Meadowhall is an indoor shopping centre in
SheffieldSheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base...
,
South YorkshireSouth Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and the city of Sheffield...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It lies three miles (5 km) north east of Sheffield city centre and two miles (3 km) from Rotherham town centre.
Note that Meadowhall Retail Park is a separate development, also owned by
British LandBritish Land Company PLC is one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. It converted to a Real Estate Investment Trust when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is headquartered in London...
, lying to the south of Meadowhall shopping centre in the
CarbrookCarbrook is an industrial area of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England to the north-east of Brightside. The suburb is named for the Carr Brook, which ran through the area until the late eighteenth century....
area of the city.
The shopping centre was built by
BovisBovis Lend Lease is an international construction management company and subsidiary of Lend Lease Corporation.-History:The Company was established by Charles William Bovis in 1885 in London as C. W. Bovis & Co. It changed hands in 1908 when it was acquired by Samuel Joseph and his cousin, Sidney...
on the site of a derelict steelworks.
Meadowhall is an indoor shopping centre in
SheffieldSheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city has grown from its largely industrial roots to encompass a wider economic base...
,
South YorkshireSouth Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and the city of Sheffield...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It lies three miles (5 km) north east of Sheffield city centre and two miles (3 km) from Rotherham town centre.
Note that Meadowhall Retail Park is a separate development, also owned by
British LandBritish Land Company PLC is one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. It converted to a Real Estate Investment Trust when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is headquartered in London...
, lying to the south of Meadowhall shopping centre in the
CarbrookCarbrook is an industrial area of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England to the north-east of Brightside. The suburb is named for the Carr Brook, which ran through the area until the late eighteenth century....
area of the city.
The shopping centre
History and facts
The shopping centre was built by
BovisBovis Lend Lease is an international construction management company and subsidiary of Lend Lease Corporation.-History:The Company was established by Charles William Bovis in 1885 in London as C. W. Bovis & Co. It changed hands in 1908 when it was acquired by Samuel Joseph and his cousin, Sidney...
on the site of a derelict steelworks. It was opened on 4 September 1990. With a floor area of 1,500,000 sq ft (139,355 m²), it is the
sixth largest (second largest when first opened) shopping centre in the UK.
With over 280 stores, Meadowhall was widely blamed for the closure of many shops in
Sheffield City CentreSheffield City Centre—often just referred to as town—is a district of the City of Sheffield, and part of the Sheffield Central ward. It includes the area that is within a radius of roughly 1.2 mi) from Sheffield Cathedral, and is neatly encircled by the Inner Ring Road—a circular route started in...
and in
RotherhamRotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother, between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham, at from Sheffield City Centre, is surrounded by several smaller settlements, which together form the wider Metropolitan Borough of...
. Meadowhall has a retail floor space of about and is owned by
British LandBritish Land Company PLC is one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. It converted to a Real Estate Investment Trust when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is headquartered in London...
, a property developer. The centre attracted 19.8 million visitors in its first year of opening, and now attracts about 30 million visitors a year.
Meadowhall can be extremely busy in the run-up to
ChristmasChristmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days. The nativity of Jesus, which is the basis for the anno Domini...
, and the January sales. In extreme cases this site of
consumerismConsumerism is the equation of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen or, more recently by a movement called Enoughism...
has been known to have a
one in, one out policyA one in, one out policy is a method used to control the number of people in one place or building at any one time. Where a place or building has reached its maximum capacity, further entry is only allowed upon a person leaving. It is especially used in nightclubs and bars, but could equally be...
at some stores. This has led to the centre earning the nickname
Meadowhell among many local people.
One of Meadowhall's largest stores, Sainsbury's, closed in mid-2005, which diverted some customers to other local shopping areas. There was a Namco Station arcade which finally shut its doors in September 2007 after more than 15 years. In December 2005, it became the home to the fifth Apple Store in the UK, and in late 2007, it became home to the 3rd
Puma StorePUMA AG Rudolf Dassler Sport is a large German multinational company that produces high-end athletic shoes, lifestyle footwear and other sportswear....
in the UK after
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
and
GlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. The centre was also home to the only
McCafeMcDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving nearly 47 million customers daily. At one time it was the largest global restaurant chain, but it has since been surpassed by multi-brand operator Yum! and sandwich chain Subway.In addition to its...
in Yorkshire, but this has since closed. The centre's
Burger KingBurger King , often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The first restaurant was opened in Miami, Florida in 1954 by James McLamore and David Edgerton, and has since used several...
was replaced in October 2007 by a very small franchise called "Burger Knight", which has now closed.
Meadowhall was inundated by the River Don during the June 2007 floods, with water reaching a maximum height of . The Centre re-opened and trading commenced within 6 days, before fully relaunching in October 2007.
In May 2008, Meadowhall forcibly closed five stores in the Market Street area:
- Greggs
Greggs ltd is the largest specialist retail bakery chain in the United Kingdom. It is based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England and is quoted on the London Stock Exchange.-History:Greggs was founded by John Gregg as a Tyneside bakery in 1939...
- Pollard's Tea & Coffee
- Crawshaw's Butchers
- Massarella's Coffee
- Burger Knight (a very small franchise which had replaced the centre's Burger King
Burger King , often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The first restaurant was opened in Miami, Florida in 1954 by James McLamore and David Edgerton, and has since used several...
).
These closed so that the units they occupied could be merged into space for a large store. Although Meadowhall said that it had every right to close the stores because of break clauses in the leases, the move caused controversy because the stores had only recently re-opened after spending thousands on refurbishment, following the June 2007 floods (see below).
Shops
The centre includes over 280 stores and most are major high street stores such as New Look,
DebenhamsDebenhams plc is a Britishretailer operating under a department store format in the UK and franchise stores in other countries. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.- History :...
,
PrimarkPrimark is a clothing retailer, operating in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Portugal. It operates a total of 188 stores with 34 in Ireland, 125 in the UK, 8 in Spain and 1 in the Netherlands, Germany and in Portugal...
,
House Of FraserHouse of Fraser is a British department store group with 62 stores across the United Kingdom and Ireland. The flagship London store is House of Fraser on Oxford Street in London whilst the retailer has recently undertaken its largest new store opening in Belfast.Over the years House of Fraser has...
,
TopshopTopshop is a British chain of clothing stores that operates in more than 20 countries. It is part of the Arcadia Group, which also owns a number of other well-known retail outlets including Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge and Wallis....
,
BootsThe Boots Company, commercially known as Boots is a leading pharmacy chain in the United Kingdom, with outlets in most high streets throughout the country. Its parent company, Boots Group plc merged with Alliance UniChem plc on 31 July 2006 to become Alliance Boots.-History:Boots was established in...
and
HMVHis Master's Voice is a famous trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
.
Oasis Food Court
The Oasis is the centre's
food courtA food court is a plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dining...
which includes a variety of differnt food outlets and restaurants including
McDonald'sMcDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving nearly 47 million customers daily. At one time it was the largest global restaurant chain, but it has since been surpassed by multi-brand operator Yum! and sandwich chain Subway.In addition to its...
,
KFCKFC Corporation, or KFC, founded and also known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants based in Louisville, Kentucky...
,
Pizza HutPizza Hut is an American restaurant chain and international franchise based in Addison, Texas , offering different styles of pizza along with side dishes including pasta, buffalo wings, breadsticks, and garlic bread...
,
Harry Ramsden'sHarry Ramsden's is the biggest fish and chip shop brand in the world.Based in the UK the business has 36 owned and franchised outlets throughout the UK and Irish Republic and serves around 4 million meals annually. Harry Ramsden’s is a resilient and much loved British ‘heritage’ offering...
and
Nando'sNando's is a restaurant chain originating from South Africa with a Portuguese theme. Founded in 1987, Nando's operates in 26 countries and on five continents. Nando's specializes in chicken dishes with either lemon and herb, medium, hot or extra hot peri-peri marinades...
. The Oasis also has a multiplex
VUEIn computing, Visual User Environment was Hewlett-Packard's Desktop environment for the X Window System. It was a rival and precursor to the Open Group's CDE. Work began on VUE in 1988 at Apollo Computer for use with Domain/OS, as an alternative to Apollo's standard DM and wmgr...
cinema. The "Oasis" was originally modelled on Orange Square in
MarbellaMarbella is a city in Andalusia, Spain, by the Mediterranean, situated in the province of Málaga, beneath La Concha. In 2000 the city had 98,823 inhabitants, in 2004, 116,234....
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
(though it has since been redesigned) with an extra floor openend with extra seating and outlets. There is also a section near The Oasis for small independent retailers, The Lanes.
Refurbishment
On 13 October 2006, The
Sheffield TelegraphThe Sheffield Telegraph is a weekly newspaper published in Sheffield, England.Founded in 1855 as the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, it was the city's first daily newspaper, published at 08:00 each morning. The newspaper struggled until W. C...
announced that Meadowhall will undergo a £91 million refit, with completion due by Summer 2007. As part of this,
PrimarkPrimark is a clothing retailer, operating in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Portugal. It operates a total of 188 stores with 34 in Ireland, 125 in the UK, 8 in Spain and 1 in the Netherlands, Germany and in Portugal...
and Next moved into the space left by Sainsbury's when it closed in 2005. Other smaller outlets, including
Optical ExpressOptical Express is Europe’s largest provider of the combination of optical services which includes laser eye correction, contact lenses, and spectacles....
and
The Pier have also opened in 2007.
Transport connections
Meadowhall is situated next to the
M1 motorwayThe M1 is a major north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...
, between Sheffield and Rotherham, in the shadow of the
Tinsley ViaductTinsley Viaduct is a two-tier road bridge in Sheffield, England; the first of its kind in the UK. It carries the M1 and the A631 1033 metres over the Don Valley, from Tinsley to Wincobank, also crossing the Sheffield Canal, the Midland Main Line and the former South Yorkshire Railway line from...
. It forms the end of the
Five Weirs WalkThe 8 km long Five Weirs Walk runs alongside the River Don in Sheffield, England. From Lady's Bridge in Sheffield City Centre, it heads downstream, northeast, over the Cobweb Bridge, through Attercliffe to Meadowhall....
, an 8 km walk from the city centre.
Meadowhall also has a transport interchange which includes rail, bus and
tramSupertram is a tram network in Sheffield, England. It is owned and operated in partnership between South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive , who own the railway infrastructure, and Stagecoach Group who operate and maintain the trams, through their Stagecoach Supertram branded...
facilities, located at
Meadowhall InterchangeMeadowhall Interchange to the north of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England is a railway station on the Midland Main Line, a Sheffield Supertram stop, and bus station. It is close to junction 34 on the M1, and serves Meadowhall Shopping Centre...
. It is surrounded on all the other sides by car parks and even has its own
ring roadRing road is another term for beltway. It may also refer to:* Ring Road * Ring Road * Ring Road * Ring road of Iceland* Ring Road * "Ring Road", a song by the electronic band, Underworld....
. It is the only shopping centre in
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
that combines a
busA bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. A bus seats a maximum of 8 to 300 passengers...
,
railRail transport is the conveyance of passengers and goods by means of wheeled vehicles running along railways or railroads. Rail transport is part of the logistics chain, which facilitates international trade and economic growth...
and
tramA tram, tramcar, trolley, trolleycar, or streetcar is a railborne vehicle, of lighter weight and construction than a conventional train, designed for the transport of passengers within, close to, or between villages, towns and/or cities, on tracks running primarily on streets...
interchange. The centre also has its own helipad located in the northern overflow carpark.
Awards
The Centre has won many awards, including two awards for innovative events at the ICSC maxi awards 2006, held in Chicago and two awards for its Retail Bonding Programme (in best Retail Partnership category) and also for its Commercialisation, (adding value to the customer shopping experience) at the BCSC Purple Apple Awards in London.
Environmental policy
The Centre recycles 97% of waste from retailers and customers, with the remaining three percent going to incineration with energy recovery; no waste goes to landfill.
Meadowhall was the first UK shopping centre to develop an on-site recycling facility. The Resource Recovery Centre (RRC), which opened in 2006, operates a conveyor belt system to separate out the different types of waste, from paper to plastic, cardboard to cans.
Meadowhall began to harvest rainwater in 2006. Four giant water storage tanks collect rainwater and condensation from air conditioning. This is then used throughout the Shopping Centre for cleaning, flushing toilets and watering the external landscaped areas. The tanks are nearly 7 metres high and hold some of water each, which is the equivalent of 185 domestic baths. The water they collect would otherwise have gone down the drainage system, into the ground or been lost to the atmosphere through evaporation.
In 2008 Meadowhall installed a bore hole. This is a narrow shaft drilled into the ground that collects water from beneath the earth. Water from the bore hole is collected into a giant master tank, which remains at least 50% full at all times. All the storage tanks are connected onto a "network", which will ensure 90-95% of all water used by customers and retailers for flushing toilets is derived from rainwater harvesting or bore hole water.
External links