Rev Billy Comes to Bristol

How on earth could I have missed it?

I refer of course to the visit to Bristol of the legendary Rev Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping bringing their gospel of freedom from consumrism to Cabot Circus and Broadmead.

What was I thinking of by missing the show?

Photos here .

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Cabot Circus

While searching for a dictionary for one of my students yesterday, I found myself drawn unintentionally into Cabot Circus for the first time.

Following the pavement from the Horsefair, I was lead down a path into the belly of the beast, so to speak.

Taking in the brushed metal and pleasant wooden decor, I unsuccessfully cast my eye around for a bookstore. Thankfully, at the bottom of the slope, in the unnatural amphitheater at the heart (or rather, the small intestine, to keep the imagery consistent) of the £500 million development, was a smiley and, I felt sure, helpful greeter . All smiles, shiny face and luminous day-glo orange fleece.

Perfect (thought I), a helpful, smiley and shiny-faced greeter who will direct me straightaway to the numerous well-stocked bookstores in this architectural masterpiece. My earlier prejudices about the new development were melting away, much like the November mist that was dispersing as the pale sun peered through the gargantuan glass roof (equal in size to one and a half football pitches according to the official web site).

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when on asking the orange-clad one where I might find a bookstore I was told that there was no such shop in Cabot Circus. Dumbstruck, I sought confirmation from she of the shiny face that there was in fact no bookstore at all in Bristol's landmark structure, (ten years in the making and destined to place Bristol firmly on centre stage.) "No" was the reply, repeated through gritted teeth in that what-do-you-want-a-bookstore-here-for-you-old-git-don't-you-know-we've-got-Harvey-Nichols tone of voice.

Suddenly, the oversize reindeer statues seemed duller to me despite being festooned with white fairy lights. Had any of the shoppers stopped to look, they would have noticed a disconsolate old fart shuffling back uphill mumbling something to himself about reading, learning, values and the crassness of our popular culture.

I wasn't even cheered up by the statue of the giant Christmas tree baubles.

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More Impressions of Cabot Circus

For reasons too opaque to go into, I visited the Cabot Circus website again this afternoon.

Based on the tiny amount I know of how businesses and organisations do branding exercises, I will assume that the Cabot Circus team (aka the Bristol Alliance) got their marketing and design people together in one of the office buildings where the Alliance's two partners are based - Land Securities at 5 The Strand in central London and Hamerson based round the corner on Grosvenor Street - and had that "let's think creatively about who we are as a retail concept" discussion so beloved of marketing and communications people.

Assuming the people in these two teams know their stuff, and have an understanding of their target market (Susan from Southville, perhaps) I find the result both revealing and depressing.

The average customer who might be attracted to the new Cabot Circus is, judging by the images on the home page, aged 20-35, white, single or in a relationship. In addition to this, they are perennially unhappy (not a smile on the model's faces) and, it appears, attracted to androgyny.

At least a couple of reasons therefore why I won't be at the front of the queue on the grand opening on September 25th.

Go on. Take a look. You know you want to.

Hmm.

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Cabot Circus Impressions

Driving up Newfoundland Road this evening, I was struck by the outside of the nearly-completed Cabot Circus.

I found myself wondering how many European cities would consider undertaking the equivalent (to quote the official PR) of "Bristols [sic] largest and most important city centre regeneration programme since the post World War 2 reconstruction" by bolting together a conglomeration of huge concrete blocks at distressingly random angles.

I hope the inside will be more visually pleasing than the exterior.

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The Mall Bristol - Thank Goodness for Clarity Over the Name

The Galleries - as we've all been used to calling the shopping centre in Broadmead for the last 10 years - is to change its name.

From April 1st (no, seriously) the three-story retail building will be officially renamed: its new name will be The Mall Bristol. Please remember this name and try not to confuse it with anything else.

This choice of name, say the building's owners (a company with the potentially confusing name of The Mall) had originally wanted to give the building a totally different name following its recent £11 million revamp. Predictably, the preferred name was...... The Mall - a name which must have taken hours of blue-sky, out-of-the-box thinking on the part of the company's marketing and branding team.

Having burned the midnight oil in coming up with this innovative name for a shopping centre, the company then decided to change it (says the Evening Post) after "shoppers said it could be confused with the regional shopping centre of the same name at Cribbs Causeway." Shoppers! What do they know about it?

Presumably, The Mall (the company) wished to help its customers avoid the following Saturday morning text conversations:

Tracey: whre r u?

Lisa: on d bus goin 2 d mll

Tracey: me 2 c u thr

Lisa: whre shll we mt?

Tracey: fontain

Lisa: aint no fntain at d mll

Tracey: yer is nxt 2 smiffs

Lisa: na, wrng mll im goin 2 mll in twn

Tracey: soz c u ltr


Confusion thus averted, the new building will now be clearly referred to by all Bristolians as The Mall Bristol.

Unless of course, shoppers start to abbreviate its name. I wonder what they might start shortening it to?

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