Bath Highstreet Shopping
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Shopping Areas in Bath
by katew Bath is a beautiful place to visit, and a wonderful place to shop if you have plenty of money. Unfortunately I don't! The city appeals very much to tourists, having a range of independent shops, but less so to us locals of limited means, having very few of the cheaper chains. OK, let's start at the beginning. You ... will arrive in Bath either at the railway station, or at the temporary bus station several streets away. From the railway station, your first view is of a massive building site. The former Southgate precinct has now been demolished, and a new shopping centre, due for completion in 2010, is being built (very quickly and efficiently) in its place. You can check the progress of this project at http://www.southgatebath.com/. The general idea of this new centre is that it will have a mixture of independent and chain shops, but the only company that has been confirmed so far is Debenhams. There will also be a new 'transport interchange', combining the existing railway station with a new bus station. In terms of existing shopping, Bath has a selection of the usual shops: M&S, Boots, WH Smiths, House of Fraser (which in Bath is called Jolly's), Superdrug, etc. There are also several mobile phone shops - there seems to be a new one every week! For fashion, there are names such as Karen Millen and Ted Baker alongside high street names such as Topshop, Gap, Next and BHS. However, there are few of the cheaper options like Peacocks, Primark or New Look - the only low budget clothes shop is QS. Foodwise, there is a Waitrose and a Sainsbury's convenience style store in the centre, a full sized Sainsbury's a short walk from the middle of town and a Morrison's about 2 miles out. Again, there are none of the cheaper supermarkets such as Asda or Tesco. There are surprisingly few independent food shops either, although there is a farmers' market every Saturday in Green Park Station. For a fascinating shopping experience, it is worth setting aside a day to wander around. Green Street (just off the main thoroughfare) has some interesting shops such as a sausage shop (I kid you not!) and a fishmongers, and Bartlett Street (a couple of minutes' walk from the top of the main shopping area) has several antique shops. There are also pedestrianised 'corridors' with shops such as Arcania, which sells new age products, and a shop selling Latin American craft items. The other thing Bath has plenty of is charity shops, although for the most part they are a lot more expensive than a charity shop should be. The best bargains are to be found in the Dorothy House shop, which supports a local hospice, and is in Abbeygate Street, next to M&S. **My opinion** If shopping is your pleasure, then you can't go wrong in Bath. However, if you want to buy everyday items at reasonable prices, you're in the wrong place. I once spent a week trying to find a place that sold beer mugs - I could find all sorts of expensive arty drinking glasses, but plain, ordinary, dimpled beer mugs? Not on your life! My own favourites in Bath are Walters in the Podium, who sell cameras and other opticals such as telescopes, and The Works, who sell books, DVDs and low budget craft supplies. The other thing about Bath is that, being a tourist city, you will usually find the staff in most shops extremely helpful. The downside is that if you're disabled, you might as well forget it. A huge proportion of the city centre consists of listed buildings, and for some strange reason, that seems to mean that you can't do *anything* to help the less mobile among us get around your shop! Having said that, the most helpful staff on this front are in some of the charity shops - they have portable ramps in many of them and are only too pleased to help you in any way they can. Read the complete review |
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Shopping Areas in Bath
by themasterknows Shopping in Bath is a great place to have a day out. There are plenty of shops to keep you amused, with the beautiful buildings and tourism. Whilst shopping in Bath, it is neccessary to have a map on you if it's your first time going there! there are many streets and winding corridors that have a variety of different shops, ... cafes and restaurants that will be tucked into the nooks and crannies. I usually visit Bath via train, and step out of the station to see plenty of historic limestone buildings to fuel you to walk around the place. The first shop that most people pass is usually Curry's, or if you go onto the other side of the road it's habitat. The highstreets of Bath usually feature the most common highstreet shops such as WHSmiths, Jane Norman, Accessorize, etc... You can also see performers and plenty of market stalls that sell things like paintings and stripy socks. So yes Bath has many great shops and attractions that tourists seem to like. Read the complete review |
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Shopping Areas in Bath
by Alfo ....I remember being a kid I thought Bath was the best place in the world...especially for shopping! It had the greatest Toy Shops ever, at the bottom of town was Snooks, I must have kept the shop in business during the early 80's with my Star Wars figure collection obbsession in full swing! This is the store that is particularly ... memorable for me as I once met darth Vader here, after queue for more than an hour i was distraught to find it wasn't actually him. I haven't fully recovered. At the other end of town hamleys resided the more "upmarket" toy store, but it was so cool, as a child it didn't matter your parents couldn't afford to take you to Disney Land, a visit to hamley was the next best thing! How times have changed,Hamleys is long gone, and Snooks now sells mainly prams from a smaller back street shop! Over the years Bath's shopping "centre" has become more and more fragmented, and an overwhelming number of "outlets", which all sell cheap crap and knock-off stuff have been appearing. Bath's shooping experience is split into 3 (maybe 4), at the bottom of town near the Bus/train stations, you have Marchants Passage, which when I was younger seemed like a huge shopping Mall, now i see it for what it is, a dimly lit walkthrough! This is where most of the BIG names live, Boots, Bhs (1 of 2), Somerfield, Argos, HSamuel, WHSmith (again 1 of 2) and surrounding these out side you have Mcdonalds, Mothercare, and Marks and spencer. If these shops don't meet your needs then you gotta do some walking man... The next section is sort of the middle area of shopping and it contains all the mediocre shops the second WHSmith and BHS, Starbucks, about 10 Mobile phone shops, Dixons etc, etc... The Top of town is where it starts to get a bit more interesting, it's a bit more upmarket if you like. With Gap (2), Waterstones, Jollys(a house of Fraser store), loads of posh shops selling antiques and collectables that I'm too scared to go into. This is where the side streets can open up the wonders of smaller independant shops, selling apple flavoured sausages, and fish bones in the shape of some 3rd world diety. Quite unique and fun to explore. Don't get me wrong I like shopping in Bath, but it just seems to be getting so samey, ever second week a new Starbucks or costa coffee opens. The problem is that in the main shopping area (the bottom of town), there has been a lot of debate over the future of the site, it's due to be all knocked down and replaced with a new modern shopping centre. Originally (we're talking about 10-15yrs ago here), they were going to build a huge dome and put all the shops in that, and the car parks everything, but people complained an the plans got shelved. Or course this has made all the reatilers edgy, and they are slowy relocating away from the centre. Which is why shopping in Bath requires hiking Boots. Getting there is easy (although get ready for a MAJOR gripe in a minute), Train, Bus and Coach stations are all located in the centre and a Park and Ride service operates from 3 points in the city. If you're travelling by car (remember I said there was a major gripe..here it is), parking is a NIGHTMARE, 3 main car parks, all multistorey...but they charge a fortune, the smallest amount of time you can have is 2 hours for £2! what about if you only have to get one thing.....there is no street parking, well there sort of is but you have to pay for that too, but you try and find a space!! If you want just the standard stuff, Boots etc..it's OK just a bit all over the place. If you're prepared to walk and explore (check out Walcot St), you'll love it! Oh and if you're a chocolate lover you must check out Cadbury's cafe, the first one in the world and 3 floors of chocolate lovers delight! Read the complete review |
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4 reviews Highstreet Shopping / City streets, markets, shopping malls, large retail parks... |
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