The Grafton Centre was built just before I moved to Cambridge in the 1980s. Completed in 1984 it was opened by the Queen. It has always been an odd addendum to Cambridge's shopping scene. While less than a mile from the town centre, I rarely visited. Internet shopping and COVID has done for it. It still has the multiscreen cinema and few large stores, but as a shopping centre it has died.
The plan is to redevelop the Grafton Centre into a mixture of business and retail. The cinema, restaurants and some of the larger stores at the main entrance will remain, the rest will become business space with a potential incubator space linked to Anglia Ruskin University across the road.
As part of a wider Cambridge Camera Club (CCC) documentary project, the club was given permission to photograph inside the Grafton Centre to capture the structure and look before it all changes. With about 10 photographers from the CCC showing up, we should have a comprehensive capture. Here are a few of mine looking at the overall style and structure of the building.
