Ahead of you, you’ll spot SouthGate’s proud entrance-look for light, honey-coloured Bath stone everywhere. The buildings are grand, topped with tidy columns and perfectly-lined windows. The pedestrian street opens up before you, with shops and the occasional tree breaking up the stone. If you see a wide plaza with neat benches and elegant street lamps, you’ve found it!
Alright, you’re standing right at the gateway to Bath’s modern heartbeat-and yes, those stunning stone facades are actually quite new… But don’t let that trick you! SouthGate is designed to look Georgian, as if Jane Austen herself might pop out of H&M with a bonnet. Chapman Taylor, the architects, made sure every detail fits the city’s classical style. You’re standing in the middle of over 50 shops, 10 restaurants, and almost 100 homes hidden above the bustling streets. And somewhere beneath your feet-about 860 cars are snoozing in the underground car park.
It wasn’t always this stylish. If you’d been here back in the early 2000s, you’d have seen a much less glamorous concrete shopping centre and an old bus station… hardly the kind of place to sip a posh coffee. That all got swept away in 2007, and the ground was cleared for archaeologists to dig up old city walls, a mysterious well, ancient cellars, and even a ditch with the unforgettable name, the “Bum Ditch.” Who said history couldn’t have a sense of humour?
During construction in 2008, disaster struck-a fireball blasted through the site, sending flames higher than the cranes. Streets and trains had to shut down. Talk about a dramatic opening act! But Bath’s spirit is tough. The new centre opened in three phases, finally finished in 2010.
This whole area is made up of six buildings, cleverly stitched together by bridges for deliveries-so watch out for rolling crates behind the scenes. And if you hear echoes of the past, maybe it’s the ghost of The Ham, the medieval commonland that once stretched right here. It may be gone, but its memory lingers-just as Bath manages to blend the old and new with a bit of mischief and a lot of charm.
Ready to stroll on? SouthGate's seven pedestrian streets wind ahead, so follow the gentle curve of the stone and let’s discover what Bath has hidden around the corner!
