Cabot Circus

Ugh, it feels a bit dirty to give a shopping mall five stars, but… I’m going to. I absolutely love the weaving nature of this place. The layout is super quirky and interesting, just like Trinity in Leeds. A cursory Google reveals that both were designed by the same company, Chapman Taylor, and if you’ve been to both you’ll see it in an instant.
It does have a great selection of shops and restaurants, albeit chains, but the selection is fantastic. I’m a sucker for Five Guys and H&M, so that’s already a win. I can’t recall if they also had indies dotted about (Trinity does) but you certainly won’t be stuck for places to check out. Everything from eats, drinks, clothes, stationary, jewellery, makeup, and more.
It is a little hard to find which way you need to go, but it’s really not the end of the world.

Little over rated as was told all indoor when in fact it is not. good selection of restaurants and stores.
As a new person, finding way from parking to shopping area is quite difficult. would be handy if floor 3 marked glass walk way more clearly instead of going to ground floor and have to cross the street with traffic.
That’s the huge negative I have

Cabot circus for me is one of the best shopping centres in the uk, what more would you expect from the mighty city of Brizzle.
A quirky design that attracts the eye, with plenty of shops, food outlets and even a cinema.
This place has grown over the years in terms of recognition, bringing people from all over to shop.
There are some really good shops and good places, has to be one of my favourite spots to eat to.
Cabot is a great place to stroll and spend that hard earned cash.
A great location with easy access, a multi story car park sits opposite with a foot bridge leading on the the centre itself.
I highly key recommend a shopping visit, great for some lunch or even a nice evening with the partner/​friends.

Wow! I could do some serious damage at this place! Cabot Circus is a beautifully constructed «outdoor» shopping centre with every store you can imagine!
We were staying across the street at the Future Inn and on the evening we arrived, we strolled over to take a quick peek at the adventures I would be exploring the next day. Much to my surprise, pleasure and happiness, there was a Pret right there as soon as we walked in! Breakfast at the hotel was on the pricey side so we knew where we’d be coming in the morning and we certainly needed to get fueled up for a day of shopping!
CC has lots of high end, brand name stores and with even more shops beyond the boundaries of CC, this made for a lovely day of retail therapy. My poor husband… oh well, at least they had an Apple store for him. ;)

God I miss having access to some shopping centers, Dublin doesn’t really have many good ones.
This place is massive, has some great shops, cool restaurants.

A new addition to Bristol’s shopping scene, Cabot Circus hasn’t been around long but it’s already made quite a splash. Having siphoned many of the major retailers away from neighbouring eyesore Broadmead, Cabot Circus
Featuring a mixture of the regular high street chain shops and restaurants alongside the more upmarket Quakers Friar stretch of glamourous boutiques and high end restaurants, Cabot Circus just does about everything. It even boasts a mini golf course.
The architecture is new and innovative, a mixed media hotch potch of styles, although it remains to be seen whether it will stand the test of time. I’m a fan of the indoor-​outdoor concept — enough fresh air in summer without getting rained on in winter.
Of course, being so stuffed full of chains makes Cabot Circus a little on the soulless side. But if you want something and you want it now there’s nowhere better to go in Bristol.

The UK is the home of identical town centres. No matter what city you are in, e.g. Newcastle or Bristol, the ‘High Street’ always looks the same. Maybe it’s because all the shops are the same or the people are all actually very alike, either way they are pretty depressing places to be. But Cabot Circus offers an exciting alternative, mostly because of the beautiful architecture that houses the shops and restaurants.
Found right on the edge of the city, Bristol was in need and did deserve a place like this. The old high street (Broadmead) was looking incredibly worn out and rough round the edges and although this shopping centre isn’t quite up there with the ludicrous grandeur of US malls they have done incredibly well with what seemed like very little space (and bigger isn’t always better). It is beautifully designed so that although you are covered by a stunning glass dome you also feel like you are outside in the fresh air as the sides of the structure are left open.
There are some great shops, from the practical to the luxurious and Cabot has made my Christmas shopping so much easier, but my favourite inclusion has to be the Showcase De Lux cinema; finally a digital quality cinema in the centre of town.

Cabot Circus is a true gem of a shopping centre. It has an amazingly modern vibe with its large open spaces, clever use of glass which makes it feel less like you’re walking around a traditional monotonous shopping centre in the conventional Bluewater mould. All of the big chains can be found here including plenty of places to eat on the top floor and a great little cinema. It’s so well designed that you may find yourself being in such a good mood that your wallet feels a freat deal lighter than when you first arrived!

So many people were against the design of this place and from the outside it is a bit more cheapy futuristic than a landmark welcoming people to the city when they drive in via the M32. But inside it flows really nicely from street to street with a half-​enclosed, half open-​air feel and actually feels really upmarket. The inclusion of a great choice of eateries and a top-​quality cinema has also made it a less clinical place to be because people are always around in the evenings and it’s also a pleasant cut-​through. I think it has also revolutionised the shopping scene in Bristol which was fairly laughable before. Broadmead was a shabby joke and the shops on Park Street can fulfil some tastes but not all. Cabot has managed to achieve something great which is affordable and well-​known high street chains co-​existing in a really contemporary and smart space. Unfortunately its proximity to my work means it has put a huge dent in my finances but I no longer need to get the train to Cardiff or drive out to the hell that is Cribbs Causeway to do my shopping. It’s also forced the rest of Broadmead to raise its game and get smarter which I think was necessary so Bristol can compete with other big cities. Oh and the security staff are really nice. My mum and I tried to do all our Christmas shopping in one afternoon and ended up leaving half of it on the floor and they kept it safe for us and were really sweet when Mum went back to get it.

I was totally anti yet another shopping centre. In fact I only recently came to the Shopping centre for the first time and that was to buy tickets to go and see Avatar. Since then I have been back a few times, mainly to go to the cinema and grab a bite beforehand, but also it is a far more relaxing shopping experience than in Cabot Circus /​Broadmead if you are out and about and do need to visit the high street shops. Plus the Apple store is here. Shiny!
I love the design of the new building, I think it has a lot of style. It does have some flaws, its pretty cold there in winter but I’m sure that will be lovely in summer. It also is designed in a way to force you to walk around the shops.
Go down to the ground floor after going to the cinema at night and check out the echo! It is awesome. Woudn’t it be nice if that had been a deliberate feature instead of something accidental? I don’t think it is an interactive feature to be enjoyed however as after some clapping and operatic singing we noticed a security guard coming to shoo us riff-​raff ruffians away!
Yes lots of the same old boring shops but they are all safely in one nice big complex and hopefully that will stop them invading the independent high streets.

I don’t like shopping, i don’t like shopping malls, I don’t like chains. But somehow i like Cabot, and i am still having trouble working out why.
Despite housing hundreds of chain shops, there is something very individual about Cabot Circus. The glass roofs are twisted and distorted that generates the impression of it being a wave. Unlike other shopping centres it is inside, it is spread across different levels and different streets that have taken the names of great shopping centres across the world.
Everything you might expect to find in the west’s largest shopping centre, and more. More importantly Cabot houses a lot of good restaurants and a cinema.

This was such a long time coming and has really proved its worth in the first year of trading. Don’t be fooled, this is not a heated mall. Although it looks like it is inside, it is fairly open with a brisk breeze blowing along the lanes (all of which have names). The design may not be to everyones liking but I love it — simple and modern without being pretentious. It has the best footbridge to the car park which is a giant luminous blue work of art. The shops are exactly what you’d expect from an über modern city shopping centre House of Fraser, Harvey Nicholls, Next, Body Shop, Topshop, H&M, Urban Outfitters, Schuh etc etc. There’s some decent eateries, including my faves, La Tasca and Pret A Manger. And the piece de resistance for all film lovers — the Cinema de Lux. This is without a doubt the best cinema in the city for blockbuster films, comfort and that Hollywood experience.

A few people I know said they weren’t keen on the new Cabot Circus shopping centre when it opened. I really don’t understand why as the alternatives in Bristol aren’t great.
I’m not a big shopper, but even me, your average bloke on the streets can see that this is vast improvement on the tired and worn out looking Broadmead shopping centre just around the corner. The design and architecture of Cabot is very tasteful and the whole inside/​outside feel of the place, helps it sit comfortably in it’s surrounding without looking like an airport or gigantic warehouse as so many of these shopping centres do (Cribs for example).
Plenty of shops arranged in little sidewalks makes Cabot a pleasant place to walk around. You don’t feel like you’re walking round an endless unimaginative circle of chains (you are, but at least they’ve tried to make it interesting).

A new shopping centre for Bristol that was much needed — now bringing people into the city centre for a shopping day out. Before there was nothing, and I mean nothing, about Broadmead to bring even the locals into town, let alone those ker-​ching all day shoppers away from Bath and Cardiff.
Although it struggled at the beginning, with several shops closing and being replaced by some, shall we say, lower quality shops it has picked up again as the benefits and word of mouth has spread.
Held together with the department stores Harvey Nichols and House of Fraser, there is a nice mix of high street fashion and high end boutiques here. It is half under cover, and there are plenty of stopping spots in the form of coffee shops — however these are mostly chain shops. Soho is the closest to a local coffee shop being from the west country, but still a chain, at least it is fairtrade and organic.

Over a year since it’s opened, Cabot Circus is probably quite a success story. It’s a massive boost for Bristol, transforming what was a really quite nasty, 60’s shopping centre into a 21^st Century building. It’s not quite a building though, more three covered streets — a glorified shopping arcade, if you will. The architecture is really quite impressive, especially when you get to the top floor and you can see the jaunty angle of the glass roof close up.
The shops are all chains, though, which is what can be expected for a city centre shopping centre, but there’s a few brands that have attempted to bring Bristol shopping up a notch, such as the massively hyped up and high class Harvey Nichols. This is in the second part of Cabot Circus, over the road from the glass covering, in what they call Quaker’s Friar, which is supposed to be the high-​end side of it, with more designer brands such as French Connection and All Saints making appearances.
Last Christmas there were some interesting modern art Reindeers dotted about, so I’m interested to see what they’ll come up with this year. I give a thumbs up to the development, it’s good for Bristol and it’s a nice area to do some shopping in. I’ll give one tip away though — if you’re speedy at shopping, then park over the road near Portland Square where it’s free parking for an hour (…then just risk a ticket, I’ve done it many a time…).

Bristol’s new shopping area still feels shiny and new, at least next to the old Broadmead shopping centre it’s next too. It’s an attempt to bring something a little bit more upmarket to Bristol, with Harvey Nichol’s and American Apparel both setting up shop here. Obviously a bit more pricey than the Primark down the road, I’m glad they’ve brought a few places with a bit of style to Bristol.
The shopping centre isn’t huge, really just two new streets and a refurbishment of the surrounding area. They’ve got giant glass roof covering the complex in bubble like sections. Very impressive and makes Cabot Circus a welcome bolt hole when it starts raining. The building itself looks pretty smart now, not entirely convinced it will age terribly well but we’ll see.
All of the shops and restaurants I’ve seen are chains. House of Fraser, Fossil watches and Nandoes, to name a few, all have outlets here. I’m not usually a big fan of chains but Bristol has a wealth of independent retailers so I’m not certainly not against having so many here. Can feel a bit like you’re getting fleeced though. Cabot Circus goes a little way to dragging Bristol up the classiness scale a bit and brings plenty more opportunities to spend too much money.

So, almost exactly one year on, what to make of Cabot Circus? It arrived with much fanfare, very expensively… at quite possibly the worst possible time.
Actually, before I continue, I should concede that I’m not exactly a shopping nut, so the only two times I have actually bothered to go have been when I’ve had to kill a mornng when relatives have been to stay. From those experiences, though, I’ve been quite impressed.
Broadmead was undoubtedly a shithole, whereas Cabot Circus, without touching the heights of London or Birmingham, at least gives us a central shopping area that we don’t have to feel ashamed of. Sure, all the shops are interchangeable with any other city, but the outdoor areas are roomy and attractive and even when you’re indoors it’s well-​lit via the transparent roof, giving the impression that you’re out in the open air.
It’s never going to be as chic as some of the independently owned boutiques on Park Street or Clifton Village, but if it means I’ll never have to travel out to the Mall ever again, then I’d say it’s £500 million well spent.