Braehead
Braehead (Scots: Braeheid,[1][2] Gaelic: Ceann a' Bhruthaich) is a commercial development located at the former site of Braehead Power Station in Renfrew on the south bank of the River Clyde in Renfrewshire. It is particularly notable for its large shopping centre, arena and leisure facilities.
The shopping centre was rebranded as Intu Braehead in 2013 as part of a corporate rebranding exercise by Capital Shopping Centres, which renamed itself Intu Properties.[3]
Braehead power station
The power station was built after World War II. It remained operational into the 1980s, being demolished in the 1980s/1990s.[citation needed]
Renfrew Riverside redevelopment
Intu Braehead forms part of the Renfrew Riverside redevelopment area, a part of the wider Clyde Waterfront Regeneration project. The Braehead area includes:
- an indoor shopping centre;
- ice skating / curling facilities;
- the Clydebuilt Scottish Maritime Museum;
- the Braehead Arena - along with extensive covered and open-air car parking);
- an Xscape adventure complex;
- a small business park.
Intu Braehead Shopping Centre
 | |
| Location | Renfrewshire, Scotland |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 55°52′34″N 4°21′53″W / 55.875987°N 4.364843°WCoordinates: 55°52′34″N 4°21′53″W / 55.875987°N 4.364843°W |
| Opening date | 1999 |
| Owner | Intu Properties |
| No. of stores and services | 110 |
| Total retail floor area | 98,474 m2 (1,059,970 sq ft) |
| No. of floors | 2 |
The shopping centre, which is owned by Intu Properties plc, opened in late 1999. It comprises 98,474 m2 (1,059,970 sq ft) of retail and leisure floorspace.[4] The centre has 110 shops in the main covered mall, and a further 10 in a retail park of larger stores. Intu Braehead is also home to Renfrew's IKEA store which opened in 2001 and sits near the King George V Dock. At 29,000 m2 it is the largest in both Scotland and the United Kingdom. Since opening, the centre has proved popular with consumers (indeed it has been blamed for a downturn in the fortunes of shops in nearby Paisley, Govan and Renfrew, town centre.
Sited within the same building as the shopping centre is the Braehead Arena and other facilities such as an ice rink. In 2000 its curling facilities hosted the World Championships, and in 2005 were used as training facilities when the Women's World Championships were being held in Paisley.
On 7 October 2011, a father was stopped by security and questioned by police under anti-terror legislation after photographing his daughter at an ice-cream stall. This resulted in a social media backlash and statements from both intu Braehead's management and Strathclyde Police.[5]
A planning application has been submitted to Renfrewshire Council for 'permission in principle' to build a new mixed-use development at the centre in January 2013.[6]
Further development
To the west of Intu Braehead and adjacent to the town of Renfrew is the Renfrew Riverside area. Between the residential area and the shopping centre an Xscape complex, providing an indoor ski slope and other entertainments and leisure facilities opened in early 2006.
To the south of the shopping centre is a small development called Braehead Business Park, home to the global headquarters of Picsel Technologies, the Audi centre, Infiniti and Porsche.
Transport
It can be reached from Junctions 25a (westbound) and 26 (eastbound) of the M8 motorway, and has extensive public transport connections including its own bus station, managed by McGills Bus Services Buses run from many areas linking intu Braehead to Largs, Greenock, Paisley, Glasgow, Erskine and Johnstone. The Pride of the Clyde ferry service ran from Glasgow City Centre to Intu Braehead's pier down the River Clyde regularly until October 2007.
Boundaries
Intu Braehead was the subject of a boundary dispute between the Glasgow and Renfrewshire council areas, as originally the council boundary line divided the shopping centre in two. A Boundary Commission ruling eventually redrew the boundary to include all of the centre in Renfrewshire as this was the original ancient boundary.[7] The boundary runs along the side of Old Renfrew Road and is represented by a chain link fence at this point.
References
- ↑ The Online Scots Dictionary
- ↑ Scots Language Centre: Scottish Place Names in Scots
- ↑ "The connected consumer – the future of shopping centres" (Press release). Capital Shopping Centres Group. 17 January 2013. p. 11. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
- ↑
- ↑ "Row over photo in shopping centre". BBC News. 10 October 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
- ↑ "Braehead Shopping Centre - Glasgow Skating". Retrieved 25 October 2013.
- ↑ "Glasgow MSPs lose Braehead battle". BBC News. 7 May 2002. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
External links
| ||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
