Valley Park Retail Area

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Valley Park Retail and Leisure Complex is a major out-of-town retail park in the Purley Way retail and industrial area of the London Borough of Croydon. Valley Park was opened in 1992 on the site of the former Croydon 'B' Power Station which was built in the late 1940s and opened in 1950. It shut down in 1984 but the council ordered the local landmark towers to stay, which almost put IKEA off the site, but a compromise was made that IKEA could paint the top skirt of the tower in their colours (blue and yellow). The towers are so tall that they can be seen from the windows of Centrale shopping centre in Central Croydon. Also due to their sheer size they were featured in some films.

Contents 1 Retail park 1.1 Entertainment area 1.2 Retail area 1.3 Former stores 2 IKEA Croydon 3 Transport 4 References

[edit] Retail park

The retail park is divided into two areas: the bottom half is a long but large modern building which houses the entertainment or leisure area. The car park for this is considerbly smaller than the other area. The upper half includes larger retail units with a large car park, B&Q and IKEA, both have their own car-parks for customers as well as McDonalds and Burger King. Apart from Burger King, all of the stores just listed are in separate units apart from the main buildings.

[edit] Entertainment area

The entertainment area of Valley Park is located behind the IKEA and retail areas, it includes restaurants, bars and leisure facilities. There is a Vue Cinema located in Valley Park, one of two Vue's in Croydon (the other being Croydon Grants in Central Croydon), the other Vue shows more advance screenings and brand new films while this one is usually behind and does not show brand new films (usually a week or two behind Croydon Grants)^[1]. Tenpin (formerly known as Megabowl) have a bowling alley. There is a Frankie & Benny's, Nandos, Bella Italia, Subway and a Burger King restaurant and drive-thru. Sofa Workshop used to own a store in Valley Park but have since moved to the town centre.^[2][3]

[edit] Retail area

The retail area is the main shopping park and includes a lot of big names such as dfs^[4] which has operated on the same site since 1994, Marks & Spencer which has recently moved to Valley Park from Purley Way Retail Park where it was a Simply Food format. A branch of Philip Green's Arcadia Group Outfit chain is located in the park and at the present time concessions inside the store include Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topshop, Wallis, Principles, Warehouse, Ben Sherman and Quiksilver & Roxy flip-flops. ^[5]. Other brands that used to be available in the store included Topman, Playboy, Character (Sponge Bob square pants, dirty dancing and muppets nightwear) and Bhs

JJB Sports and Sports World are in direct competition in the retail park, both of them holding large stores. The other stores include Next, Boots and B&Q. B&Q's store is a separate warehouse and has its own entrance to its own car park. McDonalds is also a standalone shop in the at the bottom centre of the car park. This restaurant is also a drive-thru.

[edit] Former stores

• Land of Leather (moved to Purley Way Retail Park)
• Cargo Club (closed due to disappointing sales)
• Sports Division (changed to JJB Sports)
• Carpet Depot (since changed to Land of Leather and then Outfit moved from their old unit to this one)
• Warner Village Cinemas (changed to Vue)
• Megabowl (changed to Tenpin)
• Sofa Workshop (moved to store in Croydon Town Centre)

[edit] IKEA Croydon

The IKEA in Croydon is a 23,000 m²^[6] IKEA furniture store which opened in 1992. The old chimneys of the power station, with the addition of illuminated bands in the store's blue-and-yellow colours, were retained as a prominent advertisement. The store is now open until midnight on weekdays. In May 2006 Croydon's IKEA store was revamped to make it the largest in Britain. It was officially re-launched on 1st Monday with a traditional Swedish opening ceremony attended by Mayor Maggie Mansell and the Swedish ambassador Stefan Carlsson. The extension of IKEA makes it the fifth biggest single employer in Croydon, and includes the extension of the showroom, market hall and self-serve areas^[7].

Conflicts between residents and IKEA have gone on for a long time, about the landmark towers. IKEA was considering demolishing them in 2003, saying that they cost over £70,000 a year to maintain, but they made a u-turn just months after when they vowed to leave its landmark chimneys untouched, ideas about possible uses for the towers are being considered by the Swedish furniture store. Ideas such as making the bottom of the towers a museum of the history of the site before IKEA and making the top a revolving restaurant. The previous idea was considered before IKEA came as part of a regeneration scheme called The Powerhouse (similar to Battersea Power Station plans), which also included shops, a cinema and a bowling alley. The development's focal point was the revolving restaurant situated in the top of the towers. However, the plans never materialised and the land was bought by IKEA a few years later.^[8]

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were both spotted in IKEA on Monday 5 May 2005. The then Prime Minister and Chancellor called in at the store in Valley Park on a whistle-stop tour of marginal seats a day before the General Election^[9].

[edit] Transport

IKEA Ampere Way for Valley Park is the tramlink stop that serves the Valley Park retail area. It is on Tramlink Route 3, services terminate at Wimbledon station or New Addington via the Croydon Loop. Unlike Centrale in Croydon, IKEA do not or did not pay for maintenance of the tram stop opposite (Centrale paid to have a stop with their name on it so customer levels going through the centre would rise, especially from the Wimbledon end), Transport for London decided to re-name the stop IKEA Ampere Way from the initial Ampere Way name when the Croydon Tramlink opened because of customer confusion to which stop they should get off, Ampere Way or Waddon Marsh named Waddon Marsh for Purley Way Retail Parks^[10].

London Buses route 455 stops outside the retail park entrance, and has services to Old Lodge Lane and Wallington via West Croydon. London Buses route 289 stops on the Purley Way flyover close to Valley Park and provides services to Elmers End and Purley.

There are a lot of spaces for cars in the retail park, as well as an overflow car-park for the main retail area. IKEA used to have a three floor multi-storey car-park for customers, but after the 2007 re-design of the store this was trimmed down to two-storeys with more spaces on the normal car-park.

[edit] References