It used to be so good..... (Shopping Areas in Bath)

Member Name: Alfo

Product:	Shopping Areas in Bath
Date:	21/01/01 (382 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of shops, easy to get to, lovely surroundings

Disadvantages: Expensive parking, shops all over the place

....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!

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