The Lion Yard shopping centre is a covered

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 of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, England. Construction work on the centre, which is bounded by St Andrew's Street,

Corn Exchange Street Corn Exchange Street is a street in central Cambridge, England.Corn Exchange S ...

, and

Petty Cury Petty Cury is a pedestrianised shopping street in central Cambridge, England.Petty Cury
,

, commenced in 1970 and the development contained a library,

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 ...

and

magistrates' court A magistrates' court is a lower court where, in several jurisdictions, all criminal proceedings start. Also some civil matters may be dealt with here, such as family proceedings. Courts * Magistrates' court (England and Wales) * Magistrate's Cour ...

. It predates and is significantly smaller than either the

Grafton Centre The Grafton centre is a covered shopping centre in the east of central Cambridge, England. It is one of the three main shopping centres in Cambridge, with Lion Yard and Grand Arcade in the city's centre. The Centre dominates Fitzroy Street and Bur ...

or the Grand Arcade. The latter connects directly to Lion Yard. The Grafton Centre is situated just outside the city centre, however it has large shops such as

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain operating in the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and grew to 178 locations across those countries, also owning the Danish ...

which the Lion Yard does not have, due to its confined location. For many years a central feature of the atrium was a white pillar with the statue of a large red lion on the top of it, safely out of easy reach. This recalled the Red Lion pub which had occupied the site until demolished in 1969. The lion statue was removed in 1999 and is now at the Cambridge University rugby club's ground on Grange Road. A red lion is an emblem of the University of Cambridge and the crest of its rugby club. Lion Yard was refurbished in the late 1990s/early 2000s. A recently constructed covered mall, the Grand Arcade mentioned above, adjoins Lion Yard on its south side; the two are interconnected. The main shopping mall is centred around an atrium which benefits from four entrances and exits. The retail element is concentrated on the ground floor; however, the Central Library can be accessed from the first floor of Lion Yard along with retailers Ellis Brigham, The North Face and New Look. The Centre consists of a three-storey office block (Lion House and St George House), an undercover external colonnade taking up one half of Petty Cury, external shops opposite

St Andrew the Great St Andrew the Great is a Church of England parish church in central Cambridge. Rebuilt in late Gothic style in 1843, it is a Grade II listed building. The church has a conservative evangelical tradition and participates in the Anglican Reform mov ...

Church, many high street retailers internally along with housing the seventh busiest library in the UK.

References

External links

Lion Yard website

Lion Yard in the 1970s
{{Shopping centres in the East of England 1970 establishments in England Shopping centres in Cambridgeshire Shops in Cambridge