The Galleries, Bristol

The Galleries (formerly The Mall Bristol but originally opened in 1991 as The Galleries Shopping Centre), is a shopping mall situated in the Broadmead shopping centre in Bristol city centre, England. Functioning as one of the city's retail malls, it is a three-storey building, which spans over Fairfax Street.

History

The Galleries Shopping Centre as it was originally known, opened in October 1991 in the wake of a UK recession, the shopping centre was later bought by The Mall Shopping Centre Fund (and re-named the Mall Bristol), managed by Capital & Regional and Aviva Investors. It replaced shops including a large Woolworth and Millet on the north side of Fairfax Street, and on the south side Fairfax House (a Co-operative department store opened in March 1962) where the Galleries car park now stands.

Despite it being called "the Mall Bristol" for a number of years, it was still referred to by its original name "the Galleries" by many people.

In January 2011, the centre was sold to HSBC European Active Real Estate Trust for £50.1 million, and the name was restored to The Galleries.

Federation of British Artists

The Federation of British Artists (FBA) consists of nine art societies, and is based at Mall Galleries in London where the societies Annual Exhibitions are held. The societies represent living artists working in the UK who create contemporary figurative art. Mall Galleries aim to ‘promote, inspire and educate audiences about the visual arts.’

Description

The FBA has over 500 artist-members, who regularly exhibit their work and also accept open submissions from the public. In addition to the member societies, other societies and individual artists also stage shows at Mall Galleries. Over 100 prizes and awards are administered each year by the societies.

The gallery also has a commissions department and Friends organisation. The galleries' education department runs a Schools Programme, which includes gallery based workshops for Primary and Secondary school students.

Gallery projects include a drawing school and summer courses run by the New English Art Club, as well as The Hesketh Hubbard Art Society, the largest life drawing society in London, who meet to draw from life models.

Mall

Mall /mɔːl//mæl/ may refer to a shopping mall, a strip mall, a pedestrian street, or an esplanade (a long open area where people can walk).

Shopping complexes

The Promenade at Chenal is not considered a mall.

Places

Other

See also

The Mall Wood Green

The Mall Wood Green is a large shopping centre and residential complex in Wood Green, North London. It is generally still referred to by its former name of Wood Green Shopping City; the signage on the building still uses that name.

The Mall is the largest shopping centre within the North Circular, with just over 100 retail shops, seven of them anchor stores, 45 market stalls, and an average of 221,000 customers per week. The centre and the adjoining shops on Wood Green High Road constitute the commercial hub of Haringey and its surrounding areas.

Wood Green Shopping City

The centre was built in the 1970s as "Wood Green Shopping City", on the site of the former Noel Park and Wood Green railway station. Initially it included a number of unusual features, most notably a giant wooden climbing frame in the shape of a frog.

The centre was opened on 13 May 1981 by HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Unusually for a shopping centre, the A105 road runs directly through the complex, allowing many of the stores to have entrances directly onto the street. The two halves of the mall are linked by bridges at first and second floor level. The centre is six storeys high, but only the lower two floors are occupied by shops; the upper floors make up a housing complex known as "Sky City", where in 2006, the badly decomposed body of a woman was found. Her name was Joyce Vincent and she had died three years earlier, her body lay undiscovered. Joyce's life is the subject of the film Dreams of a Life.

The Mall, Lahore

The Mall in Lahore, Pakistan (also known as "Shahrah-e-Quaid-e-Azam"), is one of Lahore's primary and most famous roads. It was constructed under the British Raj and was named after The Mall in London.

The Mall holds significant historical and cultural value, as most of the buildings lining the road are a collection of Mughal and colonial-era architecture, the majority of them built during the British Raj era. This area has many official houses of high-ranking dignitaries.

Features

Places of historical, cultural and recreational significance on The Mall include: