Archives: Community

Drake Circus welcomed the team from Gables Dogs & Cats Home across 22nd and 23rd December as part of our Christmas Community scheme. The team sold festive pet treats and toys, branded merchandise and lucky dips to raise fund and awareness of the vital work they do in our local community supporting unwanted and abandoned cats and dogs.

Laura Alker, Fundraising & Events Teams Leader for Gables Dogs and Cats Home said, ‘Thank you very much for inviting us to fundraise in Drake Circus on the 22nd and 23rd December. You helped us raise an incredible £624.78 on the Friday and £748.58 on the Saturday! Well done!

We had a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed meeting your lovely customers and friendly colleagues alike.’

For more information, please visit our Drake Circus Community and Charity scheme page.

Hi, I’m Greg Lumley, Centre Director at Drake Circus.

For the past seven years I’ve had the pleasure of managing Drake Circus. During my time here, I’ve witnessed Drake Circus become the retail & leisure destination it is today, welcoming fantastic new brands to the city for the first-time including Joules, Jack Wills, Apple and Bill’s amongst others opening in the centre. Popular with shoppers and diners, the centre is a showcase for British Land’s intelligent place making. It’s a place people prefer, no matter what they enjoy doing – a place with customers and community at its heart. 

My family and I fell in love with the region very quickly and moved to Dartmoor, where we regularly walk our dogs. We enjoy the extensive surfing of the North Cornwall Coast and the city life Plymouth has to offer with the waterfront, theatre and restaurants being particular favourites.

The great outdoors of Devon has encouraged me to take up running – I have completed the Plymouth Half Marathon on multiple occasions and now also regularly cycle the 20 miles to work.

During my time here I have been delighted to be able to work on the Board of both the City BID and Growth Board and work on wider city initiatives. We have also built a strong local relationship, working with the exceptional talent Plymouth has to offer with TR2 to create our summer flower scheme as well as various initiatives with Plymouth College of Art and City College.

The future looks bright for Drake Circus! The leisure scheme at Bretonside is due to open later this year; my team and I are enthusiastic to be involved in this new and exciting chapter. We look forward to continuing to evolve with the centre’s positive steps, and with the community it serves. 

We’re proud that Drake Circus is a key part of Plymouth’s wider community and local attractions.

Our team is involved in various stakeholder groups; our Centre Director is a Director of both the Plymouth Business Improvement District board and the Growth Board. We pride ourselves on our involvement in the local community and feel that this participation is integral to Drake Circus.

This is reflected in our focus on charitable involvement and we are delighted to support four charities, selected on an annual basis and voted for by our centre team. This year, our four chosen charities are Macmillan, Andy’s Man Club, Woodside Animal Sanctuary and Plymouth Domestic Abuse Services.

Drake Circus is proud to be a member of the Improving Lives 110 Club, which supports those with disabilities and long-term illnesses, as well as their carers. We’re also proud to get involved with a number of city-wide and national events; last year, we hosted a Pride event with our community partners and retailers providing information, craft activities and glitter makeovers in the week running up to the event on Plymouth Hoe. We also host Dementia Action Week in the centre every year, and supported Purple Tuesday as a centre for the first time in 2019. In addition to this, we have worked with our retailers to host a monthly Sensory Shopping event the first Saturday of every month since 2017, where music is turned off and lights are dimmed where possible.

A number of the Drake Circus team are trained in Adult Mental Health First Aid, in order to recognise the signs of mental health and help people find the support they need to stay well.

Drake Circus also participates in the ‘Bright Lights Starting Out in Retail and Hospitality’ programme, in conjunction with The Source and World Host. The five-week training programme equips local people with great customer service skills and combines nationally recognised qualifications with work experience. In order to support the programme, we teamed up with a number of our retailers to provide these placements, including Boots, Cotswold, Monsoon, The Entertainer and Starbucks.

Drake Circus is a place for everyone to enjoy, both inside and out. We work continuously to make the centre a pleasant place in which to spend time.

We hold two ‘Wellness Week’ events a year – one in January, one in October – to promote mental, emotional and physical wellbeing for our staff, retailers and customers. In January, we were joined by Livewell South West, Plymouth MIND, Samaritans, Thrive Plymouth, Nuffield and Plymouth Library to deliver everything from blood pressure tests to Mini Health MOTs!

In addition to these events, we have several retailers who can support you with positive lifestyle changes and the products you need, such as Holland & Barrett, Boots, American Fruity, Lush, Mountain Warehouse,  and Cotswold Outdoor.

In collaboration with The National Literacy Trust, each year Drake Circus welcomes more than 350 children from local Plymouth schools to take part in our story-telling sessions. Organised as part of the Young Readers Programme, the events evolved from a relationship between Drake Circus and the National Literacy Trust, and are designed to inspire children under the age of 11 to read in their spare time, and to see reading as a fun and creative activity.

This programme stems from a study that showed that reading outside of the classroom instigates higher reading levels within the classroom. This year over 3 days, pupils from High Street Primary Academy, The Cathedral School of St Mary and Laira Green Primary School took part in three literary-focused events in which the students learned how to choose books they might enjoy, and were encouraged to select three books that they could take home for free.

As well as receiving their final book from Waterstones, the schools made and kept a classroom bear from our Build-a-Bear store to act as their literacy mascots. The children also took part in literacy inspired craft activities including bookmark-making with the team at White Stuff.

Drake Circus has gained national recognition for its commitment to customer service, after being awarded the WorldHost Recognised Business status.

WorldHost is a collection of world-class customer service training programmes that was introduced in the UK by People 1st International. Over 320,000 people, 5,000 businesses and 18 regions have benefited from WorldHost training – representing an industry investment in improving the quality of customer experience. During this time, WorldHost has played a key role in helping individuals, businesses, regions and major sporting and cultural events improve the consistency and quality of their customer service offer.

WorldHost Recognised Business status is awarded to businesses that have trained at least 50% their staff using a WorldHost training program and signed a commitment to delivering excellent customer service.