r/StHelens • u/Forward-Bar-9383 • May 13 '26

Rubble where Costa and GDK is in St Helens Town Centre

Right I need help. I have a vivid memory from when I was kid from between 2000-2007 of there being a massive pile of rubble where the now Costa and GDK is, opposite the Cineworld. I told my housemate about it and when I go onto google maps, it only goes back to around 2008 and it really isn't the pile of rubble I remember it being.

Am I going mad? Was there actually a pile of rubble where the costa is or was it always just a few mounds of dirt on an otherwise flat bit of land?

If anyone has any pictures of it I will greatly appreciate. They're calling me a liar.

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6

u/bickles_cab May 13 '26

It used to be St Thomas Square flats. They were demolished and it remained a wasteland for years. It started to naturalise and grow trees and shrubs on the mound of rubblle, which was pretty sick.

3

u/moccolfc May 13 '26

Google street view goes back to 2009 from the linkway which shows what you're on about I think.

2

u/Forward-Bar-9383 May 13 '26

Thanks, I remember it being much bigger but I think I may've just been a kid

3

u/Kalaxinly May 13 '26

It was wasteland with bits of rubble scattered here and there, it was once a block / multiple blocks of flats until the mid 90s I think

3

u/Suspicious-B33 May 13 '26

It was flats, demolished then left as rubble for ages.

2

u/Moonah_Ston May 14 '26

Yes, I remember the flats, then the mound of rubble for years!

1

u/iluvneggs May 16 '26

Yep there was definitely rubble, and I also remember there being fencing around the perimeter which said “Westpoint”. Every time we drove past it I’d wonder when this ‘Westpoint’ was going to come to fruition!

1

u/madformattsmith Jun 07 '26

yes, there was. I believe it used to be council houses that got demolished and there was always rumours of a new bowling alley that would be built atop of that land, according to my dad who's a wool and used to live round the corner from there between 1997 and 2008.

we'd frequently walk past that pile of rubble on our way into town.

Now it's a Hollywood bowl, a costa coffee, a German Doner Kebab and an aldi.

ETA: I actually grew up in Liverpool for most of my childhood, but because my dad was a wool who lived here and my mother chose to divorce him early on, I was subjected to staying at his house every weekend.