Look inside abandoned Cornhill Walk Shopping centre in Bury St Edmunds that closed in 2016

The sound of a bird’s flapping wings pierces the silence of the derelict building.

The evidence of feathered occupants is everywhere to see: droppings cover the floor and the carcasses of dead birds lay where they fell out of the stale air inside Cornhill Walk Shopping Centre, in Bury St Edmunds.

Once a bustling hub of shoppers and community activities, the centre is now an empty shell resembling a burned-out building.

It is not even a shadow of its former self but barely recognisable.

The once-sparkling lantern windows are now covered in bird droppings, while the spaces occupied by retailers including Index, New Look, Evans, JJB Sports, Principles and Etam have been stripped out.

All that remains is the filth-covered and partially drilled-out quartz tiled floor which gleamed in the centre’s thoroughfare during its three decades of trading.

Meanwhile, cobwebs hang from the polystyrene statue of Saint Edmund which still stands guard above the centre’s entrance.

Cornhill Walk Shopping Centre opened in 1986 with 11 retail units, but closed at the end of December 2016.

It was built on the Brentgovel Street site of the former Art Deco Odeon cinema, which opened in 1937 and was demolished in 1983.

In 2018, plans were submitted by Knightspur Homes to transform Cornhill Walk into 48 flats, with three shops below.

The proposals went to planning appeal last year, with the inspector dismissing the appeal on the grounds of unacceptable harm being imposed on the living conditions of nearby homes and the scheme’s conflict with the development plan, in March 2021.

New proposals for the site have not yet been submitted.