‘Always approach the opening day of a shopping centre like an agnostic regards Easter.’
I adopted that attitude twice at the opening of Highcross in Leicester on 4th September and Cabot Circus in Bristol on 25th September.
Shop Til You Drop - Highcross saw its millionth customer 2 weeks after opening
Don’t buy into the miracle of a wonderful building, rising out of urban dereliction, before peering into the empty shops that the new shopping centre has caused.
I walked up Broadmead, Bristol, counting the cost of Cabot Circus.
It was dawn, and no shop, new or old was yet open. As I scribbled: ‘New Look, Dorothy Perkins, Burtons – relocating – H&M trading both,’ I was interrupted by the ebullient embrace of John Richards, chief executive of Hammerson, developer with Land Securities, of Cabot Circus.
He was walking away from his creation, as I was walking towards it.
‘I’m going back to change,’ he said.
‘Into a clown?’ I asked cheekily, knowing that the opening cerebrations were to have a circus theme.
‘Into a tie,’ he replied, adding that when you do a very early BBC Radio Four broadcast, you grab the first clothes available. Now, he needed a tie for the rest of the day’s festivities that would run until the early hours.
It was his third shopping centre opening that month; Leicester, near Paris and now Bristol.
An hour later he was addressing civic and other dignitaries in the Friends Meeting House now incorporated into Cabot Circus as a restaurant, Brasserie Blanc.
Those in property at the Brasserie brunch ridiculed the naïveté of that morning’s radio and television interviewers’ questions to Hammerson and Land Securities bosses. The questions generally ran: ‘Why would you open a shopping centre in an economy like this?’
Didn’t these people understand……
All the speakers repeated the mantra of the 4,000 jobs that Cabot Circus had created. Then everyone congratulated one another on having 99 of 140 open in time for the big day. More than 90% was let.
It was time to walk from the brasserie across Penn Street to the new part of the development. The opening did not take place until the unusually late time of midday to give Bristol’s office workers a chance to join the throng.
We VIPs took up our positions outside the upper level entrance of House of Fraser and drank flutes of pink champagne.
Slowly, the barriers to the three street level entrances rolled back.
A tide of respectful humanity moved slowly along the three covered malls of Concorde Street, George White Street and Brigstow Street. These human tributaries converged at The Circus, below our vantage point.
The people could not have walked with more reverence if they had been in a cathedral. It’s hard not to be a convert to their retail beliefs when you are having an ‘Eva Peron’ moment, and they are waving from below.
Then acrobats performed barefoot on top of the glass roof and trapeze artists swung below them. It was difficult to sustain the awe.
Shopping started, and the real trick was to spot how many of the tens of thousands who had come, had a carrier bag from a newly opened shop.
My guess is one in 20. Everyone insisted the first day was not about shopping but discovering. This new place of worship will catch on quickly, if the economy permits.
