Trafford Centre

Trafford Centre

The main Trafford Centre mall is pictured centre and the Barton Square extension is towards the top left.
Location Dumplington, Trafford,
Greater Manchester, England
Opening date 10 September 1998[1]
Developer The Peel Group
Owner Intu Properties
Architect Chapman Taylor[2]
Leach Rhodes Walker
No. of stores and services 280
No. of anchor tenants
Total retail floor area

Retail: 185,000 m2[4][5]
Leisure: 16,258m2[4]
Dining: 13,935m2[4]

Total: 207,000m2[4]
No. of floors 4
Parking 11,500[6]
Website www.intu.co.uk/traffordcentre

The Trafford Centre is a large indoor shopping centre and leisure complex in Dumplington, Greater Manchester, England. Situated in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, the Centre is situated close to the Trafford Park industrial estate and lies approximately five miles west of Manchester city centre. The Trafford Centre opened in 1998 and is the largest shopping centre in the United Kingdom by retail size.[7][8] It was developed by The Peel Group and is currently owned by Intu Properties following a £1.65 billion sale in 2011[9] - the largest single property acquisition in British history.[10] As of 2014, the centre has a market value of £1.9 billion.[11]

The site was owned by the Manchester Ship Canal Company until 1986, when the company was acquired by John Whittaker of Peel Holdings, who had planned to build an out-of-town shopping centre. The planning process was one of the longest and most expansive in the history of the United Kingdom; concerns surrounded the effect the shopping centre might have on retailers in the smaller towns and villages in the Greater Manchester conurbation and potential traffic problems caused by the centre's proximity to the M60 motorway.[12] Ultimately the matter was decided by the House of Lords in 1996, which voted in favour of the development.[13][14]

Twelve years after The Trafford Centre was first conceptualised by the Peel Group, it opened on 10 September 1998. Construction took 27 months at a cost of £600 million - approximately £1 billion in 2014.[12] Two further extensions have since opened, Barton Square and the Great Hall in 2008 at a combined cost of over £100 million. Popularly known for its vivid and quirky rococo/late baroque architectural style - its architecture pays homage to the history of the area. The Orient food hall is themed as a steam ship, reflecting the centre's proximity to the Manchester Ship Canal.[15]

Ten per cent of the UK population lives within a 45-minute drive of the shopping centre[5] which attracts more than 35 million visits annually.[16] It has Europe's largest food court in The Orient and the UK's busiest cinema, attracting more than 28,500 visitors each week.[5] There are over 11,500 car parking spaces, and there are proposals to build a new Trafford Centre Metrolink station and a more speculative ferry system from the Manchester Ship Canal to the centre.

History

The Trafford Centre, located bottom of the image, was built on land previously owned by the Manchester Ship Canal Company
Satellite image of the Trafford Centre

Manchester City Council[nb 1] retained seats on the board of the Ship Canal Company until the mid-1980s. By then the arrangement had become "meaningless", as the majority of the company's shares were controlled by property developer, John Whittaker. Crucially the council were powerless and Peel held voting rights due to majority shareholding. In 1986 the council gave up all but one of its seats for a payment of £10 million and extricated itself from a possible conflict of interest, as Whittaker was proposing to develop the large out-of-town shopping centre on company land at Dumplington, which became the Trafford Centre.

Manchester City Council opposed the development, believing it would impact negatively on the city centre economy, but accepted it was "obviously in the interests of the shareholders".[18] The company paid £7 million in cash and £3 million was invested in a joint venture company, Ship Canal Developments, set up by Whittaker and the council to provide resources and development expertise for the regeneration of east Manchester.[19]

Peel Holdings submitted a planning application to Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council for a development on approximately 300 acres of land in 1986. The application was "called in" by the Secretary of State for the Environment and legal disputes ensued requiring two public enquiries before planning permission was granted. Issues involved congestion on the M60 orbital motorway,[20] and some believed the development would have adverse consequences on shopping centres throughout Greater Manchester region and beyond.[20] Planning permission was granted in 1993[21] before being rejected by the Court of Appeal.[21] It was reinstated in 1995 when the House of Lords gave approval for the development.[22]

Construction began in 1996 and the centre opened on 10 September 1998 becoming the UK's last "mega mall" which combined retail, dining and leisure facilities.[23] On opening, the Trafford Centre was the largest shopping centre in the UK but lost the title to Bluewater in Kent in 1999.[23] However due to numerous expansions since 2006, the Trafford Centre is now bigger than Bluewater.

The Peel Group sold the centre to Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) in January 2011 for £1.6 billion[24] and John Whittaker, chairman of Peel Group became deputy chairman of CSC.[25] Peel owner John Whittaker later said the company could have sold the centre for over £2 billion if they had received cash[26] but the £1.6 billion deal remained the largest property transaction in British history,[10][27] and the biggest European property deal of 2011.[28]

The Trafford Centre is valued at £1.7 billion by its owners, Capital Shopping Centres and has an annual income of £85.3 million, a £400 headline rent[5] and has an ABC1 visitor percentage of 71%.[6] By comparison, the Metrocentre which is the second largest shopping centre in the United Kingdom (after the Trafford Centre) is valued at £864 million, an annual property income of £50.4m and an ABC1 visitor percentage of 57% of ABC1 customers.[5]

The centre was re-branded as 'Intu Trafford Centre', in mid-February 2013 by parent group Capital Shopping Centres, at a cost of £7 million.[29]

Architecture

Looking up into the main dome of the Trafford Centre, decorated at a cost of £5 million

The Trafford Centre's unorthodox style of architecture was prompted by the wish to offer a unique shopping experience. John Whittaker, chairman of Peel Holdings had to convince architects that a lavish design would not alienate shoppers.

When we first started the architects said, "you shouldn’t be doing all this and giving it all the razzmatazz and showbiz, leave that to the retailers. Make it plain, make it clinical, make it white and hospitalised and let them do the work". So then we put in the paintings, we put in the real gold leaf, we put artefacts everywhere, paintings. It is the people’s palace. It is something to attract shoppers ... to give them the Dallas effect.
—John Whittaker.[30]

The design was a collaboration between the architectural practices of Chapman Taylor and Manchester-based Leach Rhodes Walker. The construction contractor was Bovis Lend Lease,[31] with structural engineering services provided by the WSP Group. Architects on the scheme produced over 3,000 drawings and the construction process required twenty-four on-site architects to monitor the construction and interior design process.[32]

The centre has four main areas located across two floors: Peel Avenue, Regent Crescent, The Dome, and The Orient and was designed so that visitors enter on both main shopping floors in equal numbers.[33] This avoids the problem where visitors do not visit the upper floors and retailers avoid upper floor units. The ODEON Cinema is located on the third floor along with other leisure facilities such as Laser Quest. The Trafford Centre was built to be "future-proof" in the words of developer John Whittaker with the infrastructure for an additional fourth floor built during construction.[30]

The Trafford Centre is Rococo/late Baroque in design, with eclectic elements of Art Deco and Egyptian Revival. It is decorated primarily in shades of white, pink and gold with ivory, jade and caramel coloured marble throughout. Three domed atria are located along the length of the mall, and Peel claim the middle dome is bigger than that at St Paul's Cathedral.[34] The central dome cost £5 million to construct.[30] The Trafford Centre has 45,000 square metres of marble and granite flooring from Montignosa and Quarlata in Italy at a cost of £5.8 million (1996 value)[35] and gold leaf adorns the building's columns.[34] The marble floors and handrails are polished nightly to maintain the centre's opulent appearance.[36]

The Trafford Centre has features which pay homage to the local area and North West England where the Peel Group are proactive and have the long-term objective of making the region the most economically successful and sustainable in the United Kingdom.[37] The Orient food hall is themed around a steam ship, paying homage to the Industrial Revolution and the nearby Manchester Ship Canal. The Lancashire Rose also permeates the décor on window panes and interior cornices. Mythical griffin statues adorn the exterior, the heraldic symbol of the de Trafford baronets who historically owned much of the land in modern-day Trafford.[38]

Others however have criticised the deception of the fake palm trees and neo-classical decorative pillars which are not made of marble but decorated medium-density fibreboard.[36] Architecture critic John Parkinson-Bailey plainly described the Trafford Centre as a building which "will not appeal to purists" and go on to describe the range of interior architecture as "bewildering".[38] The Peel Group say that the striking and extrovert architecture is aimed at providing visual delight, to make the visitor's shopping experience more vivid.[39]

Since it opened in 1998, advances have been made in lighting design and efficiency such as the growth of LED lighting. Since 2009, incandescent light bulbs have been phased out in favour of LED lighting allowing different shades of hue as well as greater efficiency.[40][41]

Portraits around the walls of the mall depict members of the Whittaker family, founders of owner Peel Holdings. A Mercedes car belonging to the mother of Peel Holdings' chairman, John Whittaker, is displayed on the first floor mall outside F. Hinds.[42]

Focal points

The Orient is Europe's largest food court, with seating for 1,600 and 31 restaurants, cafés, and bars.[5]

The Orient

The Great Hall

The Orient is located in a central hall-like spur and is primarily a 1,600-seat food court themed on a 1930s liner.[15] The Orient incorporates designs from around the world including China, New Orleans, Egypt, Italy, America and Morocco.[43] On two floors, it has restaurants and bars including The Exchange Bar & Grill, TGI Fridays, Starbucks, Est Est Est, Ma Potter's, Nando's and Cathay Dim Sum. There are several fast food outlets – McDonald's, KFC, Subway, Harry Ramsdens and Pizza Hut among others. Burger King moved into the Trafford Centre in November 2011.[44]

The Great Hall

The Great Hall, opened in March 2007, although a Costa Coffee outlet opened earlier in January 2007. This glazed structure houses five restaurants and cafes. Construction took 18 months at a cost of £26 million.[45] It houses an elegant sweeping staircase featuring hundreds of metres of marble balustrade from China and what the centre claims to be the largest chandelier in the world.[45] It was designed by English lighting consultants and manufactured in China; assembly and installation was done by local contractors. The chandelier has three levels of plant walkways inside, is around 11 m (36 feet) wide and 15 m (49 feet) high, weighs around five tonnes.

Facilities

Shopping

Peel Avenue
Shops inside the centre

Peel Avenue is home to high street shops such as an Apple Store, H&M, and Boots and two department stores, John Lewis which opened in 2005 and the four-storey Marks and Spencer. The retail unit now occupied by John Lewis was previously a market-themed area for independent stores named the Festival Village. Marks and Spencer has an outside entrance to the foodhall. The dome in the middle of the centre is home to more upmarket stores such as the first Selfridges outside London.[46]

Regent Crescent

Regent Crescent is home to many high-end designer stores, including Karen Millen, Jane Norman, Gap and Mexx. It also houses Waterstones bookshop, BHS and Debenhams.Other lifestyle and fashion retailers include Reiss, Mango, Monsoon, Coast, French Connection and All Saints. The crescent leads to the dome.

Barton Square
Entrance to Barton Square

Planning permission was granted for further expansion in October 2005. Construction started in November 2006[47] Barton Square covering 19,000 square metres (200,000 sq ft) cost £70 million, opened on 20 March 2008.[48] Its name relates to Barton-upon-Irwell and Peel's City Airport Manchester, which was originally Barton Aerodrome. It is linked to the centre by a glazed bridge. Its architecture is based on an Italian square and includes a large fountain and a campanile tower.

Within Barton Square

This section of the centre targets high-quality homewares market with units offering furniture, kitchens, bathrooms and home furnishings. Retailers operating are Next Home, BHS Home, Dwell, Laura Ashley and M&S Home. A further 630 free parking spaces have been provided. Barton Square has struggled to be economically viable since its opening in 2008. In 2009, it made an accumulated loss of £512,000 and this worsened in 2010 to £1.3 million.[49] To entice shoppers from the main mall, new facilities such as a Legoland were built. Future plans include converting it to an indoor area and increasing retail space.

Leisure

Leisure facilities include a 20-screen Odeon multiplex cinema,[50] a Laser Quest arena, Paradise Island miniature golf, a Namco Centre with dodgems, bowling, and arcade games. The adjacent Trafford Quays Leisure Village has a Chill Factore, Trafford golf centre, a skydiving centre, and an indoor football facility.[51] A Sea Life Centre aquarium opened in Barton Square in June 2013.[52][53]

Future expansion

One of the Trafford Centre's three atria

Developer John Whittaker, stated in 2011 that it is "future proof" with areas available on the third floor for possible new developments.[30] After CSC's takeover in November 2010, chief executive, David Fischel, signalled a desire to expand the centre.[54] Immediate plans include constructing a roof over Barton Square and expanding the John Lewis and Marks & Spencer outlets, large anchor stores.[55]

Long-term plans include expanding Barton Square retail space, building retail areas on unused land and attracting retailers that currently do not have a presence such as House of Fraser, Robert Dyas and Primark.[54] Plans include utilising vacant space on upper floors to create new retail opportunities.[54] CSC applied for planning application to increase retail space on the 3rd floor in Barton Square from 18,580m2 to 28,966m2 in September 2011 which would increase the Trafford Centre's retail size to approximately 195,000m2 from 185,000m2.[56]

Travel and transport

Trafford Centre car entrance

Road

The Trafford Centre with over 10,122 car spaces and 350 coach spaces is situated off the M60 (Junctions 9 and 10). Its popularity has resulted in traffic congestion on the M60's Barton High-Level Bridge, requiring a link road adjacent to the M60 crossing the ship canal on a new swing bridge.

All vehicles entering the centre have number plate details recorded via automatic number plate recognition. Since its introduction in 2003 at a cost of £220,000[1] the system has reduced the number of thefts of and from vehicles to a level described as "negligible".[57] The ANPR tracks cars which have been used for serious offences and details of any car with such a number plate can then be passed to Stretford Police Station.[1]

Bus

There is a bus station at the west end of the Trafford Centre with services to most towns in Greater Manchester.[58]

The most frequent routes are:

Note: The 58 provided service to the Trafford Centre until August 2008.

Coach park

There is a coach park adjacent to the John Lewis store.

Future transport

The nearest Manchester Metrolink station is Stretford, with a bus link to the Centre. There are plans for a Metrolink line to the Trafford Centre including a dedicated station – but resources are currently being focused on completing the current extension of the Metrolink by 2016. Metrolink and the local authorities have declared that the link must be at least in part privately funded by developers.[59]

Planning permission was granted for the construction of a 600-metre (2,000 ft) canal linking the Trafford Centre with the Manchester Ship Canal in 2006, allowing the introduction of a water taxi service to and from Salford Quays. Construction could take a year, although the project has not yet started.[60]

In popular culture

The Trafford Centre sponsors Salford City Reds rugby league club. Shortly after its opening, it was the setting for Shopping City, a BBC2 daytime programme. The Trafford Centre and Trafford Park were featured in the 2008 BBC documentary series, Britain From Above, which highlighted the transition from industry to services.[61] In 2008 the Orient food court was used as a location in the post-apocalyptic drama Survivors.[62] In 2010, the shopping centre was the focal point of the BBC's The Apprentice in which during week 5 both teams had to sell designer clothes in the centre for one day.[63]

See also

References

Footnotes
  1. ↑ Manchester Corporation was subsumed into the newly created Greater Manchester County Council in 1974 until 1986, when the unitary authority of Manchester City Council was established.[17]
Citations
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Trafford Centre information pack" (PDF). Trafford Centre. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
  2. ↑ "The Trafford Centre - Chapman Taylor" (PDF). Chapman Taylor. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  3. ↑ "Trafford extends Barton Square homewares offer". www.shopping-centre.co.uk. 19 May 2008.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Shopping Centres – Trafford Centre". Capital Shopping Centres. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 "Portfolio". Capital Shopping Centres. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "The Trafford Centre, Manchester" (PDF). Capital Shopping Centres. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
  7. ↑ "Intu - Trafford Centre Key Facts". Intu Properties. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  8. ↑ "Portfolio – Our Centres". Capital Shopping Centres. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
  9. ↑ "Portfolio". Capital Shopping Centres. Retrieved 17 June 2011.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Ruddick, Graham (27 January 2011). "Capital Shopping Centres seals £1.6bn Trafford Centre deal despite Simon Property Group's concerns". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 September 2011. Capital Shopping Centres has sealed the UK's largest ever property transaction after 80pc of shareholders backed its £1.6bn acquisition of the Trafford Centre.
  11. ↑ "Intu Properties - Final Results". Intu Properties. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "The Shops – Trafford Centre". www.manchester2002-uk.com. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  13. ↑ House of Lords (1995) "Opinions of the Lords of Appeal for Judgment in the cause Bolton Metropolitan District Council and others (respondents) versus Secretary of State for the Environment and others (appellants)" 24 May, written by Lord Lloyd of Berwick.
  14. ↑ Trafford Centre (1997) "From de Trafford to the House of Lords" Trafford Centre Insight, Brochure.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "1999 European Shopping Centre Awards". International Council of Shopping Centres. Retrieved 25 March 2012. For acknowledging an area's past while providing retail and services for today. Trafford Centre's architecture is inspired by classicism, while the food court is anchored by a traveling steamship that acknowledges the Industrial Revolution development of the city.
  16. ↑ Bounds, Andrew (29 December 2010). "Tills ring at Trafford Centre". Financial Times. Visitor numbers increased by 6.4 per cent year-on-year to more than 35m.
  17. ↑ Greater Manchester County Record Office (with Manchester Archives) Guide to Local Government Records (DOC), Manchester Library & Information Service, retrieved 7 August 2011
  18. ↑ King 2006, pp. 98–100
  19. ↑ King, Ray (2006). Detonation: Rebirth of a City. Clear Publications. pp. 98–100. ISBN 0-9552621-0-0.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Taking a malling". economist.com. 10 September 1998. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Stevenson, Tom (15 July 1994). "Slow net asset growth hits Peel". The Independent.
  22. ↑ http://www.poptel.org.uk/trafford.park/7.HTM
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Hall, James (18 September 2010). "Westfield Stratford – Britain's last mega-mall". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  24. ↑ "Trafford Centre in Greater Manchester sold by Peel". BBC. 25 November 2010.
  25. ↑ "About us – Non-Executive Directors". Capital Shopping Centres. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
  26. ↑ Hodgson, Neil (13 December 2010). "Capital Shopping Centres rejects call to abandon Trafford Centre deal with Peel". Liverpool Daily Post. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  27. ↑ Thomas, Daniel (26 January 2011). "Investors agree CSC deal for Trafford Centre". The Financial Times. Retrieved 27 March 2012. The deal is the largest-ever UK property transaction. Mr Whittaker, Peel chairman, told the shareholder meeting the sale had nothing to do with the amount of money, which would have been higher through a cash sale, but was related to the long-term future of his family business.
  28. ↑ Packard, Simon (23 February 2012). "Capital Shopping Earnings Rise as Trafford Centre Purchase Lifts Revenue". Bloomberg. Retrieved 27 March 2012. The company’s 1.6 billion-pound purchase of the Trafford Centre in Manchester, England, in January 2011 was the biggest single property transaction in Europe last year, according to New York-based Real Capital Analytics Inc.
  29. ↑ Glendinning, Amy (16 January 2013). "The Intu Trafford Centre - the new name for Manchester's shopping mecca". Manchester: Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 "Whittaker has more to offer than the rococo". Financial Times. 11 February 2011. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
  31. ↑ "Bovis' reputation is cornering the shopping market", Contract Journal, 17 September 1997
  32. ↑ Parkinson Bailey. p. 274. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  33. ↑ http://www.traffordcentre.co.uk/downloads/traffinfo.pdf
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Swanton, Oliver (2 September 1998). "The mall that ate Manchester". The Independent.
  35. ↑ "Trafford Centre fact file". Lancashire Telegraph. 19 December 1997. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 "Trafford Centre – shopping hell or heaven?". bbc.co.uk. 31 December 2001. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  37. ↑ "History and vision - The Peel Group". The Peel Group. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Parkinson-Bailey. p. 273. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  39. ↑ "Design Statement – The Interior". www.traffordcentre.co.uk. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  40. ↑ "The Dome in technicolour". Trafford Centre. 9 March 2009. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  41. ↑ "Light fantastic at The Trafford Centre". Trafford Centre. 28 November 2011. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  42. ↑ Barry, Chris (3 February 2005). "The man who built Peel Holdings". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  43. ↑ "The development and its size". www.traffordcentre.co.uk. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  44. ↑ "Whopper deals For Burger King as it expands on shopping centre presence". eatoutmagazine.co.uk. 4 October 2011. Retrieved 5 October 2011.
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 "Biggest chandelier in the world?". Manchester Evening News. 15 March 2007. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
  46. ↑ "The development and its size – Regent Crescent". www.traffordcentre.co.uk. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  47. ↑ "Trafford development". Manchester Evening News. 14 November 2006.
  48. ↑ Kirby, Dean (26 March 2008). "New Trafford Centre wing". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  49. ↑ Binns, Simon (11 October 2011). "Barton Square Sees Losses Widen". Manchester Confidential. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  50. ↑ "Auditorium information for Trafford Centre". ODEON. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  51. ↑ "Trafford Quays Leisure Village". Trafford Centre. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  52. ↑ "Capital Shopping Centres to open aquarium at Trafford Centre's Barton Square". Manchester Evening News. 25 April 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  53. ↑ http://www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk/Entertainment/Events-and-Listings/Manchester-Sealife-Centre-Gets-Underway
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 54.2 Jupp, Adam (24 February 2011). "Trafford Centre to get £50m makeover". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
  55. ↑ "Trafford Centre stays buoyant – but difficult year ahead". Manchester Evening News. 17 May 2011.
  56. ↑ "Planning application for Barton Square". salford.gov.uk. 28 September 2011. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  57. ↑ Scheerhout, John (23 May 2004), "Spy in sky cure for car crime", Manchester Evening News, retrieved 12 October 2009
  58. ↑ http://www.tfgm.com/journey_planning/Pages/network-maps/network-map-Salford.html
  59. ↑ "Transport chiefs 'lining up trams to Trafford Centre". menmedia.co.uk. 29 August 2010. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  60. ↑ "Waterway to get the shops!". Manchester Evening News. 20 January 2006. Retrieved on 29 January 2008.
  61. ↑ "Story: Shopping Nation". BBC. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  62. ↑ http://www.filmandtvlocations.co.uk/recentfilming/
  63. ↑ "Video: Apprentice teams set up shops in Trafford Centre". Manchester Evening News. 4 November 2010. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
Bibliography

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Coordinates: 53°28′06″N 2°20′56″W / 53.4684°N 2.3489°W