Opened in
September 1998, this enormous new shopping and leisure complex
has already been designated the "Temple to Consumerism", and
is the largest centre of its kind to date in Europe.
Peel Holdings' Trafford Centre occupies a former wasteland site
of 300 acres in the Dumplington district on the outskirts of
Trafford Park.
It took
27 months to build, employed over 3000 building workers and
cost some £600 million to complete.
Although it contains all the major high street department stores
and chains - (Debenhams, Boots Chemists, Burtons, The Body Shop,
Dorothy Perkins, W.H.Smith, Top Shop, British Home Stores, etc),
it is much more than a shopping centre.
Its gigantic
dining hall, "The Orient", has innumerable fast food franchises
and restaurants, (including a speciality Chinese street), in
a dramatically theatrical ocean liner setting with swimming
pool and performance stage with a large film/TV screen.
Even when shops close in late evening, the leisure facilities
centred around the Orient, which also contain the UCI 20 Screen
Megaplex Cinema, continue on until 12midnight.
A covered
market area, the Festival Village, is included at the far end
of Peel Avenue, where independent trader's stores add a more
localised and down-scaled atmosphere than that found in the
rest of the centre.
The project
was controversial from the outset - surrounding towns and districts
like Bolton, Stockport, Altrincham and Warrington expect it
to draw shoppers from these districts and anticipated, (initially
at least), a 15-20% drop in retail sales as a result. Though
nothing quite so drastic did actually occur, there was some
temporary decline in trade in surrounding areas..
The Trafford Centre is a mammoth undertaking. It covers an area
equal to 30 football pitches, has onsite free parking for 10,000
cars and 300 coaches, there are 350 closed circuit TVs in operation,
its malls have over 3 miles of covered walkways, use 19 miles
of drainage, and its roof bears around 2 tons of water a second
in rainy weather.
It produces
400 tons of waste packaging every week and uses enough electricity
to power a small town. It
is eventually expected to raise some £13 billion a year in till
receipts.
The Trafford
Centre abounds with superlatives; £40,000 worth of gold leaf
decorates the columns in the shopping malls.
Its 3 massive
domes dominate the surrounding countryside for many miles and
are a major new feature on the adjacent M60 motorway, especially
at night when the whole complex is brightly floodlit. Its central
glass dome is about 2/3 the size of that on St Paul's Cathedral
in London.
