Swan Walk has ordered safety netting for delivery on 21 August, followed by a phased reopening. Here is what is trading in Horsham now, and how to reach it.
Swan Walk shopping centre has ordered the safety netting that stands between it and reopening, and is working to a target delivery date of 21 August, with installation ready to begin immediately. In a statement issued on Thursday 13 August, the centre confirmed that “an external projectile was responsible for the issue with our glazing panels”, the fault that closed it on 13 July, and said the netting has “a proven track record elsewhere” and will be installed throughout the glazed area. (Swan Walk Shopping Centre)
The centre has not given a reopening date. It says only that once the netting arrives it will “share further detail around the planned timings for reopening, which will be on a phased basis”, and that a reopening event is planned for the first weekend the whole centre is open again.
That leaves Horsham’s main covered shopping street closed for a fifth week, in the middle of the school holidays. The practical question for most people is narrower: what can you still get to, and where from.
What is open, and which entrance to use
Several Swan Walk tenants are trading, but not through the main mall. Access splits between two entrances.
From the Carfax, on normal pedestrian access: Marks & Spencer and Boots.
From the Swan Walk car park, using the lifts and stairs into the centre: T.G. Jones, which houses the Post Office, plus Next, Toy Barnhaus, the Happyscamps play café (9am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday) and the customer toilets. (Your Horsham BID)
Two more businesses are reachable but not walk-in:
- Superdrug pharmacy: if a prescription is ready, or a Click and Collect parcel is waiting, call 01403 253567 to arrange collection from the rear of the store, in the yard behind COOK at 8 Carfax, RH12 1DR.
- Select Travel: the team is on 01403 262727 or sales@select-travel.co.uk, and can arrange for holiday documents to be collected from their rear entrance. Your Horsham BID also advises that Select Travel agents will be in the atrium of John Lewis on Saturday 15 August.
A group of Swan Walk retailers has moved onto market stalls in West Street: The Linen Store, Gobsmack Comics, Toy Barnhaus, Natural Body Company and Aura Crystals. The BID warns that line-up can change week to week, so check the individual traders’ own channels before making a trip for one of them.
The Swan Walk car park itself is open and is owned and managed by Horsham District Council, not the centre. Get in and out via the Medwin Walk lift and stairs, next to Boots. Car park queries go to the council on 01403 230 721, not to Swan Walk. Our guide to parking in Horsham covers the other town-centre car parks and their tariffs if you would rather leave the car elsewhere while access is awkward.
What the council has done about it
Horsham District Council moved on the trading problem within days. On 17 July it offered market stalls free of charge to Swan Walk businesses for that Saturday, working with Your Horsham BID, the centre and the market operators; Natural Body Company and Gobsmack Comics took pitches in the Carfax, and The Linen Shop and Aura Crystals in West Street and the Bishopric. (Horsham District Council, 17 July 2026)
On 22 July it went further and stood up a dedicated response team, led by the council and Your Horsham BID, with Swan Walk, Crickmay Chartered Surveyors, the market operators, Coden Events, Food Rocks South and Horsham Town Council around the table. Its two stated priorities are keeping Swan Walk businesses trading through market stalls and partnership arrangements, and holding up footfall across the rest of the town centre with better access signage.
Councillor Jonathan Taylor, the council’s Cabinet Member for Property and the Local Economy, said the phased approach was “sensible and responsible” given “the current uncertainty around the duration of the closure”, and added: “At this stage, speculation serves no useful purpose. Instead, I would encourage residents and visitors to continue supporting Horsham’s businesses and their employees by visiting the town centre and spending locally.” (Horsham District Council, 22 July 2026)
The team is meeting regularly and the council says its support measures will change as the situation does.
What it means for you
Do not plan a trip around Swan Walk being open in the next fortnight. The 21 August date is a target delivery date for materials, not an opening date, and the centre has been explicit that reopening after that will be phased rather than all at once. Realistically, expect parts of the centre to come back before the whole of it does, and expect the announcement to come from the centre’s own update page first.
If you need something specific, phone ahead. The Superdrug pharmacy and Select Travel arrangements above both depend on ringing first, and the Post Office inside T.G. Jones is reachable only through the car park entrance, which is easy to miss if you approach from the Carfax. Your Horsham BID also lists alternative sub post offices in town.
If you are shopping on a Saturday, the West Street and Carfax markets are where the displaced Swan Walk independents are, and the market line-up is the part of this that changes most often. The rest of the town centre is unaffected: our guide to things to do in Horsham covers what else is open while the centre is not.
We will update this page when the centre confirms its phased reopening dates.
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