Bristol’s Galleries shopping centre set to be demolished and replaced by student flats

Plans have been approved by Bristol City Council to demolish the Galleries shopping centre in Bristol, situated next to Castle Park.

It was announced yesterday (Wednesday 29th January) that inits place will be 450 homes, offices and student flats with 750 beds.

There are also plans for the development of new restaurants and shops, and the road alongside Castle Park is set to be made pedestrian-only, reports Bristol Live.

The Galleries, which opened in 1991, has struggled for many years, especially after the nearby opening of Cabot Circus in 2008. The centre has seen many shop closures and is now “obsolete” and outdated.

The car park is also set to be demolished, fitting with the move to make the area more pedestrian-friendly.

The plans for the new buildings to include student flats come at a time of increasingly expensive student rent prices in Bristol.

The average annual cost of student housing in Bristol in 2023/24 was £766.67 a month,  placing it as the second most expensive Russell Group city to rent in, coming behind only London.

According to the plans, 90 of the 450 homes will be classed as “affordable”, yet there is no current information about the planned price of the student flats.

The Galleries is also home to the Broadmead Medical Centre and an assessment clinic for the Bristol Eye Hospital, which will relocate elsewhere in Broadmead. The developers have pledged £1.3 million to help the NHS with the relocation costs.

In 1989, a friend who was a fabricated welder was very proud of the stainless steel railings he'd produced for The Galleries, a shopping centre built to last. Instead, it barely stood longer than the lifespan of the everage caravan. Nothing lasts anymore.https://t.co/LO5WhFBIZY

— Bristol People (@Bristol_People) January 29, 2025

Deeley Freed, a commercial property development company, received the go-ahead for the project after unanimous approval from the Bristol City Council.

Max Freed, director of Deeley Freed, has said: “The Galleries has been struggling since well before the pandemic.

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“It’s poorly designed and car parking covers 40 per cent of the site. It has long been obsolete. Our proposal would completely transform the site.”

Deeley has added that the high-story buildings will not just include accommodation, but restaurants and shops.

“There would still be shops and restaurants on the ground floor throughout the development, including new units facing outwards to Castle Park and Broadmead.”

Developers have said that the new buildings will lead to a 40 per cent reduction in carbon emissions thanks to a heat network and solar panels, helping the City Council reach its goals of being carbon neutral by 2030.

Green Councillor for Easton, Jenny Bartle, is worried about the precedent of demolishing relatively new buildings but supports the move overall.

“This building is younger than I am, and I’m very young. We’re demolishing an awful lot of buildings, that’s really quite new. I worry about the precedent that it sets. But I don’t think it’s within our broader policy, because it’s not very green. Having said that, I think that it’s otherwise a very strong application and I do support it.”

Featured Image via Google Maps.