Drake Circus Shopping Centre

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Coordinates: 50°22′20″N 4°08′15″W / 50.37222°N 4.13750°W / 50.37222; -4.13750
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Drake Circus Shopping Centre
Total retail floor area
425,000 square feet (39,484 m2)[2]
No. of floors3
Parking1270
Websitedrakecircus.com

Drake Circus Shopping Centre is a 425,000-square-foot (39,484 m2)[2] covered shopping mall in the centre of Plymouth, England, which opened in October 2006.[3]

The building was designed by London-based architects

Bovis Lend Lease.[1] Situated behind the ruined Charles Church, preserved as the city's civilian war memorial, the building provoked a mixed reception.[4] Just after it opened, the shopping centre won the inaugural Carbuncle Cup "for crimes against architecture", as the worst new building in the United Kingdom.[5][6] In 2007, it won two retail industry national awards, one of which was the Retail Week magazine's "Shopping Location of the Year".[7]

History

The term 'circus' as used here refers to an open space, usually circular, where a number of roads meet. Drake Circus was originally a large oval

Edwardian buildings housing shops, and from 1937 its south end carried the "Guinness Clock", which was visible to people travelling up Old Town Street[8] and was a landmark in the city of the time.[9]

The circus survived the

Tavistock off this new roundabout was renamed Drake Circus. A two-level shopping centre with open malls and a large C&A store was built, partly over the site of the original circus. It opened in 1971 and was also named Drake Circus.[12]

Initial proposals to redevelop this mall in the early 1990s failed, but the developers,

multi-storey car park
.

The scheme suffered a setback in January 2005, when Allders went into

Next and Primark
committed in 2005 and the building opened in October 2006.

On 3 February 2005, it was announced that the shopping centre had been sold by P&O Estates to Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund for £55m.[16] On 20 November 2006, it was announced that Kandahar Real Estate had taken a 50 per cent stake in the centre.[17] The centre was bought by British Land for £240 million in January 2011.[2]

In 2007, the centre's management introduced a code of conduct which, like one the

Bluewater centre introduced in 2005, banned hooded tops and baseball caps.[18]

Clarke Nicholls Marcel (CNM London) were the civil and structural engineers for the new-build shopping centre.

Gallery

  • The old Drake Circus shopping mall was demolished in 2004.
    The old Drake Circus shopping mall was demolished in 2004.
  • The new centre under construction
    The new centre under construction
  • Part of the contentious frontage behind the ruined Charles Church
    Part of the contentious frontage behind the ruined Charles Church
  • Interior a few days after opening
    Interior a few days after opening
  • One of the entrances
    One of the entrances

References

  1. ^ a b c "Doors open at £200m complex". BBC. 29 June 2006. Retrieved 5 November 2007.
  2. ^ a b c "British Land Acquires Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth for £240 million". British Land. 6 January 2011. Archived from the original on 29 May 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  3. ^ Christine Eade (3 November 2006). "Eade on: how sops make Plymouth rock". PropertyWeek.com. Retrieved 5 November 2007.
  4. ^ "Controversy over £200m shops plan". BBC. 5 October 2006. Retrieved 13 October 2007.
  5. ^ Zoë Blackler (13 October 2006). "Bottom of the barrel – Carbuncles 2006". Building Design website. Retrieved 5 November 2007.
  6. ^ Tom Dyckhoff (10 January 2007). "The malling of our cities". London: The Times Online. Retrieved 5 November 2007.
  7. ^ "City mall wins location accolade". BBC News. 3 March 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2008.
  8. ^ "Drake Circus As It Was (the Guinness Clock – 1960s)". BBC Devon. Retrieved 9 November 2007.
  9. ^ Moseley, Brian (1 March 2012) [25 June 2008]. "Guinness Clock". The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History. Plymouth Data. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  10. ISBN 0-86114-817-7
    .
  11. ^ BBC archive films from 1966 and 1967 here (links under Archive Film on the left of the page)
  12. ^ Eade, Christine (21 January 2005). "Drake's progress". Building. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
  13. ^ "More moves in city development plans". BBC. 6 November 2000. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
  14. ^ "Plymouth city centre revamp: Photos". BBC. 2004. Retrieved 7 November 2007.
  15. ^ "Shopping centre set to lose store". BBC News. 11 February 2005. Retrieved 31 October 2007.
  16. ^ "P&O sells Drake Circus shopping centre development to Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund for £55m". Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Archived from the original on 6 August 2007. Retrieved 5 November 2007.
  17. ^ "Carphone tycoon buys into Plymouth centre". Shopping Centre magazine. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 11 November 2007.
  18. ^ "Shopping centre ban on 'hoodies'". BBC News. 12 March 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2008.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Drake Circus Shopping Centre.
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