Broad Street Mall

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

History

Plans for the shopping centre were made by the Reading Borough Council in 1956, but it took over ten years to find the right location 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 at the west end. It opened its doors in 1971. In June 2001, Doughty Hanson & Co bought the centre and sold it in March 2004. During this time, they used a business strategy to bring the centre up to date. Because of this, more people visited the centre, and net operating profits went up as well.

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. Later, in 2019, new plans were made for 493 homes in three buildings, with one 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 flexible and spacious office spaces for local businesses, with 15 different office suites available to rent.