Photos show progress on £50m food hall and cinema

News imageLDRS Exterior of the new centre. The building has a steel frame, partially covered by purple sheets, with a number of construction vehicles, one red, the others yellow, working outside LDRS
Work began on the Freshney Place development in in 2025

Photographs show the work going on inside the £50m Freshney Place redevelopment in Grimsby town centre.

A new food hall and market are being built at the council-owned shopping centre, alongside a five-screen cinema and space for a leisure facility.

Anchor tenants will include Parkway cinema, Starbucks and the restaurant chain Nando's.

Work began in 2025 in a space formerly occupied by BHS, with the finished scheme due to open in summer next year.

News imageLDRS A worker in a high-visibility jacket and white hard hat stands in a half-finished building beneath large white metal columns, with large windows in the background LDRS
The development will include a five-screen cinema

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) was given exclusive access to the building site, where about 60 people are working each month.

North East Lincolnshire Council bought Freshney Place Shopping Centre, which makes up 60% of the town's retail space, for £15.5m after it went into receivership in 2022.

At the time, the council said it wanted to transform the "urban heart" of Grimsby.

News imageLDRS A view inside the partially revamped shopping centre, with white circular columns supporting a pitched glass roof. Workers and equipment are standing aroundLDRS
The area was formerly home to a BHS department store

As part of the work, the Top Town Market has been relocated to a temporary space, but will eventually be housed in the new market hall, which will feature brick arches.

A mosaic in the shopping centre, marking the 1977 Queen's Silver Jubilee, was demolished last year as part of redevelopment work.

A campaign to save it failed after the council said the tiles were cracking during an attempt to remove them.

News imageLDRS The new food hall has cement columns and large windows along two sides. The space is empty with lights reflected in a wet floor and lights attached to columns.LDRS
The development will incorporate a new market and food hall

LDRS said it was hoped the scheme would strengthen both daytime and nighttime economies.

Scaffolding around the site is expected to come down in October.

A spokesperson for North East Lincolnshire Council said: "The Freshney Place Leisure Scheme is currently within projected budget and is on track to be completed in summer 2027 as planned."

News imageThe Harris Partnership / GMI Construction Artist's impression of the new development. It has a large paved square with the cinema and a bowling alley housed in a large single-storey building with a grey pitched roof. In the foreground is the brickwork and arched window of the new market hallThe Harris Partnership / GMI Construction
The development is expected to open in summer 2027

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