Inside Britain’s saddest purchasing centre: Town centre mall empty simply DAYS earlier than Christmas as depressed locals say ‘it is a shame’

To venture into Evesham’s Riverside Shopping Centre is like accidentally finding yourself on the set of a Christmas horror film.

Picture the scene: it’s four days until Christmas and the six-story car park appears deserted.

There’s a modern payment system that requires your registration plate but it is otherwise ghostly.

Another car arrives, revs up and takes the corner from 2nd to 3rd floor almost on two wheels. This is not normal.

A door that looks like it might lead to some shops is bolted so perhaps it has actually closed down.

But no, the sign says the shopping is on the sixth floor so it’s into the stairwell which smells like the Gent’s toilet at a sporting fixture.

Litter is everywhere, along with discarded condoms. It is empty.

Then it gets creepier as you approach the dimly lit door on floor six for there is the sound of Christmas music piping out of a tinny sound system.

Behind the door is light and a Home Bargains. It looks open but there is no obvious sign of life until….a shopper appears holding a bag.

It feels post-apocalyptic. You want to check if they are OK, and that the normal rules of human engagement still apply.

Sheron Annis, 76, has just been to Home Bargains.

‘I’ve lived in Evesham for 72 years,’ she said, ‘and it’s very, very sad. This place is an absolute disaster.

‘You can’t even use the toilets anymore. They’ve locked them up. It’s an embarrassment for the town.’

Of over 40 units, only three are open – Home Bargains, a small mobile phone shop and the café.

The central feature now is a cordoned off area under the domed, glass roof where strategically placed buckets collect water when it rains.

There is Union Jack bunting but no-one can quite remember which Jubilee it went up for. Back in 1988 when it opened, this privately-owned centre was thriving.

The faded sign on the wall outside reads: ‘Menswear, Food, Children, Footwear, Health & Beauty, Sports & Outdoors, Café, Womenswear, Confectionary, Homewares, Gifts & Accessories, Fashion, Music & Electrical, Variety.’

Now it’s just boarded up shops and buckets.

Evesham residents have found themselves caught between laughing and crying.

‘It’s been bad for years,’ added Sheron. ‘My granddaughter is 12 now but when she was younger she used to say, ‘Can we go to the Centre to count the buckets’.

‘Evesham has gone to the dogs. It used to be thriving but bit by bit it has vanished and there is nothing for young people to do.

‘We have a leisure centre but not everyone can afford that and we see a lot of vandalism. It’s heart-breaking.’

Another one smiling through is Shirley Douse, 86, using her mobility scooter to meet two of her five children for coffee.

Pointing to the cordoned off area, she said: ‘We used to have a fountain there. Now we get a fountain every time it rains. 

‘It is disgusting how it’s gone. We have a magnificent park just outside and they put on some good events in the summer which makes this an even bigger embarrassment.

‘People come in here thinking they’ll find a toilet, then find out it’s closed and the nearest one is the other side of town.

‘They reckon they were charging too much rent. I don’t know, everyone shops online.

‘The bloke who owns it does no repairs, it’s just a doss hole.’

Her children were equally aghast at what their once fine shopping centre had become.

Carole Baker, 62, said: ‘I’ve lived here all my life. People come to Evesham for holidays because it is such a lovely place and then they see this.’

Son Stephen, 59, added: ‘There are more pigeons in here than people most of the time.’

Its fall from grace has been steady and locals say it pre-dates Covid.

No-one can remember when the novelty clock featuring a Swan blowing bubbles stopped working but it was at some point in the last decade.

Some shoppers are just furious.

Sarah, 57, out with her friend Louise, 71, said: ‘We’re just cutting through. I don’t want to hang around here.

‘Years ago it was bustling. All the units were full. There was a Next, a Dorothy Perkins, a Woolworths, a bakery.

‘There would be big queues at Christmas.’

Her friend Louise added: ‘Evesham has completely changed. The people are all different. This place is hopeless.’

Margaret Holley, 85, enjoying a cuppa in the café, stares out of the glass doors at the resplendent 16th Century bell tower standing just a stone’s throw away.

‘That is all that was left of the Abbey when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries,’ she said. ‘It is a magnificent building but you can’t walk out to it because the doors are locked.

‘This is an utter disgrace. It shows Evesham up. I think they are going to knock it into flats with shops around the bottom.

‘It really saddens me. We have so much beauty in Evesham and then this.’

Health assistant Jenny Patterson and her daughter Rosie, 18, recalled what it was like: ‘It was really nice. They had M&S, New Look, Superdrug, a Jewellers, a Boots, a Body Shop.

‘Now we have retail parks on the outskirts of town and not much in the centre.

They need to do something with this place. It can’t go on like this.’

Rosie, a shop worker, added: ‘They say the only things in Evesham are care homes, charity shops and coffee shops.

‘Evesham is an elderly place and young people have nowhere to go.’

Dawn Craven, out with her niece Kia, 21, said: ‘It’s been falling apart a long time now. The furniture man was given rent-free for a year but he couldn’t make a go of it.

‘People go to events in the park then they come here and it’s just buckets to collect water.’

Kia added: ‘We used to have a cinema but that fell into disrepair and part of the roof fell off. There is nowhere to buy clothes in town now.’

And shift manager John Sandalls, 58, said: ‘When it first opened it had everything but I remember my Dad saying it would become a White Elephant and he was right.’

To be fair to Evesham, the Riverside is its nadir. Outside its doors on Bridge Street, lights twinkle and the shops have Christmas trees jutting out of the walls.

But discontentment remains the order of the day.

Jeremy Davis, 67, of Amber-locks, the longest surviving independent business in town, said: ‘Twenty years ago you would see people with carrier bags ladened with shopping at this time of year.

‘Now we have more people but a lot less of them in town.’

He blamed the demise on a Council-inspired ‘High Street Improvement Plan’.

‘People used to be able to park on the high street, grab something and go.

‘But they changed that and put in diagnol parking spaces which you have to reverse into.

‘They are a nightmare to negotiate because you have to turn into the oncoming traffic to make the maneuver.

‘And they put in a pedestrian crossing which at certain times of day only stays on green for a few seconds, causing gridlock.

‘I went to Cheltenham with my daughter the other day and it was heaving. I wanted to cry but people here have become inured to it.’

The Riverside Centre is owned by PJK Investments and a businessman called Patrick James Kelly who is said to have directorships for over 100 companies.

He is said to be in talks with the local council about future plans.

In a statement, Cllr Chris Day, leader of Wychavon District Council, said: ‘As a council, we have a strategic commitment in our We Are Wychavon Plan to redevelop the Riverside Shopping Centre by March 2028, and we’re making good progress on that promise.

‘We can’t say too much more at the moment because there’s still a lot of work to be done and many hurdles to get over but we’re closer to reaching a deal now than we ever have been.

‘But even if a deal is reached, there will be no quick fixes. It is a complex building in a conservation area.

‘Before redevelopment can start the existing shopping centre will need to be demolished and a development partner appointed. At the same time, we need to make sure whatever we do is value for money and right for Evesham.’