Meadowhall

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Meadowhall
Meadowhall's High Street

Location	Sheffield, UK
Opening date	1990
Owner	British Land
No. of stores and services	290
No. of anchor tenants	9
Total retail floor area	1,420,000 ft² (132,800m²)
No. of floors	2

Meadowhall is a large shopping centre located three miles northeast of central Sheffield, England. Built on the site of a derelict steelworks, it was opened in 1990 creating thousands of new jobs and attracting regular visitors from many surrounding towns and cities. With over 270 stores, it was widely blamed for the closure of many shops in Sheffield City Centre and in the nearby town of Rotherham. Meadowhall has a retail floor space of about 132,800 m² (1,420,000 ft²) and is owned by British Land, a property developer. At the time of opening it was the largest indoor shopping centre in Europe ^{[citation needed]}, but since then other centres such as Bluewater in Kent have been built and the Metro Centre in Gateshead has been extended. The centre attracted 19.8 million visitors in its first year of opening, and now attracts about 30 million visitors a year.^[1]

Plan of Meadowhall

Meadowhall is situated next to the M1 motorway, between Sheffield and Rotherham, in the shadow of the Tinsley Viaduct. It forms the end of the Five Weirs Walk, an 8km walk from the city centre. As the region's main shopping and leisure centre its popularity continues to grow and a large expansion is currently (2004) planned. Meadowhall can be extremely busy in the run-up to Christmas, and the January sales. In extreme cases it has been known to have a one in-one out policy on some stores. This has contributed to it being nicknamed "Meadowhell" and "Murderhall". One of Meadowhall's largest stores, Sainsbury's, closed in mid-2005 is expected to be replaced with a new store that will open soon in its place. The closing diverted some customers to other local shopping areas. In December 2005 it became the home to the fifth Apple Store in the UK.

The Oasis food Court

The centre houses large department stores such as Bhs, House of Fraser and Debenhams. It also has a large food court, the "Oasis", modelled on an Italian piazza, but with a steel roof. The Oasis provides access to a Vue cinema.

Meadowhall is currently going through a large extension project planning to add more shops. Sainsbury's has closed down and a new supermarket is expected to replace it, although rumours have circulated that a branch of upmarket store Harvey Nichols could be built on the site ^{[citation needed]}.

Meadowhall Interchange

Meadowhall also has a transport interchange which include rail, bus and tram facilities, located at Meadowhall Interchange. It is surrounded on all the other sides by car parks and even has its own ring road. It is the only shopping centre in Britain that combines a bus, rail and tram interchange.

The Centre has won many awards, including two awards for innovative events at the ICSC maxi awards 2006, held in Chicago^[2] and two awards for its Retail Bonding Programme (in best Retail Partnership category) and also for its Commercialisation, (adding value to the customer shopping experience) at the BCSC Purple Apple Awards in London.^[3]

Meadowhall Retail Park is a separate development, lying west of the shopping centre itself.

On Friday 13 October, The Sheffield Telegraph announced that Meadowhall will undergo a £91 million refit, with completion due by Summer 2007.