Retail Regeneration

Friar’s Walk in Newport, South Wales is a major shopping and retail centre incorporating a gamut of major stores and leisure facilities – including a host of restaurants, a multiplex, car park and even a new bus station.

Adjacent to the city’s thriving arts quarter, university area and iconic footbridge, it resides at the epicentre of a regeneration programme which has seen major swathes of the city dramatically revamped over the past 20 years.

The Challenge

This new signature retail showpiece, nestling within a vast site of 36,230 square metres, brought with it the anticipation of an estimated footfall of some 10 to 12 million people each year.

With such heavy pedestrian traffic projected, its ground cover had to provide maximum durability and slip resistance while also creating an attractive visual impact befitting a high-profile development integral to the city’s rebirth.

The Solution

AG’s TerraPave® products have succeeded in creating the most beautiful solution for the heavily pedestrianised centre of Friar’s Walk, with the visual effect being a natural thoroughfare from one end of the centre to the neighbouring retail hub of Commercial Street.

Creating an impression of an inviting winding path throughout the vast retail offering and the surrounding revamped environs, the use of TerraPave® flags provided a premium value engineering alternative to a traditional stone solution.

The Rimini Ground TerraPave® chosen at Friar’s Walk has created seamless consistency, underpinned by its eyecatching and striking texture.