Park Place was a proposed shopping centre which had been expected to open in
Croydon, London
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 extensi ...
by 2011. The date was continuously pushed back due to a number of problems between different developers, financial backers and the local council.
['']Croydon Guardian
The ''Sutton & Croydon Guardian'', also known as '' Your Local Guardian'', is a weekly free local newspaper published by Newsquest that covers the South London boroughs of Sutton and Croydon as well as surrounding areas. The newspaper is publis ...
''
Work on Park Place delayed
7 May 2008. It was cancelled in 2009, as other schemes began progress, such as the extension to
Centrale and the possible takeover of the
Whitgift Centre
The Whitgift Centre is a large shopping centre in the town centre of Croydon, opening in stages between 1968 and 1970. The centre comprises of retail space, and was the largest covered shopping development in Greater London until the opening of ...
by
Westfield Group
Westfield Group was an Australian shopping centre company that existed from 1960 to 2014, when it split into two independent companies: Scentre Group, which owns and operates the Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centre portfolio; ...
. Park Place was part of the
Croydon Vision 2020
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 extensive ...
re-generation scheme.
Park Place has been proposed by developers
Minerva plc and was given planning approval in 2000 by
Croydon Council
Croydon London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Croydon in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Croydon is divided into 28 wards, electing 70 co ...
after which the
Government Office for London decided not to proceed with a call-in in 2003, despite concerns over traffic and the impact upon existing retail. This decision, ultimately by
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (born 31 May 1938) is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he w ...
, caused controversy in 2006 amidst the
Cash for Peerages
The Cash-for-Honours scandal (also known as Cash for Peerages, Loans for Lordships, Loans for Honours or Loans for Peerages) was a political scandal in the United Kingdom in 2006 and 2007 concerning the connection between political donations and ...
political scandal, when it emerged that two of Minerva's previous and current chairmen,
Sir David Garrard and
Andrew Rosenfeld
Andrew Ian Rosenfeld (27 April 1962 – 8 February 2015) was a British businessman who was co-founder, chief executive, and chairman of Minerva plc. He volunteered for a number of charitable organisations and was a major donor to the Labour P ...
, had made major loans to the
Labour Party three months before the decision not to call in the planning application. Prescott denied any wrongdoing.
In May 2009, Croydon Council announced that it would be ending the development agreement with Minerva following a realisation that they would not be able to secure funding after
Lend Lease
Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...
pulled out of the project.
Plans
Minerva planned to build a shopping centre, office accommodation and bus station on the site of the
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 ...
department store and
St George's Walk. The scheduled commencement date for Park Place was originally Autumn 2006.
Gap,
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 ...
,
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
Borders
A border is a geographical boundary.
Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film
* ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...
expressed their desire to have a store in the centre, with an
Apple Store
The Apple Store is a chain of Retail, retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell various Apple products, including Macintosh, Mac personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad tablet computers, Apple Watch smartwatches, Apple ...
another potential buyer of a unit. It was intended that the centre when completed would be , with the development adjoining and integrating with the existing Whitgift Centre at its northern end and extend south to Katherine Street. The overall site would have taken in part of Park Street and cross the western end of George Street via a bridge and tunnel with the existing
Grade II listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
frontages in George Street, as well as the North End facade of Allders to be retained.
A
compulsory purchase order
A compulsory purchase order (CPO; , ) is a legal function in the United Kingdom and Ireland that allows certain bodies to obtain land or property without the consent of the owner. It may be enforced if a proposed development is considered one for p ...
by Croydon Council is in the process of being enacted to enable the whole site to come under the ownership of Minerva. A major new department store will be located to the south of the new site; originally this was to be a new Allders store, then owned by Minerva, but
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 ...
was then lined up to anchor the site. On 5 May 2006
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 ...
announced that no development scheme in Croydon met their requirements and that they were not in negotiations with Minerva. This has boosted the chances of the newco 'Allders (Croydon) Ltd' being able to secure anchor status in the new development if it is pursued.
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...
, whose UK headquarters in the
Nestlé Tower
St George's House (also known as the Nestlé Tower or Nestlé Block) is a office tower located in Croydon, United Kingdom. It was occupied by the Swiss multinational food and consumer goods company Nestlé as the headquarters of Nestlé UK & ...
form part of the site, plan to take part of the office accommodation.
The development will create a new 'piazza' on Croydon High Street.
There are proposals to alter
Queen's Gardens with updated planting, an ice rink, a performance space and an entrance into Park Place.
Viability
The overall viability of the Minerva plans (1.08 million sq.ft. shopping centre) was thrown into doubt following the building of the 1.615 million sq.ft.
Westfield London
Westfield London is a large shopping centre in White City, west London, England, developed by the Westfield Group at a cost of £1.6bn,
on a brownfield site formerly the home of the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition. The site is bounded by the We ...
shopping centre development in west
London
London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
(
White City White City may refer to:
Places Australia
* White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore
* White City railway station, a former railway station
* White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney
* White City FC, a football clu ...
) which opened in October 2008 and the existing shopping development at
Bluewater to the south-east of London.
On completion of the centre, Croydon will have approximately . of space in its three shopping centres.
On 19 March Minerva announced that their deal with Lend Lease had collapsed. Lend Lease were responsible for negotiations with John Lewis.
In May 2008, Croydon Council announced that they did not expect works to start until late 2009, a further delay of some 18 months. A revised planning application was not expected to be tabled until late 2008.
Minerva meanwhile was facing speculation of a takeover bid by the
Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
-based
Limitless.
['']Property Week
''Property Week'' is a UK business-to-business magazine which reports on the worldwide commercial and residential property market. It reports news, features and analysis and the latest information from the industry - from development opportuniti ...
''
Dubai developer ‘considering its options’ over Minerva
8 May 2005.
References
External links
Minerva plcdescription of Park Place
Park Place informationfrom
Croydon Council
Croydon London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Croydon in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Croydon is divided into 28 wards, electing 70 co ...
Park Place peerages rowin the ''Croydon Guardian''
{{Shopping centres in London
Shopping centres in the London Borough of Croydon
Croydon 2020
Proposed buildings and structures in London