Pictures taken a few weeks before the shopping arcade opened
(a year or three late!), thanks to an Open Day.
The location, the old "island site" by the harbour, as seen from the old Albert Pier.
Before work started, it was all a bit of a mess...
.. which had previously been an abattoir.
The development plan (quite large - can be zoomed in)..
... shows a long arcade roughly parallel to the Esplanade (and old railway line) with two spurs off in a harbour direction, making a back-to-front F shape.
I have tastefully added a yellow blob above the gates where the two internal passages emerge - although these are not open to the public but are merely emergency exits.
The main entrance is in Liberation Square (opposite the Pomme D'Or) in the middle of the old Tourism building...
.. looking back...
.. just outside.
Venturing inside, the first area is a covered space behind...
(looking back)
.. the pasty shop.
Maybe this close-up plan will help? :)
The shop coloured pink in the plan above (a block that used to house the public conveniences)...
(looking down the side of that shop block)
( ... heading towards the Steam Clock White Elephant area)
A quick look inside that shop...
Cows - how apt for a prior slaughterhouse area!
If you had entered this place from the gateway between the old Tourism Building and the old toilets, this is the view towards...
(looking right) ... the covered (half covered!) area behind the main entrance.
The other side of that shop, is a small yard behind what is now a youth club....
.. again the distant view is in a Steam Clock direction.
This area will be part of a nightclub with terrace above the shop in the old toilet block...
.. the nightclub under construction.
Let's look down the main long passageway then, with the nightclub-to-be on the left, having left the covered area with what is now a Costa Coffee on the right ...
.. looking back.
The first spur off to the left - leads only to new toilets.
The second spur contains small retail units on the left, and to the right...
.. this area is part of M&S, with furniture in here now.
This was shortly to become the entrance area to M&S, at the western end of the arcade. Outside here is what used to be the main road heading west - now populated by a large office block, the dangling swimmer artwork, and the new Tourism Tower around to the right.
Vacant units on the harbour side...
.. and one on the Esplanade side. It was practically dark in here, so a 1.5 second exposure, hand-held, steadied against the door, is naturally a little blurry!
.. nice beams up in the ceiling here.
A little bit too much of a reminder of what used to go on in this building complex.
I still feel a bit uneasy partaking of a leisure experience in an old slaughterhouse! It doesn't seem to pay much respect to the suffering of all those animals despatched here. Where was their Liberty?
By the green/white house, over the road is an area of parking where an ice-cream van plies its trade in the warm months.
