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‘It’s become a wasteland’: Britons on how shopping centres have changed

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‘It’s become a wasteland’: Britons on how shopping centres have changed

Shopping centres across the UK have declined in recent years, as store closures and online shopping change consumer habits for good.

According to a report by the property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton, about 60 of the UK’s 500 bigger shopping centres are likely to be razed, and a further 200 could be partially demolished.

Here, four people describe how their local shopping centres have changed, the impact on communities, and what the future looks like.

‘It’s a shadow of what it was’

“Things have changed immeasurably since I was a child,” said 74-year-old Gordon Jackson from Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester. “Merseyway shopping centre has become a wasteland of empty shops, which is so sad to see. A cinema complex was built in 2017 to help revive it and it won the Carbuncle Cup for being hideous.

“I remember the market area that existed before the shopping centre [built in the 1960s]. It was where everyone went to do their shopping and it was very much alive. When I was about five or six, Saturday was shopping day so we’d go to the market area and greet people we knew. One memory is of the Co-op – every time my mother bought something she would give her ‘divi’ [dividend] number and she’d get a small strip of yellow paper telling her how much she’d spent. When divi day came around [when profits were shared among members], you would get money back and my mum would use it to buy my school uniform. I’d also get a cup of Horlicks as a treat.”

Jackson, a retired college lecturer, believes online shopping, higher business rates and rents, and electricity and heating costs have left businesses struggling to stay open. “People don’t meet as a community as they used to – it’s so expensive to do things like go to the cinema that they stay at home.

“The area is part of a regeneration project by the council, which I hope will help, but it’s a shadow of what it was.”

Gordon aged 2 with his grandmother (centre), mother (right), and a family friend (left). Photograph: Gordon Jackson/Guardian Community

‘Everybody would watch the mechanical clock’

Joanne Harris, 53, a retired teacher from Rawtenstall in Lancashire, regularly visited the once busy Accrington Arndale Centre after it opened in 1987.

“I remember it opening when I was about 16. I used to have a Saturday job as a childminder when I was at school. I looked after a little girl and we used to go every weekend. We’d stop to look at a beautiful mechanical clock, which would play the tune of Rock Around the Clock on the hour. We had Marks and Spencer, Woolworths, Dorothy Perkins, New Look, Stationery Box, and so on. The centre is small and some of the shops were a bit rubbish, but it was bustling.”

Over the years, however, it declined. “They built a dual carriageway around 1990 and pedestrianised the centre. I think that’s when it started going downhill as people started bypassing the town.”

Shops started closing and the clock was removed in 2004 after falling into disrepair. “Once the clock and M&S went, it started to lose its appeal. The car park used to be free, too, now you have to pay. Nowadays I mostly go to Accrington to see my friend who’s got a cafe – and that’s all there is there. Cafes, nail bars, sun bed salons, hairdressers, and charity shops.”

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‘I see something and think it might be cheaper online’

“I think we’re doing better than other city centres,” said software developer Phillip Darlington describing Nottingham, where he lives.

Of the two shopping centres he remembers, Victoria shopping centre still stands, while Broad Marsh shopping centre was closed and transformed into a new public green space as part of development of the area.

“The city has always featured in my interest in shopping since 1988. When I was 11, I came on a day trip from Telford and the highlight was going to Jessops (now John Lewis) due to its Lego department. In 1996, when I settled in the city, it had no less than five department stores plus large stores of now defunct chains such as C&A, BHS and Littlewoods. It was really quite vibrant.

“Nottingham appeared to hit the buffers in the 2010s with the Victoria centre looking worn and Broad Marsh emptying, with promises of an amazing new centre around the corner, which never came. Victoria shopping centre is still going strong and there’s a nearby complex including a cinema, retro arcade, and golf.”

Darlington, 49, prefers to buy clothes online but still goes in once a month. “I still like to go into the shops – albeit window shopping. I often see something and think it might be cheaper online.

‘I want to be introduced to something different’

For Joan, 33, Centre:MK in Milton Keynes is becoming a graveyard of high street chains that have gone under. “When I shopped there in the 2000s as a teen, I remember only chains could really afford a space and there were very few independent retailers – but there would be more variety.

“The struggle for retail stores to survive since the financial crash in 2008 can be seen in real time with the shopping centre,” said the finance worker, who is from the Buckinghamshire city. “Stores are set up, trade for maybe two or three years, before they are inevitably shut down. As time has gone on, and this has become more apparent since 2020, fewer units are being filled, and the space each unit has is becoming smaller as retailers are unable to afford to pay the rent on larger units.”

Joan feels the lack of seating areas in open spaces is a part of why people don’t use shopping centres. “My friends and I would meet and sit by the fountain but that’s gone now.

“I tend to shop more online now as it’s easier to locate independent retailers via Instagram and Etsy,” she says. “I don’t even have to buy new, apps like Vinted have given me access to a lot of unique affordable finds that the shopping centre wouldn’t be able to offer.

“Alternatively, if I do go out shopping ‘in person’ I do this in London, Oxford, or Cambridge. That’s why I go shopping – to be introduced to something different, not just more of the same.”

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