A deserted shopping centre has been dubbed the worst in Britain with not a single store left open.
Festival Park shopping centre was compared to a 'zombie land' with nothing but an eerie playground and a talking clock left behind.
The mall was once known as a bustling hub with more than 40 companies including M&S, Nike, Costa and Gap.
Now the shopfronts, which used to be full of the latest products, display nothing but signs that read "sorry we are closed."
The site, in Gwent, Wales, was hit hard by a retail slump followed by Covid lockdowns forcing store owners to close their doors.
Now it is set to be 'recycled' into a business centre after a host of top names moved out of the area.
It is not the first time the site has had a change of use, having once been part of the government's National Gardens Festival scheme.
Its grand opening in 1992 welcomed guests from Prince Charles to Dannii Minogue and Catherine Zeta Jones.
Vsitors enjoyed the funfair, plant exhibitions, gardens and a cable railway, with the project funded through heavy investment from taxpayer funds in former industrial sites.
The shopping centre took over the site five years later but many of the gardens' sculptures and original features still remain in place.
"It was amazing then, long queues to get in and a real buzz," shopper Megan Woods, 59, told the MailOnline.
"It has its own fairground and even a talking moving clock.. But now it is more like a zombie-land with no-one here."
She added: "Something has gone very wrong somewhere that all that investment of taxpayers money was wasted. It was getting bad before the pandemic but now it is just ridiculous."
Some residents blamed the mall's decline on a lack of private investment while others put it down to a lack of planning and funding from Blaenau Gwent Council.
Last year, the local authority announced that Mercia Real Estate (MRE) Ltd had taken over the shopping centre.
The privately-owned real estate investment company, based in Birmingham, plans to convert it into a "mixed-use business centre."
Kim Maguire was one of the original business owners at Festival Park but she moved her gift shop to the town centre after its demise.
"It was a sad day when it closed for me as a business and for the community as a whole," she said.
The shop owner also told how she still hears from customers about how much they miss the shopping centre and how shocked they were to see it decline.
Kelvin Morgan, who ran a fresh fruit and veg shop at the mall, said: "It used to be so beautiful over there with all the flower gardens and shops. So to see it as it is now is very sad."
The businessman recalled the excitement when it opened as the Garden Festival followed by hundreds of people flocking to the shopping centre when it opened.
Savills real estate company said in a planning application that MRE's vision is to "recycle and repurpose the existing land and buildings to create a mixed-use business centre."
It confirmed that the previous site is now "completely vacant" with limited remodelling to the buildings.
"MRE also want attract users that may include a mixture of activities — like trade counters, tool hire companies and builder's merchants," it added.
