Exploring the Abandoned Flagship Shopping Centre
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- In this video, we explore the abandoned Flagship Shopping Centre in Bangor, Northern Ireland. The 250,000 sq. ft complex once contained over 30 tenants! It entered a period of decline in the last decade with numerous stores leaving until closure two years ago.
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abandoned urbandoned derelict urbex explore exploring uk ireland northern ireland bangor belfast shopping centre mall flagship flag ship shop store burger king kfc subway peacocks ethel austin co-op coop coperative iceland poundworld escalator food court
As sad as it is to see this shopping centre abandoned, it’s great to see you do videos in Northern Ireland. Love your videos. Very interesting.
I was born and bred in Bangor, and the Flagship used to be very popular. It even had a car-bootsale in the multi-storey carpark near the final few years! Why isn't it still running??.... Ask the council and owners.... too high of rates, no business could survive!Most Businesses left to relocate to the out of town "Bloomfield shopping centre"!
Heartbreaking to see, I worked in burger king for a few years and also in the cleaners for a few months. Sad to see the state it's in today. Was the centre of our town for decades. Unfortunately the whole town is now dying. Great video, brought back some memories. Almost brings a tear to your eye
Thank you for this video, sad to see this close down. Quite a lot of people are favouring the smaller shopping complex or local little shopping centres now, social distancing and people being aware of saving and supporting locally grown etc. The people who own the Malls charge such a high rent, shopkeepers can't afford the overheads and wages of staff anymore. The world is going to see many more places close down sadly. Thanks again 🇦🇺
Seems the landlords are more concerned with squeezing as much out of the shopkeepers as they can before forcing them out onto the streets. Bloody fools. That's why these places keep going under: the landlords just price everyone out of the building. And then they wonder why their mall turns into a ghost town less than a year later. This price gouging happens everywhere: SE Asia, Australia, Canada/US, France, etc.
Spent most of my college breaks here, and that was just in 2016. And I spent many childhood days out visiting here along with the seafront
Strange how any retail businesses that can take advantage of idleness can thrive but only until a new even simpler format comes along.
Indoor shopping centre replaced markets. Large out of town centres killed off town centre malls. Now online shopping is killing those. Each bubble seems to be over quicker the previous bubble
Adapt or die might be the only rule from now on
2:26 The car park levels have been reopened on 19th November 2022 as the shopping centre is making a comeback, Level 2 was the only car park where I parked my car in Today when I went to Bangor this afternoon and I remembered when I was a kid when my parents parking the car at the Flagship Car Park when we went shopping or went for a Burger King especially on a rainy day and I used to walk from Level 4 to Level 2 Car Park every time I went to this shopping centre and then in 2012 I became more obsessed with lifts at this shopping centre so I used to ride on them up and down for 12 minutes and then filming it for UA-cam before Levels 3 to 4a car park closed for centre personnel only in April 2013
Brings back good childhood memories going every weekend and getting a burger king :(
I used to visit Bangor frequently throughout the 90s, 2000s and believe it or not today (11/07/23). My grandparents and some family still live there. I used to love going into the Flagship there was a great computer games store called Whizz Kids. You could trade in your SNES cartridges. Then we would get groceries from the Co-Op. Then pig out in the food court. Sad to see it has been abandoned. Bangor is not how I remember it at all. Used to be a buzzing town with lots of great shops along the promenade. Sad to see the Windsor hotel is abandoned too. Back to New Zealand for us it is.
It seemed that when they put the food court in upstairs, the centre started to decline rapidly, it was around 2005/2006. Burger King used to be on the ground level and that was when the centre was buzzing. I remember sitting in Burger King when it was downstairs and watching people congregating in and out of the entrance of the Flagship.
This has happened to so many town centres 😢
11:35 yeah my knees make that noise when I walk up steps too
Explore the abandoned burned down house near applewood, Swords in Dublin. Thr basement looks big but I've never been able to get in out of fear of not being able to get back up
What a great video and exploration, such a waste, let's hope the new investors do something with it
How do reduced price tags show the centre was going to close? Shops have sales and reduce items all the time and remain open.
The flagship was hopeless when compared to Bloomfield shopping centre a couple of miles up the road, it was never going to survive.
The government's cutting its own throat with these extortionate business rates.
Bangor council could not manage a chimps tea party, the worst performing council in all of Northern Ireland and also has the highest debts which were in excess of 90 million a couple of years ago , also bear in mind that Bangor is a total tip of place full of demolished buildings and boarded up shops, nothing to attract the public bar a few beach walks.
@@georgebarnes8163 Business rates go to central government.
@@marklittler784 they must do, that would account for Bangor Councils massive debts and why the domestic rates have took a fair hike in the last two years, my rates went up by 24 % yet the services were reduced not enhanced.
@@georgebarnes8163 I was amazed when they cut staff by about half ten years ago and still everything was functioning.
@@marklittler784 Yep, a few more staff cuts are needed, too many chiefs and not enough Indians so to speak.
Good stuff enjoyed,cheers
MEMORIESSSSSSSSSS😢😢😢😢
Lovely bit of pathetic fallacy there with the old footage when it was open being all sunny and shining through the roof lights, and the gloomy weather when you were there
I wonder why it was in _persistent_ decline? I get it from the last decade and half; recession, brexit, covid, Amazon, etc. But right from the start? Why did it fail straight away?
I live where this place is we had covid on April 2020 I don’t think we would have it closed for that in 2019
Well over here we had it in December lucky us
co-op pulled out when they relocated many of their larger stores into smaller units in 2012, ethel austin ceased operations, and gamestop also closed their n.i. stores around the same time and that basically had a domino effect - most of the other shops shut down not long after (iceland, argos, peacocks, dunnes, kfc, subway)
Are you free mr lucas?....I'm free mr grainger
Ooh Betty!
It used to be the Co-op in the 1970s. It was a large carpeted department store that had fashions, white goods, shoes, records, clock and watch repairs, cosmetics, hardware etc, a fairly big co-op supermarket, and a lovely tearoom called the Tartan Rooms upstairs, overlooking the street below. I worked there in the fashions and record departments. Loved it. Great memories. It was badly bomb damaged a few times during the troubles.
The Co-op was a million times better than this lemon, the Flagship was a disaster from the day it opened.
I’m 38, got my ears pierced in the Co 30 years ago. I remember that and the tearoom upstairs. Xox
@@mmc1086 Aw. It was a lovely shop. I loved working there. Fond memories of a lot of the staff too. 😊
@@georgebarnes8163 I never was around for the old co op they moved it to a smaller buliding then it closed when I was around but as someone who used to go to the flagship I don't know why anything went there it was bland barely had anyone in it hopefully when it comes back it will be better
@@Ieatpastaday The Co Op got blew up big time, anything is better than it is now. I was working across the direct road at the time bomb went off fixing a roof, no-one even knew we were there.
Never thought I’d see my own home town on this channel. Very eery I as used to work in there!
@Stormtrooper1488 me n my mates broke one of the cameras by throwing a chair from the foodcourt at it lmao
@Stormtrooper1488 we couldnt get into the bathrooms, didnt really want to either! 🤣
Same I live in Bangor
It's due to be refurbished and opened back up again
@@stevieokie1 wonder how that's going.. lol
Not surprised to see the state of the centre to be honest. Poundworld was the very last tenant to shut its doors but bizarrely, the whole complex remained open. No security, and hardly no cleaners in it. Remember getting a few things in that poundworld, then days later it was shut!
Was great to see inside there after all those years!!!
Brilliant vid. 👍
Burger king and a small store downstairs where the last I was working in burgerking when we got the call that flagship shut the place was empty near the end we got about 20 customers a day which isn't really much surprised we stayed open but the job was easy enough spent most my time eating in the office just waiting to see a customer on the cctv
@@danstill6772 sad to see the place go like that. I remember going to it once back in 2018 after a holiday in Spain and remembering that the Poundland had like 2 workers in it. I went to the food hall upstairs and it was depressing. Again sad to see it go. I wonder what will happen to the castle mall in Antrim Town if things go the same way
Iceland too
Luckily for the people of Bangor aprently it's opening in 2023 and the car park is already open again may I wish the new flagship luck
It's gone downhill and decayed really, really fast though.
Only closed in 2019
13:31 that was a co-op, it closed in late 2012 if i recall correctly. i remember getting lost in there when i was little
Bangor Co-op to this day in my 27 years is still the biggest co-op I've ever been in, having been to many towns and cities across the UK. Back when co op used to be a 'proper' supermarket in the 90s.
Great video, albeit a sad one. Such a same a huge complex like this has gone to wrack and ruin. As has already been mentioned, high business rates probably played a part.
11:41 when you see the former shop front of Iceland! I really like old shop signage and design, especially from the 90’s. Thanks for this 👍🏻
That shop was there since the very beginning and they changed nothing lol
I always thought the old iceland signs were better that retro style pretty awful now lol
I’ve got a certain fascination with dead malls. While they have been thing in America we have not really had them this side of the Atlantic as we had dead high streets.
But with changing consumer habits I suspect that will be seeing more of them in the UK and Ireland .
Hopefully our local one stays open. It's small but still has a CEX, Poundland, EE + Vodafone + O² stores as well as a few others. Most of the upstairs shops have sadly closed though (Comet, Shoezone, Superdrug) and it has a slightly depressing vibe about it.
Yes, the US doesn't really have town centres like we do, they're more road based than we are and as such there are tons of larger places with plenty of free parking spread out all over the places compared to here where they decided to stick them all in town centres with rubbish access for cars and expensive parking. I know not everyone uses cars, but I feel they'd have been more successful on the outskirts of town.
Never thought I'd see the inside of that Co-Op again. Thanks for posting this.
There was pigeons in it
Today, it has just been confirmed to be purchased by a bunch of developers!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-58241352
Do you know if they have done anything with it yet after 9 months
Built as dreams of the future
left as dreams of the past
That saying goes for the whole town (well, now city), not just the flagship centre!
15:49 The Burger King used to be at Ground Floor to the right at the entrance to the Flagship Centre at the Bottom of Main Street in the 1990s and early 2000s before moving up to the 1st floor in October 2005 along with KFC and Subway
It's the same thing in the US, stores are closing and no one wants to pay the high rent prices to be located in a mall. Not to mention not many ppl are shopping in these places anymore. I suppose it is sad in some ways, most of us don't like change. But when malls became a thing decades ago, ppl were up in arms about taking business away from the small downtown "mom & pop" stores. 🤷♀️
Newtownards shopping centre will be the next to go, it now has a 50% occupancy and dropping every month, another one on deaths door.
flagship centre was literally my childhood, my mam was a security guard in there from 2006-2011 before then moving to easons literally up the road
And that's closed down too. A shame as I really liked Eason's.
@@Ludro45 aye same here i used to buy manga in there
@@waxeater112 Yeah, bought some manga and comics in there myself. I miss it.
@@Ludro45 same man, bangors just not the same anymore
easons didn't end well either!
Last I heard there reopening it, Bangor's dead now
If you want to socialise now you've got to go to the park and feed the ducks lol
Careful, now you can get fined for littering by feeding the ducks.
Even the ducks are dying with avian flu
So weird seeing it empty I remember seeing it very busy
My friend and I once got shelter there during a thunderstorm
I live in Bangor thanks for the video, love my town! Come on you Bangers
Just found and started watching. I want to say thank you. You leave the areas as you find them. Even though they are abandoned, it is still nice to see just a walk thru. Sad that people have to go thru and destroy and trash them. So a big thank you..
the coffee and muffins cafe was the least popular part of flagship lol
Yeah, I barely remember it being open
@@adamruth4321 me either, I remember only really seeing people use the seating of it lmao
@@johnpickk7526 the wee morning fry actually wasn’t too bad from it but yeah it was dead most of the day
aye i dont ever remember seeing anyone actually eat anything there
Nice video! Ethel Austin went into administration in 2013 so that store has been closed for longer than the whole site. Still amazing how they’d let units go to that much ruin when the place was still open.
The whole of bangor is a dump,especially the seafront area,dilapidated, filthy place, durning the 70's and 80's it was the place to be !
I did security in this place for a long time I know every corner , brings back some memories, sad
This is so sad. I was in this place quite a few times when the kids were young and they always insisted on getting lunch in Burger King before heading out to the sea front. We still have a big mirror over our fireplace that we bought in the Flagship years ago. Thanks so much for posting this.
Any idea what’s happened to it now as I am planning a trip to Northern Ireland in June so wondered if this is still there to explore
@@WideWorldOfUrbex all I know is that the new owner has plans to refurbish it and roepen it as a mall but I've no idea how tar on this is as I live about 30 miles from Bangor and haven't been up there in the last few years.
@@andrewnelsondrumcovers1787 Thanxs for the reply I might try my luck there in June worse case just have a day out in Bangor
That must have been when they still had a seafront, instead of that ghastly marina and car park.
So strange seeing this. Haven't been there in many years, but it's all flooding back to me remembering my childhood going round it. Christ tonight that wasn't today or yesterday. Great video.
Wow that peakocks signs is old interesting to see how the sign has changed into what were used to seeing nowadays
Was part of the last people to work here at burgerking in the food court which remained open surprisingly until the centre shut we actually had to get ourselves jumpers because the centre shut off the heating such a shame used to love the place when I was younger
I stopped going to Burger King because the cold drinks weren't cold enough, I used to have to ask the worker to stuff more and more ice into my drink, but it got to the stage where I couldn't be bothered asking anymore so I stopped going.
@@James-4812 aye burger king drinks are pretty shite lol
what years were you working there? you probably saw me lol. my mam used to take me to the burgerking there when i was little after she got back from work on saturdays
@@waxeater112 I didn't work there, I was just a customer. I have a feeling they're going to open it again, the centre was recently sold so it will be interesting to see what the plans are for it.
Top upload again guys 😎
Sorta reminded me of the abandoned Bargate centre in Southampton - that was a proper time capsule, with remnants of an internet café, SEGA Arcade etc.
Strange that I used to walk there
The Kyle Centre in Ayr was recently closed, I wonder if that could be a possible investigation later on....
These places are now out of date.
You guy's are an inspiration 🙌 I started urbex over 11 years ago and at the time hardly no one was covering it.. in thr way you do. I found you when you had about 10 subs.. and you were about 14. Your info, history coverage and dedication is outstanding.. you always managed to get super shots
Four days after you posted this video, the flagship centre was sold.
Great video as always, as with many shopping centres high rents may have played a part in this centres demise.
Government business rates are a big problem.
Love the Ireland videos - keep them coming 🙌
Ethel Austin/ Au Natural went bust in 2008/9 I never thought I'd see that signage again. Ethel was clothing A N was homewares etc that was actually quite good.
aye i was wondering when it closed bc i didnt remember it being open at all n i practically grew up in the flagship
So much like the abandoned malls in the US.. (both large and small malls are closed or are closing) they are replaced by online shopping.. it is very sad,, t was a nice family day to get out of the house.. so sad to see it empty
Interesting video, capitalism and Private enterprise at it's finest............
Read in the news today it's just been sold again.
The vacant Flagship Centre site in Bangor, County Down, has been sold in a multi-million-pound deal to developers Brookland Property.
The shopping centre on Main Street closed its doors in February 2019.
Brookland will take possession of the 157,000 sq ft centre and 430-space car park site immediately.
Ricky McLarnon, from Brooklands, said that the prime town centre location "is just crying out for regeneration investment".
"Our first priority will be to get the car park back into use as soon as possible and we will be making an innovative proposal to Ards and North Down Borough Council imminently," Mr McLarnon said.
"As someone who was brought up in Bangor, I remember the Flagship Centre as a vibrant part of the town centre."
another con man who claimed he was penniless not more than a month ago when he failed to repair all the new builds he had sold leaving people out thousands of pounds then he can pay a 6 figure sum for a tip like this.
actually it closed in december 2018!
@@georgebarnes8163 Absolute joker this Ricky --- "The initial ask from Brookland Properties was for £9.1m from the Council to take the Flagship car park on a 50-year lease. This included an offer of a contribution of £1.2m from the developer to provide EV points and improved facilities in other council car parks (it is understood that the centre was purchased by Brookland for £1.8m from the Administrator).
@@John_Wood_ Glad I am not the only one who is on the ball, the whole thing is a farce and the stupid council are even dafter than I knew they were.
@@georgebarnes8163 Often apparent daftness is cover for other more sinister intentions...
Shit, I thought Bangor was in Wales, thanks for your educational video!
You were right! There is a Bangor in north Wales as well.
@@peterdean8009 Ah right, thanks.
There are 6 towns named Bangor in the UK.
this place had free parking from it opened, and 2 yrs before it closed they started charging for parking, so people went to other shops like bloomfields. i honestly think people didnt like their changes and revoked. so much for management skills whoever fked that shop up.
17:22 That used to be a KFC.
I used to go there all the time when I was 7/8, I always wondered what happened to it
Nice pacer
@@Pigeonboy77778u Thanks
I live in Northern Ireland and didn't even know that had closed.
Fascinating. I used to go here as a child. I don't think anyone here would call it a mall. We call them shopping centres. Thanks for sharing.
Some developers should buy this turn it a low income/senior apartment complex. Turn the food court into meals on wheels for the seniors
Who would want to live in the centre of Bangor, the whole town is an abandoned tip of the place, the walks along the shore are the only attraction the town has left. Not a place worth visiting anymore and best avoided.
It still looks structurally repairable, lets hope it doesnt simply get demolish...would be a waste of a viable place
I sat in that wee muffin coffee shop many times 😀!!
Awful to be so desolate … much like Bangor seafront as well :(
10:30 - definitely not working, they're fakes. I think they even sold that exact model of fake camera themselves at one point.
I like the ambient music in the vid reminds me of stranger things
It used to be a sea side town with amusement arcades, fish and chip, burgers, and loads of day trippers and teens hanging about the sea front. Then town planners removed the beach, built a marina for rich folk and people stopped coming. They built the flagship centre, god knows why as footfall had fallen off a cliff due to Marina and it was inevitable the centre couldn’t make money as nobody visited Bangor and traders left the flagship after loosing money and it too closed.
Have you seen the Harlequin Centre in Exeter?. It’s shutdown now but I’m not sure if it classifies as “abandoned” but it would be cool to see it.
Fascinating, whoever the council is for this place should be f ashamed of themselves. What a waste
i saw on internet that the mall is due to reopen this autumn
Are you free capt. peacock?.....Yes mrs slocm i'm free.
I worked in the pound world from opening for about a year or so and basically lived int he building with friends when I was a teenager on most weekends. I wonder where the cool fortune telling face machine went? I still have memories of it's laugh echoing through the building.
Is that not against the law? What you actually did? Im only asking cause I live bot to far away from it
Civil trespass, meaning as long as we don’t vandalise, break entry, steal, it’s a civil matter and the worst you can receive is a fine.
Bad Management and to high rents +.
Ethel Austin went bust in 2013!
I worked maintenance in the center for a year, its demise came at the hands of Michael Herbert (KFC franchise owner), he bought the center so he could build apartments at the rear yard, he ran it into the ground increasing rents and making parking minimum £1, he done this with the intention to sell the center onto Eddie Irvine (former F1 driver) who intends to turn it into a hotel/casino, the multi story carpark is to be a karting track.
It's actually planned to be a arcade from what I've heard
@@Ieatpastaday An Arcade?, will be a pretty elaborate Arcade.., I was one of the last people who worked there.
@@Ieatpastaday As I stated above, the word is its to be a hotel/casino with the carpark being a karting track.
@@formhubfar not really as I've been around asked a phew ppl the car park is now open to cars And ngl Arcades and Casinos are pretty similar but it's likely to be an arcade as then it will attract more people
The size of that super market is just incredible.
next to go will be Halton Lea, formley Runcorn Shopping City as half the shops there have closed
No shortage of toilet roll in that shopping centre !
We Love this video. It’s so good to see the before and after and a big surprise to see you used clips from our video thanks for linking it it’s so cool
This is the direct result of globalism and the age of online shopping being dominated by large multinational corporations. Smaller businesses and physical stores are becoming a thing of the past due to the convenience of things like amazon prime next day delivery. And now with covid absolutely devastating the hospitality industry and the cost of living crisis meaning people arent going out anymore. Its only going to get worse, expect all shopping centres to look like this before demolition within the next 10 years.
I've lived in Northern Ireland all my life but have never been to Bangor, looks like they have their own Rolling Acres Mall I see. Nice tour btw 🙂
Ya don't know wot your missing lol charity shop central I call it,has a few nice parks etc though
we do unfortunatley
@@waynecrothers2012 nah mate its a fucking dump
How do you get inside me and two mates were down today tried every where climbed over the Church to nearly find a way up some fans
sometimes the mill row enterence is open thats how we got in
I worked here in 2005/2006, mad and sad to see it like this.
Bangor marina was built with public money with the agreement to use the profits to maintain the seafront and town yet it was sold to an English company and not a penny goes back into the community.
Disgrace.
Bangor Council in incompetency shocker.
It’s weird seeing it empty, when I walked through it as a kid. Got some memories but I always remember it being on the decline. In the end it just became a glorified bathroom for me, I’d only use it to go to the toilets beside the food courts
I queued outside the music shop overnight to buy boyzone tickets. Must have been around 1996. As i remember it there were about 20 teenage girls and one older lad who was sent out to get tickets for his sisters. Im amazed they let us stay inside the centre overnight. Think me and my mates were the last 3 in before they locked the main doors.
Bangor used to be booming now its a ghost town
Thanks for this guys, i remember once going into here when it was open.
can u still get in?
That place was a failure from the day it opened, badly designed, poorly laid out with your typical run of the mill shops. It was bound to fail and did so miserably.
If you are still in Northern Ireland I can show you good few abandonded places
Scary to see so much decay in such a short time. Loved the editing which showed the centre in the past. Great vid, many thanks.
so sad it was a great place to shop loved it thank you for showing