Broad Street Mall

Broad Street Mall

Broad Street Mall, once called the Butts Centre, is a large indoor shopping area in central Reading, England. It has many shops where people can buy things and a big multi-storey car park that links directly to the first floor. The mall is close to The Hexagon theatre and the offices of Reading Borough Council, making it a central place for shopping and fun.

History

Plans for the shopping centre were made by the Reading Borough Council in 1956. It took over ten years to find the right place and buy it. The centre was first called the Butts Centre, named after nearby St Mary's Butts. Its current name comes from Broad Street, the main shopping street in Reading, where the centre is located. It opened in 1971. In June 2001, Doughty Hanson & Co bought the centre and sold it in March 2004. They used a business strategy to update the centre. Because of this, more people visited, and net operating profits went up.

Shops

Here are some of the shops and places you can find inside the Broad Street Mall:

• Boswells Cafe
• Bride to Be
• Brother2Brother
• Burger King
• Card Factory
• F. Hinds
• Grape Tree
• Greggs
• Holland & Barrett
• Iceland
• Jelly
• 118 Photography
• Reading Buses
• Martin's
• Metro Bank
• Poundland
• Reading Biscuit Factory (Cinema)
• Savers (UK retailer)
• Slaters
• Subway
• Superdrug
• Taco Bell
• Thai-Grr
• The Works
• Therapists on the High Street
• Timpson (retailer)
• TK Maxx

Residential

In November 2018, plans were sent to Reading Borough Council for 530 homes at the Broad Street Mall. In 2019, new plans were made for 493 homes in three buildings. One building would be placed on top of the shopping centre. The other two buildings would be five and twenty-two stories tall, if allowed.

Other facilities

The Broad Street Mall has public toilets, a Post Office, and a walk-in health centre. In 2019, the health centre was made bigger with money from the NHS. In September 2020, a new place called Co-Space Reading opened at the mall. It offers office spaces for local businesses, with 15 different office suites available to rent.