Brent Cross Shopping Centre is a large shopping centre in

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Gre ...

, north

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, owned by Hammerson and

Abrdn Abrdn plc (stylised as ‘abrdn’, disemvoweling of "Aberdeen"), formerly Standard Life Aberdeen plc, is a United Kingdom-based global investment company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a ...

. Located by the Brent Cross interchange, it opened in 1976 as the UK's first out-of-town shopping centre. Brent Cross attracted 15–16 million shoppers a year as of 2011 and has one of the largest incomes per unit area of retail space in the country.

History

Brent Cross Shopping Centre was built by Hammerson and opened on 2 March 1976. It was the first out-of-town and American-style indoor shopping centre in the country, with its construction taking 19 years to complete at a cost of £20 million. While the Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre in London predates it, that is not considered to be a fully covered building. The scheme was strongly supported by the local authority of Barnet, but strongly opposed by local traders in

. The centre started out with of retail space on a 52-acre (21 ha) site.

Opening

Upon its

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

-era opening in 1976, Brent Cross was praised by the public bringing a bold American-style concept to Britain. A local newspaper called the centre a "fururistic concept", and its features such as the indoor fountain and air conditioning were noted. Richard Hyman, a retail analyst, said that Brent Cross's significance "can't be overstated. Before Brent Cross there was nothing like it." Upon opening, Brent Cross had 75 stores and was open until late every weekday despite the mid-1970s UK recession. Brent Cross was unusual at the time in that it was built on an undeveloped site rather than in a traditional town centre. The centre was built on a "concrete island" surrounded by the Brent Cross flyovers and the busy

North Circular Road The North Circular Road (officially the A406 and sometimes known as simply the North Circular) is a ring road around Central London in England. It runs from Chiswick in the west to Woolwich in the east via suburban North London, connecting ...

, but the centre's offering inside is what drew customers to it. The '' New Society'' magazine wrote about the centre in 1978: Brent Cross quickly became a popular attraction for people in London and the South East, and a blueprint for shopping centres across Europe. Despite its age and dated appearance, it has remained a popular retail centre ever since. It was ranked as London's 5th largest retail centre in 2005, behind the West End,

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an exten ...

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

and

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...

. In 2013 it was reported that it received 14 million visitors a year. It was ranked the UK's 9th best shopping centre in 2019 by

GlobalData GlobalData Plc is a data analytics and consulting company, headquartered in London, England. The company was established in 1999, and has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2000. It was previously called Progressive Digital Media and b ...

. The original three department stores when Brent Cross opened – Fenwick,

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

and

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

– remain at the site. The former two have anchored the shopping centre since the beginning. By the 1990s, the centre was facing increasing competition from other large out-of-town shopping centres in the region, such as the

Lakeside Shopping Centre Lakeside Shopping Centre, is a large out-of-town shopping centre located in West Thurrock, Essex just beyond the eastern boundary of Greater London. It was constructed on the site of a former chalk quarry. The first tenants moved into the compl ...

. Work to extend the centre was begun in 1994 and was completed by 1996, giving it a capacity for 120 stores as well as a new multi-storey car park, replacing the older one, which added 2,000 new spaces. In addition, the low ceiling inside was replaced by glass to let more natural light in.

Incidents

On 14 December 1991, four explosive devices were planted in the shopping centre by the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...

(IRA). The bombs were discovered and defused before they could be detonated. On 6 November 2012, six people on three motorbikes entered the shopping centre and smashed the windows at jewellers Fraser Hart. An estimated £2 million worth of jewellery was stolen.

Expansion plans

Brent Cross shopping centre was planned to be extended as a part of the

Brent Cross Cricklewood Brent Cross Cricklewood is a new town centre development under construction in Hendon and Cricklewood, London, United Kingdom. The development is planned to cost around £4.5 billion to construct and will include 6,700 homes, workspace for 25,000 ...

regeneration scheme. The John Lewis and Fenwick Department stores were to remain in their current location, Marks & Spencer was to move to a new location on the extended site, the bus station was to be relocated, and new parks, a "living bridge" across the

and a cinema were all planned, along with new multi-storey car parks (with the existing surface carparks to be used for the shopping centre extension). Outline planning permission was achieved in 2010, and preparatory site clearance started in early 2018. Construction had been expected to start in 2018, but the whole scheme was put on hold in July 2018.

Transport

The Brent Cross bus station is adjacent to the shopping centre and is served by 14 different day bus routes with links throughout North London and to West London, the West End, and Hertfordshire. The shopping centre is surrounded by a "spaghetti junction" of trunk roads typical from the time it was built. As a result, pedestrian access to and from the shopping centre complex has been deemed "hostile" in modern times. The Brent Cross Cricklewood regeneration scheme aims to improve the local environment, and a new Brent Cross West Thameslink station is under construction to support pedestrian access, and is planned to open in late 2022.

In popular culture

The interior of the shopping centre was featured in the 1994 film ''London'' by Patrick Keiller. It shows the former large fountain and

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

on the roof, which were removed in 1996. It was also used to film the

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

for "The Love Within", by the indie rock band

Bloc Party Bloc Party are an English rock band, composed of Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, sampler), Russell Lissack (lead guitar, keyboards), Justin Harris (bass guitar, keyboards, saxophones, backing vocals) and Louise Bartle ...

, in 2015. The carpark of the shopping centre was used as a filming location for the 1997

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...

film ''

Tomorrow Never Dies ''Tomorrow Never Dies'' is a 1997 spy film, the eighteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode from a screenplay ...

''. The shopping centre was also featured in Ken MacLeod's science-fiction novel ''

The Star Fraction ''The Star Fraction'' is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Ken MacLeod, his first, published in 1995. The major themes are radical political thinking, a functional anarchist microstate, oppression, and revolution. The action takes pla ...

''. The action takes place in a

balkanized Balkanization is the fragmentation of a larger region or state into smaller regions or states, which may be hostile or uncooperative with one another. It is usually caused by differences of ethnicity, culture, and religion and some other factor ...

UK, in the middle of the 21st century, and the ruins of the shopping centre are used as a local market for the

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...

enclave of Norlonto ('North London Town').

References

External links

Brent Cross shopping centre
{{Authority control Shopping centres in the London Borough of Barnet Hendon Shopping malls established in 1976 1976 establishments in England