20th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS

Twenty years ago the finishing touches were being made to a £40m building project – nearly £70m at today’s prices – which changed the face of Cheltenham town centre.

Beechwood Shopping Centre, which fronts High Street and has a 400-space multi-storey car park accessed from Albion Street, opened its doors on March 15, 1991 and this year celebrates its 20th anniversary. Pictured: Beechwood from the air

And as part of its celebrations, the centre is staging an exhibition of photographs and newspaper cuttings from 1991, showing how the site looked before, during and after its construction.

The pictures are sure to interest those who recall the shopping centre being built but also enable newcomers to the town to see the scale of the building and its dramatic effect on the landscape from the air.

Originally known as Beechwood Place, the shopping centre was in the planning stage for seven years and took two years to build.

Over the years, Beechwood has collected many photographs and newspaper cuttings of the building’s construction and an exhibition of these archives is to be held in one of the units, from March 15.

To add to this collection, centre manager Owen Acland is inviting shoppers to send him their memories or old photographs for inclusion in the exhibition.