Colin Street looked very different before it was pedestrianised(Image: Local World/Mark Fear)

9 photos of Broad Marsh a decade before Nottingham area's dramatic change

by · NottinghamshireLive

It looks very different today

It's fair to say the Broad Marsh area of Nottingham hasn't looked its best in recent years. The days of shoppers flooding across Lister Gate and Carrington Street for Wimpy and BHS are long gone.

And despite some improvements to the area - such as the Green Heart park and creation of the bus station and car park building - the city centre area still sits surrounded by remnants of the half-demolished shopping centre.

But perhaps the biggest change to the Broad Marsh area came in 2020, when Colin Street and the land surrounding the car park building were pedestrianised.

The street once used by shoppers to get between the centre and the car park and the train station became very different. Once sprawling with bag-heavy visitors waiting for the bus to take them home, those bus stops no longer exist.

The footbridge connecting the shopping centre to the old car park was gone and instead, a public footpath allowing access between Middle Hill and Greyfriar Gate was put in its place.

The longstanding businesses on Colin Street - including the well-loved Big City Tyres - were also forced to close years prior due to the area's development.

As we look ahead to the future of Broad Marsh, it makes sense to take a step back a decade to see what the area looked like before the new £50 million car park and bus station building, the central library, and the pedestrianisation of Colin Street.

This is how the Broad Marsh area looked years ago:

A footbridge over Colin Street took shoppers between the Broadmarsh centre and the old car park, from 2018
Big City Tyres was forced to close due to the works, from 2016
Plenty of buses went up and down Colin Street before it was pedestrianised, from 2016
At one time, there were plenty of eager punters walking through the entrance of the shopping centre, from 2016
The Picnic Basket on Carrington Street was one business that benefited from nearby demolition workers' trade during the car park development, from 2018
It's fair to say the centre needed a good bit of TLC in its later days, from 2017
The old car park was still visible as the new one was being built, from 2020
This is how Intu had hoped Broadmarsh would look before the company went bust. Clearly, this did not happen(Image: intu)
The Broad Marsh is looking a little better today thanks to the Green Heart - it's still got a way to go though(Image: Joseph Raynor/Reach PLC)