Merry Hill Shopping Centre

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Mall facts and statistics
Westfield Merry Hill

Location	Brierley Hill, UK
Opening date	1985
Developer	Richardson Developments
Owner	Westfield Group
No. of stores and services	284
No. of anchor tenants	6
Total retail floor area	148,000m² (1.593m ft²)
Parking	8000
Website	http://www.westfield.com/merryhill

The Merry Hill Shopping Centre is a shopping centre in Brierley Hill, West Midlands, England. It was opened in 1985 and has been considerably expanded since that time. Originally the centre was owned by the original developers, Richardson Developments, but it has seen a number of other owners, including Chelsfield and Mountleigh. Its current owners are the Australian Westfield Group. The centre has around 284 stores and a total retail floorspace of 148,000m² (1.593m ft²)^[1].

As well as a large indoor shopping centre, Merry Hill is home to a multiplex Odeon cinema (formerly branded UCI) and a number of larger shops such as Currys, PC World and Allied Carpets. A Next Clearance store has just recently opened. Adjacent to the main shopping site is The Waterfront, which accommodates offices for Telewest and HM Revenue and Customs among others, and has a marina area providing space for a number of bars and restaurants.

1 Monorail
2 Controversies
- 2.1 Building of Merry Hill Centre
- 2.2 Effect on surrounding towns
3 Recent Developments
4 Bus Station
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Monorail

There was an elevated monorail (Von Roll Mk III Series) in operation at Merry Hill from 1991, but this closed in 1996 as a result of a combination of technical problems and safety concerns (especially the difficulty of evacuation), exacerbated by a dispute between the owners of Merry Hill and The Waterfront which at this time were owned separately. The infrastructure has now been removed, but one of the disused monorail stations and part of the old railings can be still seen on the roof of Marks and Spencer and Argos Extra. The trains and track have been sold to the Oasis Shopping Centre, in Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia, to enable it to expand its own monorail system.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Building of Merry Hill Centre

In the 1980s the Government created a number of Enterprise Zones which gave incentives to firms wishing to set up business in areas which had been affected by a downturn in the manufacturing industry. The Brierley Hill area had suffered the loss of the Round Oak Steelworks, and it was hoped that other manufacturers could be encouraged to move into the area. Incentives including relaxed planning rules and a ten-year period exempt from business rates. Developers saw the opportunity to take advantage of lack of restrictions by making a shopping centre, rather than industrial units originally envisaged as the mainstay of the Enterprise Zone. The Enterprise Zone encompassed both the former Round Oak Steelworks, now falling into decay, and a large open green space known as Merry Hill Farm. This was cherished locally as a haven for wildlife. There was much hostility when building of the first phase of the shopping centre commenced on the green space, rather than on the former steelworks site. Despite protests from local citizens the site was destroyed. The steelworks site was not built on till later stages of the Merry Hill/Waterfront Project. This is still an issue of contention: in a real-life retcon histories often merely state that the Centre was built on the steelworks, and omit mention of Merry Hill Farm; photographs are cropped to show only the steelworks.

[edit] Effect on surrounding towns

When the Merry Hill Centre opened, a number of large retail chains decided to move their stores from surrounding towns into the new mall. These included Marks & Spencer, C&A and Littlewoods. These left a number of large empty premises behind, which in turn meant many shoppers abandoned town centres for the Merry Hill Centre, which led to a large downturn in trade for those shops remained, affecting their viability. Most affected was Dudley, the largest nearby town, whilst Halesowen and Stourbridge were also hit. A further blow came when the local council, Dudley Metropolitan Borough, announced that it was bringing in parking charges throughout its area; this turned more shoppers away from local towns, and towards the Merry Hill Centre, where parking remains free. After twenty years, local towns have still not been able to compete with the Centre, and have become increasingly run-down, though schemes to improve things are occasionally mooted. The Merry Hill Centre continues to draw most of its trade from local towns. The developers did plan that the Centre would attract visitors from across the country, but its relatively small size compared to true out-of-town shopping malls, poor road access, and no rail access have counted against this. Coach parks have now had apartments and houses built on them.

[edit] Recent Developments

The owners and local council leaders have states their aim to better connect and integrate Merry Hill with the traditional town centre of Brierley Hill. To this end, the Dudley Canal has been re-routed, and a number of new flats have been built around the site, with more expected to follow. A new line of the Midland Metro tram system will reach the site in 2010. Toys R Us Store has just opened where B&Q was.

[edit] Bus Station

Merry Hill has been served by a Bus Station since about 1986, which gives connections to towns including Dudley, Halesowen, Stourbridge, West Bromwich, Tipton, Sedgley, Coseley and Bilston, as well as the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton. Similary, the Bus services connect the centre to the Midland Centro Railway Service by offering connects to and from Cradley Heath Train Station, the closest to the centre.

Buses departing from Merry Hill include: