Looking Back: When Power station held up key site

The site, which is on Lower Bridge Street, is home to a shopping arcade with an Asda supermarket as its anchor store, and a flats development.

The area was seen as a key site for the redevelopment of the city in the 70s and 80s but there was much debate as to what it should house.

Many, including Peterborough Development Corporation general manager Wyndham Thomas, felt the city’s shopping area was too large and it should have ended where the old Woolworths shop was. Many thought the area would be best used for leisure facilities including a large concert hall.

Development of the area was constrained because the Central Electricity Generating Board wouldn’t allow demolition of the old power station… and then a few years later demolished it! In 1985 Asda announced it was to build a £6m store on the site.