Cabot Circus unveil plans for large health centre in transformed street (2025)

It could be home to a new health centre for the city

The owners of Cabot Circus want to radically transform the separate street of shops it owns in the city centre, and create an upstairs level which could be a large health centre.

Hammerson, the firm that owns Cabot Circus, has submitted two planning applications to Bristol City Council that cover the separate Quakers Friars area of the shopping centre, which presently has designer fashion shops and the Apple store along Philadelphia Street. The Apple Store is to move out in August.

As well as a series of on-street improvements to the public spaces around the historic Quakers Friars, which will make it more of a destination for people to socialise with bars, cafes and restaurants, the biggest change will be in the buildings that contain the shops on the south side of Philadelphia Street.

All the upstairs first floors will be separated from their downstairs stores and be merged into one large space. While the ‘Masterplan’ produced by the architects does not specify exactly what will be there, one plan mentions ‘indicative healthcare use’.

The Broadmead Medical Centre above Boots in the city centre has been disrupted by ongoing building work there. In December, NHS bosses said they were ‘working hard in the background to find additional premises’, and face to face GP and nurse appointments are currently being made at the BS1 Surgery in Queen Charlotte Street.

Sign up to receive daily news updates and breaking news alerts straight to your inbox for free here.

With the plan to demolish The Galleries and build thousands of new homes in the city centre, the long term future of Broadmead Medical Centre is in doubt, and a larger or new health centre is something that will be needed. Hammerson’s ‘masterplan’ for Quakers Friars appears to provide a space for this that could be created before the major upheaval of development at The Galleries, Debenhams and the Rupert Street.

“The Masterplan aims to revitalise Quakers Friars with a focus on diversity, happiness and resilience,” said a spokesperson for the developers. “The Masterplan is a strategic initiative designed to revitalise Quakers Friars, emphasising the preservation of architectural heritage, fostering diversity, happiness, and resilience, and enhancing the quality of life through sustainable urban development,” they added.

The masterplan’s ‘design initiatives’ are: creating a ‘welcoming, intergenerational public space at the heart of Quakers Friars, ‘serving as a focal point for the community and enriching the city centre with diverse event experiences, while honouring the buildings heritage setting’.

Cloister Square will be transformed into an ‘intimate space for performance and tranquillity, enriched by the cultural legacy of the Friary Building and complemented by proposed natural interventions, preserving the heritage of the space and creating space for outdoor events to be hosted.

Philadelphia Street will be ‘transformed into a vibrant public realm environment with ‘urban rooms’ for rest, play, and reflection’. Retrofitting of the Philadelphia street buildings as part of

this ‘increases vibrancy and variety to the activity on the street’, the architects said, which will create ‘a multilevel arrangement of uses comprising retail, health/workplace and cultural experiences’, to ‘ensure a safe and animated environment throughout the day and night’.

A spokesperson for Apple confirmed their tenancy would end in August because of the redevelopment. "Due to the redevelopment plans at Cabot Circus Shopping Centre, which include the closure of the section where our store is located, Apple Bristol will close on August 9, 2025.

“We’ve loved serving the Bristol community for over 15 years, and our valued team members will continue their roles at Apple," they added.