What should happen to Bristol’s former Debenhams?

Work has started to remove the fittings from inside Bristol’s former Debenhams leading to renewed speculation as to what should happen next with the huge building.

It comes as new owners have taken control of the building sandwiched between the Horsefair and the Bearpit.

Bristol24/7 readers have come up with suggestions for the future of the former department store for everything from a giant ball pit to a multi-floor snakes and ladders game, with more serious suggestions including affordable housing or homeless accommodation.

Work has started to strip out the former Debenhams on the Horsefair – photo: Martin Booth

Winchester’s former Debenhams is being divided on ground level into restaurant spaces and a hotel chain above; while the empty stores in towns and cities including Gloucester, Norwich, Northampton and Leeds are all being turned into student accommodation.

Here are a few of the best suggestions for the future of the Bristol building from Twitter users:

• New underground station entrance with housing on top
• Hamilton House MK2
• Ice rink and leisure complex
• Climate emergency action hub
• M&S
• A massive Bristol-themed entertainment immersive experience, with mini suspension bridge walkways, lifts like hot air balloons and a steam train ride that goes all the way around the top floor. The ground floor could be a water experience with mini Great Britains to row around
• A massive nightclub
• An arena
• A new skyscraper called Marvin Towers in honour of our great leader!
• An indoor market/high street of lots of pop ups and start-ups. A kind of indoor version of Wapping Wharf cargo units
• An exact replica of Showcase Avonmeads
• Use it to bring John Lewis back to the city centre
• New Gardiner Haskins
• Debberghains
• A museum of how town used to be full of shops for people to buy things. With the top floor student penthouses just to keep up with modern trends.
• Hub for activists. With access to WiFi, printers, skill-share workshops and open tactic meetings going cross-campaigns sharing best-practice.
• Massive Uniqlo
• Multi-floor bookshop
• A theme park fairground bar activity centre. With different pop up restaurants and activities
• A brand new council building full of people that do their job and run by people with no interest to line their own pockets
• An indoor forest where people can go for nice walks on rainy days.
• Dutch style multi-storey bike parking
• Youth centre with drop-in support, Climate emergency centre, swap shop, free meeting space for community groups, co-working space, Workshop space, possibly with Bristol Bike Project, pay as you feel cafe and could also have a homeless shelter as part of it.
• Big community kitchen, hostel for unhoused folks and a swap shop to share useful things like tools, hoovers etc
• Housing or a school
• It should be gutted at extravagant cost to house a retired North Sea oil platform. Payment in cash only on the door to the retired Zoo Car Park Attendant. Full size models (1:1) of Western Harbour and the first Underground Station along with a furnace where you burn £50 notes in homage to Bristol Energy. Also a raffle (free entry) to win a city centre music venue that’s actually worth not a single penny.
• A Luke Jerram Museum, where the escalators gets turned into water slides reminiscent of Bristol Park Street a few years ago.
• New media art gallery and immersive digital theatre space, with a creative technology education centre. 180 The Strand meets Boomsatsuma
• They should turn it into a Debenhams experience. So future generations of people can have the experience of going round Debenhams. Like they did with Coronation Street.
• Giant Laser Quest
• Bristol’s very own Venthaven (ventriloquists dummies) museum?
• A Pink Palace style skate park.
• Indoor paintball
• Multi floor snakes and ladders game
• Community centre and bicycle parking
• The world’s biggest indoor soft play
• Public market with all sorts of local goods and services, maybe with some venues inside too?
• A community kitchen and art space, plenty of room to get taggers, writers and street artists to do their thing.
• Like much of Broadmead it needs housing for all, a school, the Bearpit removed, new highway layout, pedestrian crossings, school amenity in pit, height etc etc. That kind of retail is gone. It was dead before Covid.
• New football ground for Bristol Rovers
• Just a good commercial and affordable housing mix. The area needs more permanent residents and a good anchor store like M&S. It won’t happen of course. I’m banking on ‘luxury’ apartments though…
• Kunsthaus Tacheles – the greatest use of an old department store ever
• Marvelous Marvin’s Museum of Mystery. A tribute to our great mayor showcasing his greatest achievements. Exhibits showing the low cost housing, an arena and the Bristol Underground. So basically an empty shell of disappointment.
• A commuting hub. A bike park with a workshop for services and fixing. Desks to hire for anyone in Bristol for a meeting. Maybe a drop in employment advice centre. IT workshop for small business. A few conference and meeting rooms etc
• Massive version of St Nick’s, space for exhibitions / shows / clubs too, rentable pop up spaces for new businesses etc.
• Downstairs food hall of independent vendors like Chelsea market in New York and independent retail units on the upper floors.
• A giant advent calendar
• A Bristol-themed music venue called “He Me Bands” mainly so you could reuse the letters on the front.
• Axe throwing range
• A co-work creative space
• Hooters
• A giant Wetherspoons – obviously the toilets would be reached by going under the road and be in the top floor of the empty M&S opposite just one long bar on the top floor seating elsewhere and about 50 fruit machines dotted around. Open from 7am till 2 am… beautiful
• Bristol’s equivalent of Printworks in Manchester
• A massive branch of Slix
• A waterpark
• Indoor adventure park, with skate ramps, climbing, indoor cycle track, concert venue etc
• Monorail?
• An NCP
• Tram line that connects Stokes Croft via the Bearpit, the center of Broadmead, and Victoria Street. Re-sited bus terminal on top. Hart’s Bakery on top of that, why not?
• Bristol’s biggest Chilli Daddy
• An indoor market for Bristol artists and makers. A bit like Hyper Hyper in Kensington High Street in the 80s. An affordable way for creators to have a town centre store and for locals to access locally made wares under one roof. Stylish and beautiful.
• Massive indoor paintballing experience, set in a post apocalyptic world complete with Zombie actors. You must sign a waiver before you enter.
• Multi-level indoor electric karting track
• Honestly I’m happy as long as it’s not more Serviced Office Space or overpriced apartments with a name like Life @ The Store, BS1
• Shop that only sells mini blue scooters for baby orangutans
• Just an absolutely massive Games Workshop
• A slave trade museum to show the city in an honest light and help people from elsewhere understand why things like that statue deserved to be drowned. Educate people rather than it becoming another place to sell things people probably don’t need.
• A repository for Marvin’s ego and bad decisions
• Flats on top to pay for it, work spaces on ground floor, music / art / dance spaces for other floors and an engineering exhibition centre on the last floor.
• Warm hub, with a library, study area and kitchen. Comfortable seating, toilet/shower/laundry facilities, TV, wi-fi and a few rooms for sleeping. Community rooms for hire at a reasonable rate.
• State of the art arts and environment centre
• The world’s largest miniature rideable indoor railway!
• Homeless shelter filled with opportunities for work, support services and places where the homeless community feel seen and taken care of. This is the only way Broadmead can change
• Bring back John Lewis
• Biggest swingers club in the UK
• Something like the Borough Market on ground level.
• Looks perfect for apartments, possibly with solar panels, gardens and pool on the roof. Hopefully some balconies could be added, and greenery on the walls. Perhaps someone could do an artists mock-up.
• Independent market place, like Affleck Place in Manchester, with cheap rent for traders.
• Something along the lines of Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Gallery, art space, studios, experimental cultural hub, indoor plaza and tourist attraction.
• Bristol’s version of Berghain
• Turn it into the People’s Revolutionary HQ Bristol Branch
• Get Banksy to create a museum of greenwashing and BlahBlahBlah
• An Aldi
• A care home run by the NHS
• A huge centre dedicated to sustainability, make it overshadow Primark next door, or a hub of independent brands/designers.

Rubbish is being collected in the shop’s former loading bay – photo: Martin Booth

Back to reality, the landmark six-storey building now also has a new owner.

As first reported by Bristol World, London-based company 33 Horsefair Ltd is now ‘primary liable’ for the building on – yes – 33 Horsefair.

The two directors of 33 Horsefair Ltd are operations director Louise Staniforth and portfolio manager Nicholas Winsley, who are both also on the board of AEW UK which owns a large amount of land in Bristol city centre as well as holding significant control over 33 Horsefair Ltd.

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read next:

• 20 photos of Broadmead from 1950s, 60s & 70s
• New initiative hopes to bring climate and community centre to Broadmead
• A look at Broadmead in 2032

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