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 anticipate, (initially
at least), a 15-20% drop in retail sales as a result.
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.
