CastleCourt

It may be looking a tad dated and tired around the edges these days in comparison to some of the other newer, more glamorous shopping centres but I’m still extremely fond of Castlecourt.
It’s got a wide variety of stores including Argos, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Holland & Barrett, New Look and Superdrug. Plus the food area upstairs includes Bagel Factory, Costa, Starbucks, Slums and many other fast food outlets.
I’ve been visiting Castlecourt for years and always manage to get everything I need in it. Although it’s certainly not an architectural delight to behold it has a nice, homely vibe and is warm and easy to navigate. Old but solid gold.

I like Castle Court, it’s been around longer than I have and I’m fond of it in a nostalgic sort of way. This is somewhere we used to hang around in and while away the hours when we were younger and should have been elsewhere (like in class!)
Nowadays, I seem to use Castle Court as a kind of ‘through area’ having used their car park, however I do call into some of the shops from time to time. I do like the Miss Selfridge and Dune in there.
They also have a small soft play area for the little ones.
The Food court is pretty decent, the Bagel Factory and DI Maggios are quite nice, but even better is the fact that Slums have just opened a unit there, not been yet but will definitely need to give it a try!

Great News! I read the other day that Castlecourt is in line for a major facelift and its about time. Too long has Castlecourt been the ugly step sister of the beautiful Victoria Square. It’s time for Castlecourt to step up out of the shadows! Castlecourt is now 25 years old and to be honest I think there’s only a few bits and pieces to fix for the centre to bloom in to it’s thirties.
There’s a nice mix of stores in Castlecourt as well as handy centre isle stalls all the way through the centre. There’s huge high street brands and small independents all in one place, fingers crossed the facelift doesn’t push the independents out the door.
I’m adding an extra star in to Castlecourt, since my last review the hype around Victoria Square has faded and people begun to head back to Castlecourt.

The centre itself is in need of a huge facelift these days and can be rather depressing when walking through.
Some decent shops but a large amount of cheapy pound shops and shops selling rather a lot of tat however there can be some fun pop up stalls.
Still a few good clothes shops inside and some food places in the food court but all a tad over-​priced.
There are several currency exchange shops that are good though and if you do it right you can haggle between the shops for a better rate.
However the Carpark is definitely the cheapest in the city centre and until this changes I will endure the drudgery of walking through it to go to Victoria Square to shop.

Castlecourt offers a range of shops, car parking, a food court with a variety of food outlets, toilets, cash machines, and some stalls. It’s a good place to shop on a rainy day so you can avoid walking round Belfast City Centre getting soaked. The centre runs various events at different times of the year. Worth a visit, it’s not as busy as it used to be since Victoria Square opened.

As shopping malls go this one fills the bill. It had a lot of shops with varied interests and all under one roof. It’s a must visit if your looking for one place with lots if choices.

It is still an ok place, just not as good as Victoria Square. The fact there aren’t a lot of people around, makes it not as appealing. It is still in decent condition considering the lack of customer attention it gets.

Before Victoria Square opened up a few years ago, Castle Court was ‘the’ shopping centre in the city centre.
It’s not huge, but it does play host to a fantastic range of shops! With delights such as New Look, Miss Selfrigde, Boots, Gap, La Senza, The Early Learning Centre, Superdrug and Carphone Warehouse to name but a few, you really are spoilt for choice!
The middle of the centre hays an array of ever changing stalls offering things such as baby gifts which are embroidered with the little ones name, watches and jewellery, fake cigarettes (yes really) and a stall offering sea mineral products with the most annoying staff who literally stop you in your tracks– so walk quickly past!
The food court is full of the usual greasy favourites. Things such as Burger King and Pizza Hut, Though I do like the Chinese buffet up here where you can fill your box for a fiver! It’s great!

As I’ve mentioned in my previous reviews of In Shops and Smithfield Market, I’m not a huge fan of shopping centres unless they’re a bit run down and individualist. Maybe it’s all those Thursday nights, Saturdays and full summers working in what was once Crazy Prices and is now Rushmere Shopping Centre in Craigavon, but I’ve always found the ‘mall’ experience to be too crowded and bright. I like lurking where no-​one can see me and where my disproportionate rage isn’t brought on by someone walking very sloooooooowly in front of me for five minutes. With a buggy.
But I don’t mind Castle Court too much. It’s certainly better than the godawful pretentious Victoria Square. Here you’ll find more standard High Street shops like Boots, Dorothy Perkins, New Look and Claire’s Accessories, although if you’re at all hungover I’d recommend completely avoiding the food court on the top floor, which is the crowdest, noisiest and brightest place in the whole centre. Why anyone would eat here when they can get a pub fry or bowl of stew in any one of several bars within a few minutes’ walk is beyond me.
Castle Court is the sort of place you’ll definitely buy something in at some point if you live in Belfast, and isn’t a bad representation of the whole shopping mall thing. And it has Poundland.

Castle Court is a fairly good shopping centre in a recreational sense, but it is not exactly somewhere you would go for the weekly shop. Rather it is the kind of place you browse in during the weekend when you have too much spare money burning a hole in your pocket!
The store has an upper and a lower level, and on the upper level there is a big food court with a wide range of fast food options including Subway, KFC and Pizza Hut to name but a few.
There is a wide range of stores. Males can get their technological kicks at the Carphone Warehouse or the 02 store, or they can get sporting goods in Lifestyle sports, whilst there is a large amount of female clothing stores, with Dune a particular favourite of my girlfriend to sit and stare longingly at high end boots that she cant afford.
The centre has a large amount of stores and is good for disposable income spending, but it is always bunged on the weekend which makes it vastly less enjoyable, so try to go midweek and you will have a lot more peace. The centres car park is also reasonable enough compared to other town centre car parks which are daylight robbery!

This place reminds me of a run down shopping centre in my hometown of Dundalk which was built in the 80’s and is looking pretty dated– everyone calls it ‘the old shopping centre’, whilst it’s also dated counterpart which was built in the mid 90’s was christened ‘the new shopping centre’ (now there’s an even newer one made out of shiny white marble, I’m not sure what they could classify this one as– the newest shopping centre?!)
What I’m saying is (what do you mean get to the point?) that Castlecourt is Belfasts’ old shopping centre and Victoria Square is Belfasts’ shiny new shopping centre.
The clothes shops are kinda dated and a bit cheapey looking. The New Look store is full of cheapey trash and features rails upon rails of dresses for £3 in obscure sizes that no one will ever buy.
The superdrug upstairs is pretty good for bargains on haircare products and make-​up. There’s also a Subway, Warehouse and a couple of other places to grab a bite to eat. I think most people would just opt for Victoria Square.

Really not much to write home about. This place was groundbreaking in its day because someone actually had the guts to build a shopping centre in the middle of Belfast, I can only imagine what the insurance rates were like.
There arent too many top end shops in here anymore as most of them have set up shop in Victoria Square, and this place just looks like it is stuck permanently in 1994. The entire ambience of the place is off, with it not being a nice place to be at all.
The food court is always packed and it has some choice but has no healthy options to speak of. Really bad unfortunately, Victoria Square killed this place.

Sort of a (very) mini-​version of an American mall, CastleCourt has a wide selection of shopping. It has come in for quite a bit of flak (unjustifiably so, in my opinion) since the opening of Victoria Square. People love to sing the praises of Victoria Square, and it does have some big name shops, but how many people shop there on a weekly basis? People love it so much because it hosts the high-​end shops that they would love to be able to shop in all the time, but simply couldn’t afford to — I love the Ferrari showroom on Boucher Road, and could sing its praises all day long, but I’m still going to end up buying at Volkswagen or Vauxhall.
When it comes to it, CastleCourt still has shops that people need and like to shop in. A lot of shoppers will still make CastleCourt their first point of call, visiting as many shops as they can under one roof before embarking upon the journey of widely disseminated shops throughout the city-​centre.
Sure, it’s waned a bit in recent years, but where hasn’t? This is what happens in an economic downturn, with businesses are closing in all sectors.
Gap, Exhibit, Burton’s, Republic, Quicksilver, New Look… all sorts of clothing retailers can be found here, as can retailers of books, mobile phones, jewellery, homeware, toys, video games, and much more.
Not to mention an ample food-​court and contiguous parking.

Castlecourt is the second best shopping centre in Belfast. Given that there are only two, it doesn’t say much…
Unfortunately for Castlecourt, Victoria Square came along and ruined the party in 2008. Nowadays the centre looks dilapidated and cheap in comparison to its upmarket rival.
Now, having said that, there are some decent shops — Dorothy Perkins (my favourite), Warehouse, New Look, Au Naturale, Dune — and a few places to eat, but they aren’t really enough to lure people down to Royal Avenue away from Victoria Square.
At the minute, there are a lot of empty retail spaces, but in fairness, that’s true across the UK. So maybe there’s hope for Castlecourt. Once the economy picks up, there’s every chance that there will be room for two big shopping centres to compete in the City Centre. Right now, however, there just isn’t, and Castlecourt is losing out.

Some of my earliest memories are of CastleCourt. CastleCourt is the city centre’s landmark shopping centre, next Vic Square (only it’s been there alot longer, since about the early 90’s). It mostly houses chain stores, recognizable brands such as Quiksilver and Yankee Candle as well as a food court on the second floor. CastleCourt is like part of the furniture in Belfast; if it’s rubbish, we wouldn’t know because we’re so used to it that it’s become the accepted standard for shopping centres. But I’m a fan and being the big kid that I am, I especially love it at Christmas when Santa sets up a makeshift grotto there. Every Belfast person around the age of 20 will remember waiting outside CastleCourt for him to arrive in his sleigh on Royal Avenue.

I used to go to Castle Court when I was a child with my family and it was a fantastic day out filled with bright colours, ice cream, possible some new shoes that light up and the inevitable sleep home.
Sadly, as my eyes and waistband have widened, it has become inevitable Castle Court is in the sleep home part of its 20 year career. Whereas outside the streets of Belfast are littered with designer shops and that fancy new Victoria Square complex, Castle Court is the ogre that time forgot and is more used as a convenient car park than a shopping centre filled with vim and vigor. Though it does have a wide variety of shops and places to eat, the appeal of this place seems lost. Some of the stores are boarded up and the whole place seems a bit old. It’s a great shame.
But like everyone of my journeys, I may have slept on the way home, but I always came back filled with excitement. Perhaps Castle Court will soon arise from its slumber because the potential of this place is astounding. Sadly, when you have seen the qualities of designer Victoria Square, and the awe-​inspiring Trafford Centre in Manchester, this place simply does not cut it any more as a shopping centre.
Pity

Oh Castle Court, what has happened to you? I used to love you and now, well now I don’t really love you anymore.
When Castle Court opened (and in fairness that was 20 years ago) it was a paradise of bright shiny stores, some of then UK chains which were opening in Belfast for the first time. But over the last 5 — 10 years, this place has lost its sparkle for me. The only reason I would venture into Castle Court these days is to go to Debenhams for one of their crazy ‘blue cross’ sales, or to Baby Gap.
So what else is there? My beloved TK Maxx has gone — to much bigger site a few streets away and there are now a number of pound type shops and discount stores which add to the increasingly down at heel air. On the plus side, there is a branch of Laura Ashley and Dune so all is not lost.
There is also a ginormous food court near the car park which always does a roaring trade. There’s Burger King, Bagel Factory, Pizza Hut and a Chinese take away which I can say from experience is really good. You can fill a box for under £5 with quick tasty food and you won’t be disappointed.
I feel somehow disloyal saying that Castle Court is past is best as I used to love. But it is what it is and that is a shopping centre which has seen better days. Haven’t we all?