The Bridges

This article is about the shopping centre in England. For the U.S. rock band, see The Bridges (band). For other uses, see Bridges (disambiguation) and The Bridge (disambiguation).

The Bridges is a shopping centre based in the city centre of Sunderland, England.

The shopping centre in Sunderland contains over 100 stores,[1] which include; Boots, Burton, HMV, Debenhams, Disney, H&M, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Foot Locker, Lush, USC, Next, TK Maxx, Schuh, Waterstones, New Look, Topshop, River Island, Ernest Jones, Beaverbrooks, Republic, Blue inc, Menkind and many more. The centre also hosts two small supermarkets - Iceland and Tesco. The centre received 21 million shopping visits in 2012.[2]

The Bridges has Ed's Easy Diner which opened in 2014 and six cafes: Caffe Nero, Costa Coffee, Esquires Coffee, Krispy Kreme, Starbucks and Greggs.

The centre also has three car parks integrated into the centre, namely the Bridges (Debenhams) Car Park, e Central Multi-Storey, and the Rooftop.

The Bridges provides over 2,000 jobs to the people of Sunderland.[3]

History

The Bridges was opened in 1988 by The Princess Royal, and is currently owned by AEW Europe after they purchased the site from Land Securities Group in 2014.

In the year 2000 the centre was almost doubled in size, when the former Central Bus Station was demolished in favour of more shops. The city's main bus station moved to the Park Lane Interchange.

Land Securities were reported to be in talks with Sunderland City Council about the acquisition of the Crowtree Leisure Centre site once it closes, with the land being used to expand The Bridges or Marks and Spencer.

In 2012 a new three storey Primark store opened as an extension to the centre.

In 2014 Land Securities sold the centre to clients of AEW Europe for £152 million.[4]

References

External links