Drake Circus Shopping Centre is a covered

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

in the centre of

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, which opened in October 2006. The building was designed by London-based architects

Chapman Taylor Chapman Taylor is a global practice of award-winning architects, masterplanners and interior designers, based in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The practice has completed over 3,000 projects and won over 300 design awards over its history, i ...

and built by

Bovis Lend Lease Lendlease is a globally integrated real estate company that creates and invests in communities, workplaces, retail, and infrastructure projects, headquartered in Barangaroo, New South Wales, Australia. History Founding The company was establ ...

. Situated behind the ruined Charles Church, preserved as the city's civilian

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

, the building provoked a mixed reception. Just after it opened, the shopping centre won the inaugural

Carbuncle Cup The Carbuncle Cup was an architecture prize, given annually by the magazine ''Building Design'' to "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months". It was intended to be a humorous response to the prestigious Stirling ...

"for crimes against architecture", as the worst new building in the United Kingdom. In 2007 it won two retail industry national awards, one of which was the ''

Retail Week Retail Week is a London-based news website, data service, events producer and magazine covering the retail industry, primarily in the United Kingdom. History and profile Founded in 1988 by financial journalist Patience Wheatcroft and her husban ...

'' magazine's "Shopping Location of the Year".

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

roundabout A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...

built in the early 20th century at the junction of four main roads and several minor ones. The roundabout consisted of

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

buildings housing shops, and from 1937 its south end carried the "Guinness Clock", which was visible to people travelling up Old Town Street and was a landmark in the city of the time. The circus survived the Plymouth Blitz of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

relatively intact, but it was demolished in 1966-7 as part of the Plan for Plymouth, and was replaced by a new open roundabout to the north. Around this time the lower section of the main road to

Tavistock Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town within West Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy from which its name derives. At the 2011 census the three electoral wards (North, South and South West) had a population of 13,028 ...

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. Initial proposals to redevelop this mall in the early 1990s failed, but the developers, P&O Estates, tried again in the early 2000s. Plans were drawn up for a much larger centre, and after

Allders Allders was an independent department store operating in the United Kingdom. The original store was established in 1862 in Croydon by Joshua Allder. In the second half of the 20th century, this parent store was developed into a chain of depart ...

signed up as the first "

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄγ ...

" tenant in 2001, work started in February 2004 on demolishing the old centre and the adjoining Charles Street

multi-storey car park A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...

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

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

. New tenants

Next Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

and

Primark Primark Stores Limited (; trading as Penneys in the Republic of Ireland) is an Irish multinational fast fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. It has stores across Europe and in the United States. The Penneys brand is not u ...

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 Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

Real Estate Fund for £55m. On 20 November 2006 it was announced that Kandahar Real Estate had taken a 50 per cent stake in the centre. The centre was bought by

British Land The British Land Company plc is one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust when REITs were introduced in the UK in January 2007. It is headquartered in ...

for £240 million in January 2011. 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 cap A baseball cap is a type of soft hat with a rounded crown and a stiff bill projecting in front. The front of the hat typically displays a design or a logo (historically, usually only a sports team, namely a baseball team, or names of relevant co ...

s. Clarke Nicholls Marcel (CNM London) were the civil and structural engineers for the new-build Shopping Centre.

Gallery

File:old drakes circus.jpg, The old Drake Circus shopping mall was demolished in 2004. File:Drake Circus Shopping Centre construction 1.jpg, The new centre under construction File:Drake Circus behind Charles Church.jpg, Part of the contentious frontage behind the ruined Charles Church File:Drake circus interior.jpg, Interior a few days after opening File:Drake circus entrance.jpg, One of the entrances

References

External links

*
BBC Devon special feature on Drake Circus
{{Shopping centres in Southwest England Buildings and structures in Plymouth, Devon Shopping centres in Devon