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Trafford Centre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Trafford Centre | |
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| Facts and statistics | |
|---|---|
| Location | Trafford, Greater Manchester, England |
| Opening date | September 1998 |
| Developer | Peel Group |
| Management | Mike Butterworth, Managing Director |
| Owner | Peel Group |
| No. of stores and services | 280 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 6 |
| Total retail floor area | 1,278,387 sq ft (118,766 m²) |
| Parking | 10,000 |
| No. of floors | 3 |
| Website | http://www.traffordcentre.co.uk |
The Trafford Centre is a large indoor shopping centre located in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. The planning process for The Trafford Centre was one of the longest and most expensive in British history. Ultimately the matter was decided by the House of Lords.[1][2]
The Trafford Centre is a major sponsor of Salford City Reds rugby league club. Shortly after its opening, the centre provided the setting for Shopping City, a BBC2 daytime programme hosted by Lowri Turner and also provides the "catwalk" ending of the programme, How to Look Good Naked.
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The Trafford Centre has 118,766 square metres (1.2m square feet) of retail space and attracts 30 million visits annually (2005 figures). It is made up of 4 main areas: Peel Avenue, Regent Crescent, The Dome and The Orient. The centre is owned by Peel Holdings. It was designed so that visitors enter on both of the two main shopping floors in equal numbers [1]. This helps avoid the problem suffered by other centres, such as the MetroCentre, where visitors do not go to upper floors meaning that many big retailers avoid upper floor units.
Portraits running around the top of the walls of the mall depict members of the Whittaker family, founders of owners Peel Holdings. A Mercedes car belonging to the mother of Peel Holdings' chairman, John Whittaker, is on display on the first floor mall outside F. Hinds.
The building's public lighting is under state-of-the-art computer control, adapts with the changing environment and can be controlled from one central location.[citation needed] All vehicles entering The Trafford Centre have their number plate details recorded via automatic number plate recognition.
Peel Avenue is home to the high street shops such as an Apple Store, H&M, and Boots. It is also home to two department stores, the new John Lewis which opened in 2005 at the end of Peel Avenue, and the newly refubished four-storey Marks & Spencer, (see below). The space now occupied by John Lewis was previously a market area known as the Festival Village.
The latest development to be completed is the new four-storey Marks and Spencer. This now features an outside entrance to the foodhall, which will mean that customers doing their food shopping at Marks and Spencer can take their bags straight out to the car park, rather than walking through the mall.
The Dome is in the middle of the centre and is home to more upmarket stores such as the first Selfridges outside of London.
Regent Crescent is home to many high end designer stores, including Karen Millen, Jane Norman, Gap and Mexx. It also houses the bookshop Waterstones and to two department stores, BHS and Debenhams.
Other non-retail facilities are all located in a central spur called The Orient, a 1,600-seat food court which includes a 20-screen Odeon multiplex cinema, Laser Quest Laser Tag arena, a large Namco Centre with Dodgems, Bowling and Arcade games. There are also dozens of restaurants and bars including The Exchange Bar & Grill, Starbucks, Est Est Est, Ma Potter's, Nando's and Cathay Dim Sum. There are also several popular fast food outlets - McDonald's, KFC, Subway and Pizza Hut amongst others. A new area adjoining the Orient known as "The Great Hall" opened fully in March 2007, although a Costa Coffee outlet opened earlier in January 2007. This new glazed structure houses five new restaurants and cafes. The decision to extend the current dining facilities was due to the growth in demand amongst visitors wishing to dine during their stay, or indeed visit The Trafford Centre during the evening specifically for food and drink. The Great Hall houses an elegant sweeping staircase featuring hundreds of metres of marble balustrade from China, and the largest chandelier in the world. The chandelier was designed by English lighting consultants, and then sent to China for manufacture; assembly and installation was done by local contractors. The chandelier has three levels of plant walkways inside, is around 36 feet (11 m) wide and 49 feet (15 m) high, weighs around five tonnes, and has more lighting control systems than most shopping centres.
The Trafford Centre announced in October 2005, that permission had been granted for further expansion. The 200,000 sq feet extension, which will cost £70m, is to be known as 'Barton Square'. It will be located to the west of the main building and will be linked over a through road by an extensive glazed bridge. The new scheme will target the high-quality homewares market with a variety of units offering furniture, kitchens, bathrooms, home furnishings and other goods that are currently not available at The Trafford Centre. Retailers confirmes so far are Next Home, M&S Home and Dwell. A further 630 free parking spaces will also be provided. Construction is well underway on this development, which is expected to open in Spring 2008. Further adjacent vacant ground exists for future expansion of Barton Square.
Marks and Spencer also will be extending its current store over to Barton Square, whilst also keeping its newly extended main store open in Peel Avenue in the centre. The Marks and Spencer Home store will be one of the first M&S homesware stores to open in UK at Barton Square in Spring 2008, along with a new Habitat store for Manchester.
In November 2007, The Trafford Centre announced plans to bring a large ferris wheel to the centre. Visitors will be able to dine on the wheel, choosing meals from a selection of restaurants in The Great Hall.[citation needed]
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The Trafford Centre is situated just off the M60 (Junctions 9 and 10).
A common issue for people travelling to The Trafford Centre along the M60 from the northwest of Manchester is traffic congestion on the Barton high-level bridge, as shoppers seek to access the centre via junction 10, particularly in the evening. A way of avoiding this delay is to continue along the M60, and leave the motorway at Junction 9 where access is now almost directly from the motorway roundabout. Planning permission is awaited to develop a new link road, running adjacent to the M60, crossing the ship canal on a new swing bridge. This will then join the A57 at Peel Green, Eccles.
Services from the centre's bus station link it with Manchester, the surrounding towns, the Metrolink station at Stretford, and Manchester Airport.
There are 10,000 car spaces and 350 coach spaces.
There are also plans to build a link from the Manchester Ship Canal to land adjacent to The Trafford Centre, creating a water taxi bus service from Salford Quays to the centre.
Plans also exist for a Metrolink service to the centre, pending government funding.
The Trafford Centre is open Monday-Friday 10am-10pm, Saturday 10am-8pm (some stores opening at 9am) and Sunday 12noon-6pm with some stores open from 11am. Stores extend their closing times to 11pm on the run-up to Christmas during weekdays.
- ^ House of Lords (1995) “Opinions of the Lords of Appeal for Judgment in the cause Bolton Metropolitan District Council and others (respondents) versus Secretary of State for the Environment and others (appellants)” 24 May, written by Lord Lloyd of Berwick.
- ^ Trafford Centre (1997) “From de Trafford to the House of Lords” Trafford Centre Insight, Brochure.
Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | Articles with unsourced statements since December 2007 | Wikipedia articles needing style editing from December 2007 | Shopping centres in Greater Manchester | Buildings and structures in Trafford