Inside creepy abandoned ‘ghost town’ shopping centre opened in the 1980s and left empty for years
THIS abandoned ‘ghost town’ shopping centre was left abandoned for years but new photos have revealed the spooky interior.
Harlequins Shopping Centre in Exeter, Devon, is due to be demolished so the snaps will provide a final record of what it once was.
The photos show a line of empty shops in a deserted corridor, which have sat undisturbed since the centre closed three years ago.
A large archway is framed by a sign bearing the building’s name while yellow ‘wet floor’ cones sits in the middle of the now-bone dry walkway.
The high ceilings and large windows make it bright and airy, especially with no people in sight.
The derelict shop fronts are locked up and notes informing people of the closures remain in the windows.
One even posted a defiant notice saying that they are “not closing down” but the branch remains empty all the same.
Sofa shops, nail bars and hairdressers all sit abandoned, awaiting demolition.
Harlequins first opened in 1987 with the intention of being an American-style mall with 32 shops.
It is linked to another shopping centre, the Guildhall, by an indoor pedestrian bridge and business was good for several decades.
However, in 2018 it was taken over by developers Curlew Capital, who announced plans to turn it into a combination of a hotel and communal accommodation.
Then, in 2022, the hotel plans were aced and planning permission was granted to knock the old building down and replace it with two blocks of flats and studios.
These are set to take the form of 378 rooms, spread across one six-storey and one seven-storey tower.
The developers said: “The accommodation will be available to everyone over the age of 18 and increasingly co-living is becoming a less niche sector, with a broadening demographic as more people turn to renting as a credible lifestyle choice, enjoying the increased flexibility that it can offer.
“The fully-furnished nature of the units, with minimal maintenance responsibilities and the security of living within a managed scheme with access to a wide range of amenities is also increasingly attractive to a wide range of people.”
The demolition must begin by January 2025 but, for now, Harlequins remains standing, turning a large chunk of the high street into a ‘ghost town‘