Shopping malls are nothing new. It all began with the first shopping arcade in late eighteenth-century Paris. A covered pedestrian alley provided comfortable, stylish and safe shopping away from the dirt and clatter of the street, not to mention the rain. Soon British cities were discovering their pleasures. Bristol had two arcades designed by James Foster in 1824. One was lost in the Blitz, but the survivor is as elegant as ever. The design was inspired by Burlington Arcade in London.
