites were in the Londo ...
, Graze,
Prezzo Prezzo (german: Pretz) is a ''frazione'' of the commune of Pieve di Bono-Prezzo, in Trentino, northern Italy, located about southwest of Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent ...
, and
Nando's Nando's (; ) is a South African multinational fast casual chain that specialises in flame-grilled peri-peri style chicken. Founded in Johannesburg in 1987, Nando's operates over 1,200 outlets in 30 countries. Their logo (also seen as a sort of ...
.


Little SouthGate

The arcade, Little SouthGate, running through the middle of Block E/F, housed a number of smaller shops, none of which was a sustained success. As a result, planning permission to remove the arcade and replace it with four restaurants was approved in 2016. In 2017 the work was completed and there is no longer a Little SouthGate. The restaurants are Thaikhun, Comptoir Libanais, Absurd Bird, and Tapas Revolution.


Housing

SouthGate hosts four apartment zones (Southgate House, Marchant House, Philip House, and St. Lawrence House), with a total of 99 apartments, that were collectively marketed as The Residence. The apartments have private rooftop gardens.


References


External links


SouthGate Bath official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Southgate, Bath Buildings and structures completed in 2009 2009 establishments in England Shopping malls established in 2009 Buildings and structures in Bath, Somerset Economy of Bath, Somerset Tourist attractions in Bath, Somerset Shopping centres in Bath and North East Somerset Areas of Bath, Somerset