Victoria's Secret has closed its Bristol site for good leaving a major outlet in Cabot Circus empty.
The lingerie brand will no longer have a site in the Bristol area with the nearest branch to the city located in Cardiff. A message to customers posted to the front of the shop window states "we are relocating" although there is no indication as to where another store might be launched in its place and whether it would be in Bristol.
The Google listing for the former Cabot Circus store reads 'permanently closed' while the Bristol listing has been removed from the retailer's website. BristolLive has contacted Victoria's Secret's press team to ask if they have any intention of opening up another Bristol store in the future.
Victoria's Secret first announced it was opening a Bristol store back in 2015. The lingerie, clothing, and beauty retailer hails from the United States and has 28 UK stores, with around 1,400 branches globally according to Business Insider.
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With such a large outlet empty begs the question as to what new brand might be moving into the sizeable outlet, which stood between other fashion brands H&M and Next at the shopping centre. The departure of another brand from Bristol's shopping district highlights the accelerating shop closures not only in the city but UK-wide.
In January this year, Bristol waved goodbye to Marks & Spencer after 69 years in Broadmead. A record 16 per cent of shops on Britain’s high streets stand empty and one in every 20 vacant units across the country have been shuttered up for more than three years, according to data from Power To Change.
Changing shopping habits were cited as the driving force behind the closure - echoing the statements given by several other big brands that have already left Bristol for good or made the switch to online-only. Shutters at Debenhams just along the road have been down since the department store's permanent closure in May 2021, with Primark as the only main shop anchoring that particular stretch of Bristol's central shopping precinct.
Cabot Circus was approached for comment as to whether there are any other companies lined up to take over the space.
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