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Capital's biggest shopping centre nears opening
Valentine Low, Evening Standard10.03.08
Slowly - joist by joist, concrete block by concrete block - what was once a sprawling, desolate building site is turning into London's biggest shopping centre.
This is the Westfield Centre in Shepherd's Bush, a forest of cranes and scaffolding at the moment but within eight months what should be the largest urban mall in the country open for business.
While the outside is still far from complete (as the picture above shows, the glass roof is still being installed and the top of the cinema is not finished), inside the shops that will make up the £1.6billion retail monolith are already beginning to take shape.
House of Fraser, one of five "anchor" stores that will be the centre's main crowd-pullers, has started fitting out its 103,000 sq ft flagship store.
The other big stores are Debenhams, Next, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer, which at 157,000 sq feet will be one of the largest M&S stores in the country.
As well as such popular household names, developers Westfield hope to attract top-end international brands such as Prada, Gucci and Cartier.
Louis Vuitton has already been confirmed and it is hoped that others will follow. Westfield hopes to have tenants signed for the 310 shops and 50 or so restaurants and bars by June. That would mean the centre was fully occupied by opening day.
A 14-screen cinema is due to open early next year but that may be cut to 12 screens if plans for an IMAX-style 3D cinema come to fruition.
The M&S store can be seen behind the blue-green curved frontage at the bottom left of the picture, which was taken from the north side of the development, near the Westway.
The trees of Shepherd's Bush Green can be seen across the top of the photograph. The one thing the picture does not show is the most controversial element of the 45-acre site - Shepherd's Bush Tube station, off the top left corner. After the embarrassment of the platform that was built 18 inches too narrow, a row developed when TfL decided to close the station so that the rebuilt station would be ready in time for the 30 October opening.
Reader views (10)
I wish to visit Westfield London, but cannot discover a site plan of wher the various shops and restaurants are located which I need to be able to meet up with friends.
Can you help please?
- Gill Matthews, London
I totally agree with Sharon, Oxford Street is a total nightmare and it will be a nice change to shop in other parts of London, hopefully away from the hordes of shoppers!
- Patric, Hampton, Middlesex
This is a super development and long overdue, there is nothing in West London like this and the thought of not having to travel into horrible Oxford street to do shopping will be such a relief. I lived in The Bush for a couple of years and my God, anything will be an improvement from the current Ghetto status it holds. I am from Dublin where they built the huge Dundrum shopping centre which I hated at first but it has done quite well at easing not only traffic congestion but pedestrian congestion in the city centre aswell!
It was a huge disappointment when they binned the Tram plans for this area, I am delighted that this went ahead and can only improve the squalor that seems to be taking over this once nice area,
Good Luck Westfield!
- Sharon, West London
Could it end up just another white elephant? Couldn't be worse timing, and do we really need another huge shopping centre, when we are finding it hard enough to pay the gas and electric bill. And at what cost to the environment. But hey, it's all about the money, which seems to be fast disappearing.
- Siobhan Campbell, London, Sheperds Bush
Frankly, I think Westfield is an abomination, a blight upon Shepherd's Bush. There's constant talk about regenertion to area, but this could never be the answer. And, anyway, Shepherd's Bush is already a diverse, lively and friendly neighbourhood - a little tatty in parts - but much loved by its residents.
The other thing some locals may not be aware of is the plan to relocate Shepherd's Bush library to a 'state of the art' site in Westfield next year. This wasn't widely publicised by H&F council and is very bad news. The beautiful 'old' library is likely to be sold off. And we all know what that could mean.
Regeneration? Pah!
- Terry, Shepherd's Bush
Just imagine you will be able to visit all of the same shops that are on the high street in every town in the country.
- Rez, Bognor
i dont even drive and i feel sorry for the hundreds of us who will be waiting an hour to get round sheperds bush green. not to mention the hundreds of police officers that will be trafficking the area seeing as though rumour has it the shopping centre will be open till 10pm. thank heavens from october 2008 we will all have to leave an hour earlier to get anywhere in west london....and as if thedres not a massive cinema ACCROSS THE GREEN...
- Me, sheperds bush
As those of us who live near Westfield await its opening in October, please spare a thought for local residents and businesses who will find themselves in gridlocked traffic when this temple to Mammon opens.
Beware Councils who tell you they are developing an area for regeneration. As if we need any more traffic? As if we haven't got large stores already? As if restaurants are hard to find? Parking too easy for you? Wait until Westfield opens.
- Sally, London, UK
I'm sure many will enjoy spending hours wondering with the rest of the herd around this latest monument to modern England.
- Mike Melbourne, Bedford, England
As high quality as this will probably prove when finished, it remains an example of exact opposite of how we should be redeveloping large brownfield sites in London. I would have liked to have seen an area with a genuine (rather than glass covered) street patten, maybe a little square too. This could still have functioned as a large shopping area, just look at the success of Covent Garden, but it would have extended the pattern of the city and allowed for other uses above the shops. I'm sure TV production companies would have jumped at the chance to base themselves over the road from the BBC. Instead with have a monolith, divided from the surrounding streets and dead once the shops close, not to mention a huge car magnet.
I know a master plan is being worked up for the whole of White City, it is my hope that it avoids repeating the mistakes of this development.
- Henry Richards, London
