The Haymarket Shopping Centre is a

shopping centre A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

in the

city centre A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

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 ...

. It was opened on 4 June 1973 as part of the Haymarket Centre and was the country's second shopping centre after the

Bull Ring, Birmingham The Bull Ring is a major shopping area in central Birmingham England, and has been an important feature of Birmingham since the Middle Ages, when its market was first held. Two shopping centres have been built in the area; in the 1960s, and the ...

. It is located east of and adjacent to the

Clock Tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

. The Haymarket Shopping Centre has around 65 outlets and shares the Haymarket Centre with a bus station, a two-stage theatre, and a

Travelodge Travelodge (formerly TraveLodge) refers to several hotel chains around the world. Current operations include: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and several countries in Asia. However, many of t ...

hotel in the former Haymarket House. The Haymarket Centre previously featured two nightclubs (located either side of the clock tower entrance), Dino's restaurant (adjacent to the theatre entrance) and two enclosed foot bridges (one crossing Charles Street in to Kildare Street and the other crossing Humberstone Gate linking to

Lewis's Lewis's was a chain of British department stores that operated from 1856 to 2010. The owners of Lewis's have gone into administration many times over the years, including 1991. The first store, which opened in Liverpool city centre, became ...

department store). During 2021

Leicester City Council Leicester City Council is a unitary authority responsible for local government in the city of Leicester, England. It consists of 54 councillors, representing 22 wards in the city, overseen by a directly elected mayor. It is currently control ...

purchased the shopping centre for £9.9million

2023 Haymarket Primark Fire Incident

A blaze that started in Primark in Leicester city centre this afternoon, (Friday, April 21) is believed to have been an arson attack. A fire investigation is ongoing after emergency services were called to the scene at around 1pm. A spokeswoman for Leicestershire Police said: "Police received a call from Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service at 1.03pm today (21 April) following a report of a fire at a store in Haymarket, Leicester. Officers attended the location and assisted with a cordon which is currently in place as emergency services remain at the scene dealing. The fire, which took place on the shop floor, has since been extinguished. A small number of people suffered from minor smoke exhalation. From early enquiries carried out, alongside Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service it is believed the fire was caused deliberately." Businesses were forced to close for several hours after the Haymarket Shopping Centre was evacuated. One person said there was 'panic and commotion' in Humberstone Gate. Blane Issitt, who is working on the fairground rides in the busy shopping street, said: "I heard the alarms going off, and there were lots of people who evacuated all coming into the street, and people were a bit panicked, trying to work out what was going on. Then a fire engine came and then another and another, and then the police arrived too. There were a lot of spectators around and there was a lot of commotion. I’ve never seen the city centre so busy. I saw a bit of the smoke coming from Primark. But the fire brigade had it dealt with pretty quickly." Shops have begun to reopen, however, Primark remains closed with police tape blocking the entrance and forensic officers at the scene.

History

Plans for the redevelopment of the Haymarket site were originally drawn up in 1960, but these were superseded by the 1961 declaration of a larger Comprehensive Development Area.Fair, Alistair (2018) ''Modern Playhouses: An Architectural History of Britain's New Theatres, 1945 ― 1985'', Oxford University Press, , p. 114 Tenders for development of the site were invited, with

Taylor Woodrow Taylor Woodrow was one of the largest housebuilding and general construction companies in Britain. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until its merger with rival George Wimpey to create Tayl ...

awarded it in early 1966. The plans originally included a

motel A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries ...

, an office block, a 500-seat cinema, and, at the request of the Town Planning (Development) Subcommittee, a 650-seat theatre (later increased to 710), to replace the Phoenix Theatre, which had been built in 1963 as a temporary facility. In May 1967, the newly built Littlewoods store was opened by Sir Barnett Janner MP. The building is of an imposing concrete construction close to the clock tower. It is four stories high and features three balconies on the two frontages. In February 1969, a planning application for the new shopping centre was submitted by Taylor Woodrow, which received conditional approval from

the following month. In 1970, Lea's store on the corner of Humberstone Gate and Charles Street was demolished to make way for the construction of a new store for C&A. Construction is of standard brick and three stories high. During clearance of the site, buildings demolished including four historic hotels (the Bell Hotel, the Stag and Pheasant, the White Hart and the George), and buildings on Bread Street, which ran between Belgrave Gate and Charles Street, and which disappeared completely. Other major buildings originally on the site included a tram depot and the Leicestershire Horse Repository. Construction of the Haymarket Centre began in 1971 of red brick, linking Littlewoods and C&A (located 120 metres apart). The centre was opened on 4 June 1973. It is six stories high; levels 1-2 are for retail, levels 3-4 are for car parking, levels 4-6 are Haymarket House and levels 2 plus for the theatre. Level 2 balconies feature on Humberstone Gate and outside the theatre. In 1993, Lewis's department store was demolished prompting the removal of the foot bridge linking Lewis's and the Haymarket Shopping Centre. In 1996, the Haymarket Shopping Centre closed for refurbishment. The general colours of brown and beige were replaced with white, a new glass roof was built, and the escalators and staircase switched sides and were replaced with new ones. The toilets were moved from above the clock tower entrance to above the Charles Street entrance. The children's ladybirds ride was removed. The spiral road to the high level car park was demolished in favour of a straight ramp, with access being moved from Charles Street to Belgrave Gate. In a separate, publicly funded project by the

, a row of shops was purchased on Charles Street and demolished in order to build the

Haymarket Bus Station Haymarket bus station is a bus station located in the Haymarket area of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is situated next to the Haymarket Metro station, by the northern end of Northumberland Street and almost adjacent to Newcastle University. History ...

. In 1997, the foot bridge crossing Charles Street was closed; it was removed in 2007. In May 2006 it was announced that

Woolworths Woolworth, Woolworth's, or Woolworths may refer to: Businesses * F. W. Woolworth Company, the original US-based chain of "five and dime" (5¢ and 10¢) stores * Woolworths Group (United Kingdom), former operator of the Woolworths chain of shops ...

were to vacate their unit in the centre in early 2007 after being "made an offer they could not refuse" by the landlords. In October 2007 Peacocks opened in the former Woolworths unit. The bus station was demolished in 2015, along with two food outlets (McIndians and Subway) and the Bohemian Public House on the corner of Charles Street and Belgrave Gate in order to build a larger bus station.

Facilities

Stores

Retailers currently occupying units include:

Ryman Ryman is a stationery retail company with 205 outlets nationwide in the United Kingdom. The website and stores provide a wide range of stationery and office supplies for homes and businesses, with its headquarters in Crewe, Cheshire. Hist ...

T.K. Maxx TK Maxx is a subsidiary of the American apparel and home goods company TJX Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts. The stores operate throughout the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria and the Netherlands, totall ...

Holland & Barrett Holland & Barrett (H&B) is a multinational chain of health food shops with over 1,300 stores in 16 countries, including a substantial presence in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, ...

, B&M,

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 ...

The Entertainer An entertainer is a person who entertains (singer, actor, comedian, etc.) The Entertainer may refer to: Music Songs * "The Entertainer" (rag), a 1902 classic piano rag written by Scott Joplin *"The Entertainer", rearrangement of the Joplin rag by ...

, Deichmann,

Card Factory Card Factory is a retailer of greeting cards and gifts in the United Kingdom founded in Wakefield by Dean Hoyle and his wife Janet. The first store opened in 1997, and by 2020 the company had over 1,000 stores. The company also operates two ...

Heron Foods Heron Foods Ltd. (formerly Heron Frozen Foods Ltd and Grindells Butchers Ltd) is an English retail chain founded in 1979 and based in Melton with 293 stores as of 1 July 2020. It primarily sells frozen food, but has a wide range of ambient and ...

Matalan Matalan is a British fashion and homeware retailer based in Knowsley, Merseyside. It was established by John Hargreaves in 1985, and is still owned by the Hargreaves family. , the company employed over 13,000, and had 230 stores in the United K ...

Tesco Express Tesco plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues an ...

, Metro Bank,

Costa Coffee Costa Coffee is a British coffeehouse chain with headquarters in Dunstable, England. Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by Sergio Costa as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. ...

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...

Halifax Building Society Halifax commonly refers to: *Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada *Halifax, West Yorkshire, England *Halifax (bank), a British bank Halifax may also refer to: Places Australia *Halifax, Queensland, a coastal town in the Shire of Hinchinbrook *Halifax B ...

. A number of independent retailers operate from some of the smaller units within the centre. Notable stores past and present include

Littlewoods Littlewoods was a retail and football betting company founded in Liverpool, England, by John Moores in 1923. By the 1980s, it had grown to become the largest private company in Europe, but subsequently declined in the face of increased com ...

(including Index), C&A,

Somerfield Somerfield (; originally Gateway) was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The company also previously owned the Kwik Save chain of discount food stores. The company was taken over by the Co-operative ...

(later

The Co-operative Food Co-op Food is a brand used for the food retail business of The Co-operative Group in the United Kingdom. Prior to reintroducing the brand in 2016, the group used " The Co-operative" branding, which is still used by a number of consumers' co- ...

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

British Home Stores British Home Stores, commonly abbreviated to BHS and latterly legally styled BHS Ltd, was a British department store chain, primarily selling clothing and household items. In its later years, the company began to expand into furniture, electron ...

Poundworld Poundworld was a chain of British value variety stores that sold most of its items for £1. It was founded in 1974 by Yorkshire-based father-and-son team Chris Edwards Sr. and Chris Edwards Jr. In contrast to many high street retailers, it ma ...

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 ...

Bejam Bejam was a British frozen food retailer founded by John Apthorp in 1968, based in Stanmore. History In 1968, the concept of selling only frozen foods was a novel idea at the time, and Bejam grew out of Apthorp's existing family business of ''E ...

MK One MK One was a British fashion retailer. History Beginnings as Mark One The company was founded in the 1980s by Mark Brafman, Les Lucy and Alan Simons as Mark One, and became a discount womenswear retailer. In February 1996, Mark One was bou ...

Habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

and

First Leicester Leicester Citybus,Companies House extract company no 2000072< ...

travel shop is also located near the Charles Street entrance.

Haymarket Theatre

purchased a 99-year lease of the theatre in 1974. The theatre operated until 2007 when it was closed and replaced by the newly built

Curve Theatre The Curve Theatre is a theatre in Leicester, England, based in the cultural quarter in Leicester City Centre. Before being named ''Curve'', it was referred to as ''Leicester Performing Arts Centre''. It is adjacent to the Leicester Athena confere ...

in Leicester's Cultural Quarter. The theatre was reopened in early 2018. Located on Belgrave Gate at the front of the entrance to the Haymarket Theatre is The Metal Tree sculpture by

Hubert Dalwood Hubert Cyril Dalwood (2 June 1924 – 2 November 1976) was a British sculptor. He was widely known as 'Nibs'. Life Dalwood was born on 2 June 1924 at 78 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol. He was apprenticed to the Bristol Aeroplane Company ...

ARA. It was unveiled in 1974 and used to be the only piece of major abstract sculpture in Leicester City Centre.

Nightclubs

To the left of the Clock Tower entrance was the entrance to the George Bar. This took its name from the George Hotel that had previously stood on this site. In 2001 it was called U R Zeus. It opened on 23 September 2005 as Niche, followed in November 2007 by Ice. It closed in 2008 and on 30 May 2009, it opened as the D9 Nightclub. To the right side of the Clock Tower entrance was the entrance to a nightclub which was located on the first and second floors. This has now been converted to ordinary retail space and is currently occupied by

. This was first known as the Top Rank Suite, Bailey's Nightspot, then changed to The King of Clubs in 1980. It subsequently changed its name to Mr Kiesa's Discothèque, after owner Martin Kiesa. Bailey's hosted many music and comedy acts such as

Tommy Cooper Thomas Frederick Cooper (19 March 1921 – 15 April 1984) was a Welsh prop comedian and magician. As an entertainer, his appearance was large and lumbering at , and he habitually wore a red fez when performing. He served in the British Army f ...

Bernard Manning Bernard John Manning (13 August 1930 – 18 June 2007) was an English comedian and nightclub owner. Manning gained a high profile on British television during the 1970s, appearing on shows such as '' The Comedians'' and ''The Wheeltappers and ...

Mud A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...

Slade Slade are an English rock band formed in Wolverhampton in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The ''British Hit Singles ...

Gary Glitter Paul Francis Gadd (born 8 May 1944), best known by his stage name Gary Glitter, is an English former singer, songwriter, and record producer. He achieved success during the glam rock era of the 1970s and 1980s, and his career ended after he w ...

(March 1978),

Showaddywaddy Showaddywaddy are a rock and roll group from Leicester, England. They specialise in revivals of hit songs from the 1950s and early 1960s, while also issuing original material. Showaddywaddy spent 209 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, and had 10 T ...

The Three Degrees The Three Degrees is an American female vocal group formed circa 1963 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although 16 women have been members over the years, the group has always been a trio. The current line-up consists of Helen Scott, Valerie Holi ...

and

The Drifters The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/Soul music, soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, f ...

Transport

Opening in mid 2016, the

has been rebuilt and expanded and now forms a major transport hub for the north of the city centre. It is located on Charles Street to the northeast of the Haymarket Shopping Centre.

Gallery

Image:Haymarket Centre - Humberstone Gate.JPG, The Haymarket Centre on Humberstone Gate. Note Haymarket House office block in the centre comprising the top three floors. Image:Haymarket Shopping Centre Mall 2015.jpg, A photo taken in 2015 of the main mall from the escalators outside Primark.

Notes

Haymarket Centre is its original name and the original signage on the outside walls still remain. The term is still used when referring to the whole complex, as opposed to just the mall. The Haymarket is a common name for the Haymarket Shopping Centre used by the public and more recently, by the centre itself. The Humberstone Gate entrance has the name "The Haymarket" engraved into the floor. Haymarket is the name of a short section of road, changing to Belgrave Gate after around 75 metres, adjacent to the Haymarket Shopping Centre.

References

External links

Haymarket Shopping Centre
{{Shopping centres in East Midlands Shopping centres in Leicestershire Buildings and structures in Leicester Shopping malls established in 1973