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 the
history of the United
Kingdom.
Ultimately the matter was decided by the
House of
Lords
.
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.
Structure

Outside view
The Trafford Centre was built by
Bovis
Lend Lease and opened in 1998: it has of retail space and
attracts 30 million visits annually. It is made up of four
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. This helps avoid the problem
suffered by other centres, such as the MetroCentre, where visitors
do not go to upper floors, with the result 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 owner 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.
All vehicles entering The Trafford Centre have their number plate
details recorded via
automatic number plate
recognition. Since its introduction in 2003 the system has
reduced the number of thefts of and from vehicles to a level
described as "negligible".
Stores
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
two department stores,
BHS and
Debenhams.
The Trafford Centre announced in October 2005 that permission had
been granted for further expansion. The additional , which cost
£70M, is known as Barton Square and opened on 20 March 2008.
The name
of the square relates to the nearby area of Eccles
and to another of Peel's nearby ventures, City Airport
Manchester
, which was formerly called Barton
Aerodrome
.
Barton Square is located to the west of the main building and is
linked to the rest of the centre via a glazed bridge. The
architecture is based on an Italian square and includes a large
fountain as well as a
campanile
tower.
This section of the centre targets high-quality homewares market
with a variety of units offering furniture, kitchens, bathrooms,
home furnishings and other goods that are available elsewhere in
the Trafford Centre. Retailers operating so far are Next Home, BHS
Home, Dwell and Habitat. Marks and Spencer Home are due to open
their largest store in Barton Square, whilst also keeping its newly
extended main store open in Peel Avenue in the centre. A further
630 free parking spaces have also been provided. Further
adjacent vacant ground exists for future expansion of Barton
Square.
The stores are open Monday–Friday from 10 am – 10 pm,
Saturday 10 am – 8 pm (some stores opening at 9 am)
and Sunday 12 noon – 6 pm with some stores open from
11 am. (However, the
Sunday
Trading Act 1994 restricts this to a maximum of 6 hours trade.)
Stores extend their closing times to 11 pm on weekdays in the
run-up to Christmas.
Orient and Great Hall
Other non-retail facilities are all located in a central spur
called The Orient, a -seat food court which includes a 20-screen
Odeon multiplex cinema,
Laser Quest Laser Tag
arena,
miniature golf, a large
Namco Centre with
Dodgems,
Bowling, and
Arcade games, 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 among 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 Orient section of the centre is open longer than the retail
stores, until at least midnight all week. The Odeon cinema is open
from 9:40 am – 1 am Sunday–Thursday and from 9:40 am
– 3 am on Friday–Saturday.
Transport links

Trafford Centre car entrance
The
Trafford Centre is situated just off the M60
(Junctions 9
and 10). The popularity of the centre has frequently
resulted in traffic congestion on the M60's Barton High-Level
Bridge, which it is hoped will be alleviated by a new link road,
running adjacent to the M60 and crossing the ship canal on a new
swing bridge.
Planning permission was granted in 2006 for
the construction of a canal linking the Trafford Centre with the
Manchester Ship Canal,
allowing for the introduction of a water taxi service to and from
Salford
Quays
. Construction is expected to take about a
year, although no official start date has yet been announced for
the project. Plans also exist for a
Metrolink service to the centre,
pending government funding.
Services
from the centre's bus station link it with Manchester
, the surrounding towns, the Metrolink station at Stretford
, and Manchester Airport
. There are over 10,630 car spaces and
350 coach spaces.
See also
References
- 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.
- http://www.traffordcentre.co.uk/downloads/traffinfo.pdf
- Retrieved on 29 January 2008.
External links