The ground floor end unit of the newly built The Ramparts on St Paul's Roundabout will play host to a new Premiere as the first business to ever occupy the space.

The Ramparts, which is less than two years old, stands at a junction of Wilton and Devizes Road at St Paul's Roundabout which has remained empty for many years.

The site began its life as a horse watering trough in 1905 for equines to refresh themselves before the final stretch of road into the city and later evolved into a petrol station.

In 2017, Wiltshire Council approved plans for a developer to knock down the abandoned gas station which had stood vacant for 14 years and had been branded an “eyesore.”

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Thiruchelvam “Mathi” Mathivannan, 44, who has lived in Salisbury since 2006, will be opening the shop on the ground floor of the new building as his fifth Premiere in Wiltshire.

He also owns Alderbury Village Stores and other shops in Westbury, West Lavington and the Londis in Tilshead.

Mathi said the new shop is planned to open during the second week of August. He has owned the Premiere shop in the older building behind The Ramparts since 2021, and the new shop will be a larger version.

The smaller shop will be revamped as a speciality Asian food shop, featuring foods from the Indian subcontinent, including Mathi’s native Sri Lanka.