Broad Street Mall, previously known as the Butts Centre, is a large indoor

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

located in central

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. There is a large multi-storey car park with direct access to the first floor of the centre. It is close to The Hexagon theatre and the offices of Reading Borough Council.

History

Plans for the shopping centre were made by the Reading Borough Council in 1956, however it took more than a decade to find a suitable site and buy it. The centre was originally known as the Butts Centre, and was named after the adjacent St Mary's Butts. The current name relates to Reading's principal pedestrian shopping street, Broad Street, and the centre is situated at the west end of the street. It was opened in 1971. The centre was purchased by Doughty Hanson & Co in June 2001 and sold in March 2004. During this period they implemented a

business strategy In the field of management, strategic management involves the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by an organization's managers on behalf of stakeholders, based on consideration of resources and an assessment of ...

to update and refurbish the shopping centre to modern standards. During this time footfall increased 50% and net operating profits increased 38%.

Shops

Below are occupiers of the centre classified as strong covenants * Boswells Cafe * Bride to Be * Brother2Brother *

Burger King Burger King Corporation (BK, stylized in all caps) is an American multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacks ...

Card Factory Card Factory plc is a retailer of greeting cards and gifts in the United Kingdom founded in Wakefield by Dean Hoyle and his wife Janet. The first store opened in 1997, and by 2020 the company had over 1,000 stores. The company also operate ...

* F. Hinds * Grape Tree * Greggs * Holland & Barrett *

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

* Jelly * 118 Photography *

Reading Buses Reading Transport Limited, trading as Reading Buses, is an English Municipal bus company, municipal bus operator owned by Reading Borough Council, serving the towns of Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Bracknell, Newbury, Berkshire, Newbury, Slough, ...

* Martin's * Metro Bank * Poundland * Reading Biscuit Factory (Cinema) * Savers (UK retailer) *

Slaters A slater, or slate mason, is a tradesman, tradesperson who covers buildings with slate. Tools used The various hand tool, tools of the slater's trade are all drop-forged. The slater's hammer is forged in one single piece, from crucible-cast ...

* Subway * Superdrug *

Taco Bell Taco Bell Corp. is an American multinational chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired ...

* Thai-Grr * The Works * Therapists on the High Street *

Timpson (retailer) The Timpson Group is a Great Britain, British and ireland, Irish service retailer that has a number of different brands across its portfolio of 2,100 stores, including Timpson, Max Spielmann, Johnsons Cleaners UK, Johnsons The Cleaners, Snappy ...

* TK Maxx * Wilko

Residential

In November 2018, plans were submitted to the Reading Borough Council for 530 residential flats in the Broad Street Mall development, however in 2019, Inception Reading resubmitted new plans for "493 flats in three buildings, one of which would be on top of the shopping centre". The two other towers will consist of one being 5 storeys and the second being 22 storeys subject to planning permission not changing.

Other facilities

There are public toilets a

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

and a

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

walk-in health centre. In 2019, the walk-in centre was expanded due to its busy nature with £505,000 of funding from the NHS. In September 2020, Co-Space Reading opened at Broad St. Mall which offers a flexible and spacious working environment for local businesses. There are 15 fully furnished office suites available to rent, ranging from between 4, 6 and 10 person, up to 50+ person spaces.

References

External links