The main objection to this plan came from the independent traders who did not wish to relocate because they felt that the proposed new shopping area was 'off the beaten track'. This objection was not unreasonable, as in its pre-war topography Bristol had a long shopping axis that started at Stapleton Road to the east, passed through Old Market into Castle Street, Wine Street, and the City Markets, and then via The Centre and Park Street to Queens Road and Whiteladies Road. Moving the central shopping area would break this axis. There was also concern about the serious negative social and economic impacts of 'sterilising' such a large area in the centre of the city. However, when the Bristol Retail Traders Federation, representing the small traders, produced a poll showing that 13,000 people wished to retain the shopping centre on its current site whereas only 400 preferred to see it moved, the local Labour party dismissed the poll describing it as 'undemocratic' and comparing the Federation's methods to those of Hitler. By 1966, the shops had been rebuilt in 'barren' Broadmead (at the expense of demolishing an area of Victorian, Georgian and Tudor buildings that had escaped the wartime bombing more or less unscathed), and the Wine Street and Castle Street area was being used for car parking. The picturesque area around Narrow Wine Street and Castle Mill Street had been demolished to create modern Newgate, and Old Market, severed from Bristol's shopping axis by the new Temple Way Underpass and the destruction of Castle Street, was in serious decline. The plan for Castle Park was crystallising, however. The ruined St Peter's Church would be surrounded by a museum and an art gallery; to the east of this there would be an arts centre and the remaining area east to Lower Castle Street would be a park. The south-western corner nearest Bristol Bridge would contain a riverside hotel, and the north-western corner would be home to 'a block for cultural, professional and exhibition purposes'. In the event, the north-western corner was leased to the Bank of England and Norwich Union Insurance (whose offices now stand derelict), and the critical corner site where the Dutch House had stood was replaced by a link road to a short section of dual-carriageway linking High Street with Wine Street. Plans for a civic centre were dropped as being too expensive. Finally, in 1977, work