MetroCentre

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This page is about the shopping centre in North East England. For the stop on the Washington Metro, see Metro Center (Washington Metro). For the shopping mall in Phoenix, Arizona, see Metrocenter Mall.

Mall facts and statistics
MetroCentre


Location	Gateshead, England
Opening date	1986
Developer	Cameron Hall Developments
Owner	Capital Shopping Centres Church of England
No. of stores and services	330
No. of anchor tenants	3
Total retail floor area	1,818,000 ft² (168,892 m²)
Parking	10,000 spaces
No. of floors	2
Website	www.metrocentre.uk.com

MetroCentre is the largest shopping and leisure centre in the UK and in Europe [1]. It is located at Dunston, Gateshead, UK on a former industrial site, close to the River Tyne. The Metrocentre opened in 1986 and has nearly 330 shops occupying 1.818 million square feet (168,892 square metres) of retail floor space [2]. Additional retail space is available in the adjoining retail park which houses larger stores such as Ikea, Asda, and Toys "R" Us. The retail park also has a Marriott hotel; two further hotels, a Premier Travel Inn and Holiday Inn, are within a mile and designed to serve the centre.

1 Origins
2 Refurbishment
- 2.1 Red Mall & Transport Interchange
- 2.2 Blue and Yellow Malls
3 Shops and food/drink
4 Leisure facilities
5 Transport links
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Origins

MetroCentre's construction was financed by the Church of England Commissioners, and was masterminded by Sir John Hall's company, Cameron Hall Developments. In October 1995, the centre was sold to Capital Shopping Centres for £364m, although the Church Commissioners retain a 10% stake. It is currently valued at around £1 billion.

Reflecting its Church origins, MetroCentre is one of the few European shopping centres with its own chapel and resident full-time chaplain. Services are held on Sunday afternoons, with special services on occasions such as Mothering Sunday and Remembrance Sunday.

The MetroCentre has four malls; red, green, blue and yellow. It also has an antiques village, the forum, and the studio, which houses many restaurants and cafes. Recently a new European-style village has been contstructed just off the Red Mall where the Mediteranian Village once was. The first mall of the MetroCentre was built in 1986 - the red mall. At the time it featured a large Asda store. Later on, Asda moved from the MetroCentre to a nearby site on Gibside Way with a larger store than previously.

[edit] Refurbishment

[edit] Red Mall & Transport Interchange

The departure of Asda from the Red Mall left a large empty unit in the centre. The decision was taken to demolish the old supermarket and extend and refurbish the Red Mall. The new Red Mall extension (including a number of new shops, such as a Debenhams department store) opened on 6 October 2004. A consequence of the expansion was that Metrocentre regained the crown of Europe's largest shopping centre that it had lost to Bluewater in 1999.

The refurbishment programme also included a new Transport Interchange at the end of the Blue Mall. It replaced the old bus station and is intended to provide improved bus links to many parts of North East England, and accommodate coach services from elsewhere in the UK. The new interchange features electronic display boards and a new waiting room at the MetroCentre railway station. The MetroCentre is still not (and never has been) directly connected to the Tyne & Wear Metro System, though regular bus shuttle services provide connections to Monument, Central Station, and Gateshead Metro stations (see Transport Links below).

[edit] Blue and Yellow Malls

On 2006-11-30, centre owner Capital Shopping Centres announced plans to redevelop the centre's Blue and Yellow Malls ^[1]. The plans propose the closure of the Metroland theme park, allowing the Odeon cinema to relocate to the Yellow Mall from the Blue Mall. The space in the Blue Mall currently occupied by the cinema will then be redeveloped for retail use. Additionally the plans involve the refurbishment of the food court, and the interior and exterior of the malls.

[edit] Shops and food/drink

Many large retail chains are represented in the centre, such as Marks & Spencer (their first out of town store), House of Fraser, Debenhams, Woolworths(since 2000 when C&A closed), Argos, HMV, W H Smith, Jessops, Boots, Virgin Megastore and Lush. There are also numerous places to eat and drink, with Mediterranean-themed bars and restaurants providing an alternative to the McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Wetherspoons elsewhere in the centre.

[edit] Leisure facilities

The New Metroland, Europe's largest indoor amusement park

The Metrocentre houses The New Metroland, Europe's biggest indoor amusement park. Metroland opened in February 1988 at a cost of £20 million; it was renamed The New Metroland following a 1996 revamp. [3] The park features a roller coaster, ferris wheel, pirate ship and dodgem cars among its rides.

In addition to Metroland, the centre's leisure facilities include an 11-screen Odeon cinema, a bowling alley, a Quasar laser tag arena , and amusement arcades (with arcade games and slot machines).

[edit] Transport links

[edit] Public transport

The MetroCentre's transport interchange has a large bus station and a railway station. Despite its name, the MetroCentre does not include a Metro station for the Tyne and Wear Metro, though it is connected to the Metro system via bus shuttle services and heavy rail passenger services.

Major bus links include:

X66 - A Super Shuttle service operated by Go North East and connecting the MetroCentre with Gateshead Interchange, for links to the Metro and Gateshead Quays.

100 - A Shuttle service operated by Stagecoach and connecting the MetroCentre with central Newcastle, stopping at Monument, the former Odeon building on Pilgrim Street, and Newcastle Central Station for regional and national rail services.

S1/S2 - Local shuttle services serving the MetroCentre complex and the surrounding retail park, as well as the Watermark development.

The railway station is on the Tyne Valley Line, which provides regular services to Newcastle Central station, Sunderland, Carlisle, Teesside and Northumberland, with a twice daily service to Stranraer in South West Scotland, via Dumfries. Even though the MetroCentre is not connected to the Tyne and Wear Metro, people can get a train to Newcastle Central Station, and change to the Metro system.

[edit] Road

The MetroCentre has its own junction on the A1 road and northbound this road was widened to three lanes after the MetroCentre was built to cope with increased traffic levels. Even so the centre is responsible for many journeys onto the A1 and there is often significant congestion at peak times.

[edit] Air and sea

National and international visitors can reach the centre via air using Newcastle Airport. Alternatively, it is possible to travel by ferry to North Shields from Scandinavia and the Netherlands.