| Location | Broadway, Bexleyheath |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 1984 |
| Management | Peter Sedge |
| Owner | Jones Lang LaSalle (2009-) |
| No. of stores and services | 59 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 2 |
| Parking | 1000 spaces |
| No. of floors | 1 (main retail level) 4 (including parking levels) |
| Website | http://www.broadwayshoppingcentre.com |
Broadway Shopping Centre,[1] (branded as The Mall Bexleyheath from circa 2004 until reverting to its original name in 2009), is the principal covered shopping centre in the town centre of Bexleyheath and is the largest single covered shopping facility in the London Borough of Bexley.
The centre opened in its current form in 1984, underwent an extensive refurbishment in 2007, and had been due to form part of a wider regeneration of the surrounding area of Bexleyheath over the coming years, which would have seen additional retail amenity, council offices, a library and residential development adjacent to the existing building.[2] However, in 2010, following the sale of the centre, its new owners confirmed the major expansion plan would not be going ahead, though a small extension to the existing site remains a possibility.[3]
There are 59 retail shop units considered to be within the Mall building (including several premises where public access is from the Broadway itself)[4] and additional smaller retailers in 'RMUs' (small, freestanding kiosk-like units).[5]
In the early years of the centre's existence, the site was known as the Broadway Shopping Centre; its owners included Norwich Union. In the early 21st century the building was acquired by the Mall Fund, becoming one of their network of centres under the generic "The Mall" branding. The Mall Fund subsequently purchased the neighbouring Broadway Square, and ran it alongside The Mall. In 2009, The Mall Fund's parent company Capital & Regional agreed a deal to sell the centre to Jones Lang LaSalle.[6] As a result of its departure from the network, use of the Mall corporate material declined, though some elements (such as signage and branding) remained under The Mall identity, being replaced over a period of time. Other centres which have been sold off by The Mall Fund (such as The Ashley Centre) have reverted to their former names following their sale. Some marketing materials for the centre, as of Spring 2010, began to appear bearing the names 'Broadway' or 'Broadway Shopping Centre'. In September 2010, new signage bearing the name "Broadway Shopping Centre Bexleyheath", with the centre's new red-and-white logo, began replacing the Mall-branded elements.
Following the sale of the centre, it was removed from The Mall's corporate website,;[7] initially, it did not have a dedicated website of its own as a replacement; however, JLL subsequently established one at broadwayshoppingcentre.com - with signs promoting this URL appearing in the centre from September 2010.
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The Mall is located in a rectangular building in the centre of Bexleyheath. The boundaries of the centre are the Broadway to the north, Townley Road to the west, Albion Road to the south and Norwich Place to the east.[8] Norwich Place and the Broadway are now pedestrianised; the Broadway having been pedestrianised in 1993, and Norwich Place - partly closed off in the 1993 changes - was fully paved as part of the Broadway Square changes of 2001. Access to the malls is via pedestrian entrances at three sides of the mall (Broadway, Townley Road and Norwich Place), and vehicle access to the centre (for parking and deliveries) is via ramping at Albion Road.
The centre is a four-storey building; public access to the retail stores is on the ground level; the first floor contains primarily 'service' (delivery bays), office space including the centre management suite, and the customer toilets; and the upper floors are car parking. There are two levels of parking - Upper and Lower - and each is divided into three sectors (East, West and Central). Marks & Spencer, W H Smith and BHS have since opening offered some of their retail activity on the first floor, accessed via lifts/stairs/escalators within the relevant store; the 2010 H&M and New Look stores, and the 2011 River Island store, introduced retail space on the first floor as part of the remodelling process to develop their retail space. Additionally, some stores have suspended ceilings to create a 'false' upper level in their stores, including HMV and the former Next store.
The building encompasses three covered malls of shops which converge on a central square, and also includes a row of shops facing onto the Broadway itself (the shops between Marks & Spencer and Thomson (inclusive) are considered part of the Mall, though their postal addresses are given as being on the Broadway). The sloping nature of the land in the centre of Bexleyheath means that the Broadway entrance leads to a mall which is inclined until it meets the central square, and the Townley Road entrance is the only entrance of the three to be connected to the street level by steps/ramping.
The Mall opened in its current form in 1984. The interior colour scheme of the mall, until the 2007 revamp, was in hues of brown, gold and cream, with marbled pillars, brown tiling in selected areas, cream and brown marble effect floor tiles and copper-coloured ceiling tiles and strips. The 2007 revamp altered this, most significantly in replacing the entire ceiling with a new white and grey one.
The exterior of the building is principally brick, with dark brown roof tiles; a glazed white frontage was added to the main Broadway entrance area and the Townley Road entrance area as part of the 2007 alterations.
In addition to the main retail units, small kiosks have featured within the centre to offer additional retail space within the malls; currently there are a number of kiosks in the 'RMU' format also used in a number of the Mall Fund's other centres. The inaugural winner of the Mall Fund's 'Make Your Mark' competition for new retailers was 'Daisy's Dog Deli', a pet food RMU based at The Mall, Bexleyheath.[9] This firm has since relocated to trade from a kiosk at the Bluewater regional shopping mall.
In 2001, a new shopping development adjacent to the Mall was opened, having been under development for some time. Broadway Square uses a 'strip mall' format to offer a pub and six large retail units, with an associated two-level (basement and ground) car park. Broadway Square was recently acquired by The Mall Fund and is now run in conjunction with the neighbouring Mall, though is still not officially considered part of it. Retailers currently trading from Broadway Square (as at August 2010) are TK Maxx, JD Sports, Poundland, Wilkinson, Peacocks and Sainsbury's. It was not initially clear whether the sale of the Mall to JLL also included Broadway Square, but new centre maps installed by JLL in September 2010 included the Square stores as well as the main centre, suggesting the whole site had indeed been sold.
In late 2006 work began on a major refurbishment of the Mall. The lavatory facilities were revamped, and as part of this the men's toilet was relocated, with the previous men's room becoming a baby changing and feeding area. The mall level was also revamped, with the copper ceiling strips and tiles, which had been in place since the centre's opening, removed, and replaced by a new white and grey ceiling. Several new skylights were also cut into the roof of the centre to allow more natural light in - due to the design of the building, with the mall level at the bottom of a four-storey development, access to natural light had been limited prior to the changes. There were also new glazed entrances developed at two of the three pedestrian entrances. The revamp also allowed space for Mall TV displays (monitors broadcasting a loop of information and promotional material) and advertising hoardings. Some of The Mall branded elements introduced in the revamp remained in the centre briefly following the sale to JLL but have now largely been replaced.
Due to the location and design of the building, it has not been possible to extend or materially alter the Mall. However, there have been a small number of changes to the configuration of units in the centre, which have made a limted number of new units available.
Two of these changes involved the division of the centre's original Woolworths store. When the centre opened in 1984, a large Woolworths was located at the eastern side of the centre close to Marks & Spencer. In 1990 this was cut in half, creating three new units - one which is currently occupied by HMV, one for Superdrug and one for Argos. The remainder continued as a smaller Woolworths. In 2000, Woolworths moved to the former Safeway unit on the western side of the centre (near to W H Smith), with the smaller Woolworths divided again; this allowed Superdrug and Argos to extend to their current sizes, and also allowed the development of three new shop units, taken up by GAME, Phones4U and Sussex Stationers. Former office space above Woolworths was let to Reed, with public access to this space created by converting a former Woolworths fire exit. Woolworths remained in the former Safeway store until their collapse at the end of 2008.
Following the closure of Woolworths, its later premises were extensively remodelled and divided into two new retail units. Posters were subsequently applied to the hoardings which confirmed New Look would be taking up a portion of the redeveloped space, relocating from their current store in the centre; subsequently, a strap appeared on another section of the hoarding confirming an H&M store would be occupying that section of the space from September: this will be H&M's first presence in Bexleyheath.[10] The New Look store opened in late August 2010, followed by the H&M in early September.
The only other major store to have changed its configuration since the mall opened was Boots, which expanded to its current size in 2001 by taking over a vacant single store (formerly occupied by Instep Sports) neighbouring their original unit.
The Mall Company backed a scheme as part of a proposed redevelopment of Bexleyheath town centre. The scheme would have seen Bexley Magistrates' Court, which currently neighbours the Mall on its south-eastern side, moved to the current Central Library site, and the Broadway Square car park replaced by a new parking facility on part of the current Civic Offices site. The existing Magistrates' Court, Broadway Square car park and the remainder of the Civic Offices site would then have been redeveloped with two levels of retail stores (linked into the existing Mall at ground level), with new council offices, a new library and a series of residential blocks located above this. This development was approved by Bexley Council in 2009 and was expected to be developed between 2010 and 2012.[11][12]
The plans were submitted to the council by Capital & Regional (as The Mall Fund) prior to the sale of The Mall to JLL; it was not immediately clear what effect the sale would have on the redevelopment plans, or if JLL would take over the project in its existing form. In 2010 it was confirmed that the large-scale redevelopment proposed by C&R would not be going ahead: the library and magistrates' court would remain in their existing locations, with the council selling the civic offices site to a large food store (as had been proposed by construction firm John Laing in the rival bid for the original development plan). JLL may redevelop and extend their mall site in a smaller way,[3] most likely by extending the building onto the Broadway Square car park which neighbours the existing building.
The following is a list of retailers trading in the Centre as of 14 December 2011, not including RMUs.
Following the opening of Deichmann, no information is known about future occupants of the centre, though there are opportunities within the building and the wider town centre to introduce new retailers or relocate existing businesses in 2012 and beyond.
Retailers which have formerly traded at the Broadway Shopping Centre but no longer do so include Dixons, Topshop and Topman, Miss Selfridge, Woolworths, Safeway, Rosebys, Radio Rentals, Our Price, Dolcis, JJB Sports, Waterstone's, The Link, Rumbelows, Krisp, Principles, Bay Trading Company and Next. Some of these firms are still trading elsewhere in the country, though others are now defunct or dormant: see the retailers' pages for more detailed information about each firm.
JD Sports traded inside the mall for a time (in what is now T-Mobile) after their merger with First Sport, which previously occupied the unit, but subsequently closed this small store to focus on their larger and more recent Broadway Square site.
Mothercare and Early Learning Centre were located in separate stores inside the shopping centre for a number of years, but relocated in September 2010 to a former Aldi store on Market Place, outside the centre's boundaries.
The Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice (formerly Cottage Hospice) charity operated a retail store at various store locations within the mall building from 2009, generally taking short-term lets of then-vacant units and relocating as and when required to release stores for new regular tenants. The hospice's final store location within the building during this run closed in June 2011 and was not replaced; the hospice's other charity shops elsewhere continued to trade as normal. A new Hospice charity shop opened (in the former Hype store) in November 2011 to capitalise on Christmas trade.