Benidorm, a British holidaymaker's paradise known for its budget-friendly pubs, stunning beach, and quaint old town, also harbours a secret – a colossal, deserted shopping centre. A Benidorm fan, Lucy, stumbled upon this ghostly centre that many tourists have probably missed.
She took to YouTube to share her discovery and delve into the fate of what was once a bustling hub. While some businesses still operate on the periphery of the mall, giving little hint of the enigma within, the interior tells a different story. Ground level shops like a café, bakery, travel excursion outlet, and clothing stores are active, but the upper floor is eerily vacant. On one side of the large complex, Lucy reveals that apart from a couple of small enterprises, it appears as if the rest has been sealed off forever.
She remarked: "Now we're going to take you for a look inside where you'll really start to see what I mean about this place being abandoned.". Guiding viewers through the desolate space, she notes: "On this entrance you've got signage, and you can see there are 77 units in this shopping centre. Only about a third of them are occupied, according to that sign, but I've counted at least five of them on that side that have actually closed down", reports the Express.
A wander through the abandoned corridors of this vast, deserted shopping centre leaves more questions than answers. Captured in a video, its sheer size is impressive and bewildering—especially since it stands neglected despite being ideally located.
A Benidorm fan expressed that it's a real "shame" to see the centre go unused. She added: "I just can't understand it. "You would think businesses would be fighting over such a good location but it's almost like people have just forgotten that it exists. I actually really struggled to find out any information on this place in my 20 odd years here, I only remember it looking pretty similar to how it is now, a sad sight, an empty shell of a shopping centre.".
Through local research, Lucy learnt that the site was one of the original five campsites in 70s Benidorm before morphing into a bustling shopping haven in the 80s known as Loria—a nod to a historic water feature—and formally called El Centro. Tucked within its history is also a once-popular cinema. Lucy said: "I only managed to find one picture of the cinema online, it was called Cine Centro and some people I have spoken to do have fun memories of that Cinema, but I don't think it lasted very long either. Then, without the facilities and without the cinema to bring people here, the shops that were here, just drifted into Oblivion.".
