Tunsgate Quarter Opening Slips Again – Speculation It Will Now Be Easter

Published on: 30 Jan, 2018
Updated on: 1 Feb, 2018

The opening of Tunsgate Quarter is understood to have slipped back further from its, already delayed, February target. It was originally expected to open in November last year (2017).

Developer Queensberry has refused to comment on rumours of a further delay but there is a widespread belief that the opening is now being planned for Easter, Easter Sunday falls on April 1 this year.

Even this might be ambitious given that completion of the street works to pedestrianise Tunsgate is not expected until June.

It is anticipated that new tenants for the high-end retail centre are to be announced soon. One name already published on social media is the Vietnamese restaurant chain Pho. The chain, according to their website, already has 25 branches, including Kingston and Wimbledon. They are advertising for a general and assistant manager for their Guildford restaurant.

Tunsgate Quarter floor plan for the Tunsgate level of the new retail centre.

According to the Tunsgate Square promotional website, nine of the 26 units have now been let. With only two months to go before the speculated new opening date the remainder are shown as “in negotiation” or “available”.

It is thought that the owners of the new centre will not want to launch the enterprise with a significant number of empty units but dropping rents to attract more business tenants may make realisation of their business plan, based on an expected financial return, difficult.

Recent removal of scaffolding is allowing appreciation of the exterior elevations and the buoyant footfall figures for Christmas shopping in Guildford will have been welcome news for Queensberry as they try and persuade new tenants to sign up.

Ben Darnton

Nearby businesses have been complaining of the effect of the project on their turnover. Ben Darnton of Ben’s Records said: “In 25 years here I have never known trading to be so difficult. The real problems started when they commenced the street work associated with the Tunsgate Quarter project.”

To facilitate pedestrian movement, a new granite-sett road surface will be made level with the flag-stoned pavements. A similar improvement is expected for Chapel Street.

Responses to Tunsgate Quarter Opening Slips Again – Speculation It Will Now Be Easter

Sally Parrott Reply

January 31, 2018 at 11:53 am

I do hope among all the ‘high-end retail units’ there will be room for Clarks Shoes, flooded out of its previous premises. Some of us buy shoes to last, not to contribute to next year’s landfill.
And I hope trade soon gets back to normal for nearby businesses – like wonderful Ben’s Records.
Brian Miller Reply

January 31, 2018 at 2:50 pm

Clark’s will be re-opening where they were before. Their staff in the now-closed temporary shop in the Upper High Street said so when I was in there just before the New Year.

Meanwhile, you could always try Ecco at the bottom of the High Street as they too have good lasting shoes.
Dave Middleton Reply

February 2, 2018 at 4:26 pm

Is anyone else curious as to why the redeveloped Tunsgate shopping area is to be called Tunsgate “Quarter”?

The dictionary definition of a Quarter in this context is and area of a town or city where a particular group of people live or work, or where a particular activity takes place.

If every shop in the development was of the same type or trade – all cobblers, or all watch and clock makers, then it would make sense, but that’s not the case here.

Wouldn’t Tunsgate “Arcade” be a more apt title?