The Ginormous New Shopping Centre at Shepherds Bush

[teuchter]

At least the architecture at Westfield London aspires to something a bit better than the second picture (Braehead Centre at Renfrew in Scotland - which is a car based out of town location just off the M8 next to an IKEA.)

And, unlike the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle, there won't be a McDonalds!

Let's hope the aspirations are matched by the reality.

From the pictures that I have seen, it does seem to have quite an interesting glass roof thingy going on. Whether or not there is anything more to it than that we'll have to wait and see.

 

[nino_savatte]

I may have a look but I wonder what will become of the crappy shopping centre on Shepherds Bush Green (W12?). I reckon Westfield will be like some retail black hole, sucking in all shops around it. Habitat moved out of the King Street Mall in Hammersmith a few weeks ago to be replaced by a Sports World.

 

[cybertect]

.

 

[mincepie]

I may have a look but I wonder what will become of the crappy shopping centre on Shepherds Bush Green (W12?). I reckon Westfield will be like some retail black hole, sucking in all shops around it. Habitat moved out of the King Street Mall in Hammersmith a few weeks ago to be replaced by a Sports World.

Yeah, Ealing seems to be full of 'shut-shops,' it's a shame in a way....

The shopping centre on the green dosent seem to have much to its name besides a Weatherspoons, supermarket and a VUE cinema. Upstairs was pretty much empty as it is (Before Westfield opened). Ealing cinema closed, so I guess that'll keep it standing for a while. Mind you Westfield might have a cinema for all I know???

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Habitat moved out of the King Street Mall in Hammersmith a few weeks ago to be replaced by a Sports World.

Oh, I was wondering about that - I saw it was closing. There's a Habitat in Westfield, I expect they couldn't manage two in the same area and Westfield was the more natural place. (I like Habitat, I'm unrelentingly middle class.)

I don't know, I think King Street Mall will survive, it has the Primark for a start. The centre on the south of the green, as I said further up, will survive for as long as there's a supermarket there tbh but only for that reason. That's the only reason it's still there at the moment, all of the other shops there are crap.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Yeah, Ealing seems to be full of 'shut-shops,' it's a shame in a way....

The shopping centre on the green dosent seem to have much to its name besides a Weatherspoons, supermarket and a VUE cinema. Upstairs was pretty much empty as it is (Before Westfield opened). Ealing cinema closed, so I guess that'll keep it standing for a while. Mind you Westfield might have a cinema for all I know???

I don't think the cinema makes enough to keep a place open. It's number 2 after the Morrisons but it's a distant second.

 

[Bungle73]

Yeah, Ealing seems to be full of 'shut-shops,' it's a shame in a way....

The shopping centre on the green dosent seem to have much to its name besides a Weatherspoons, supermarket and a VUE cinema. Upstairs was pretty much empty as it is (Before Westfield opened). Ealing cinema closed, so I guess that'll keep it standing for a while. Mind you Westfield might have a cinema for all I know???

You are correct in your assumption, there is a cinema at Westfield.

 

[Ms T]

You are correct in your assumption, there is a cinema at Westfield.

It's not opening until next year though.

 

[nino_savatte]

Oh, I was wondering about that - I saw it was closing. There's a Habitat in Westfield, I expect they couldn't manage two in the same area and Westfield was the more natural place. (I like Habitat, I'm unrelentingly middle class.)

I don't know, I think King Street Mall will survive, it has the Primark for a start. The centre on the south of the green, as I said further up, will survive for as long as there's a supermarket there tbh but only for that reason. That's the only reason it's still there at the moment, all of the other shops there are crap.

Yep, that's why I mentioned Habitat: I was really disappointed that they closed their shop. Over the years I've noticed that Kings Mall has a ridiculous number of mobile phone shops move in.

That Morrisons is the only place worth visiting in that shopping centre on Shepherds Bush Green, the rest of the shops, as you say, are crap.

 

[nino_savatte]

Yeah, Ealing seems to be full of 'shut-shops,' it's a shame in a way....

The shopping centre on the green dosent seem to have much to its name besides a Weatherspoons, supermarket and a VUE cinema. Upstairs was pretty much empty as it is (Before Westfield opened). Ealing cinema closed, so I guess that'll keep it standing for a while. Mind you Westfield might have a cinema for all I know???

Aye, it seems to be lacking in proper shops. Wasn't the VUE cinema formerly a car park?

 

[Orang Utan]

My work is moving to White City next year sometime - can't wait to visit a vast empty memorial to rampant consumerism on my lunch break

 

[Ms T]

Just went there in my lunch break, and found it slightly scary to be honest. It is a shiny temple to consumerism at the moment - I wonder how long it will be before the SALE signs appear.

 

[paolo]

Aswell as the lack of architectural vision teuchter highlights, why not also make a leap with the type of shops? If I was in charge (ho ho), I'd have little clusters of small units, at knock down rents, then let them to hand picked independents. Books, music, art, fashion, food etc. With a reasonable selection of unique shops, you'd draw customers that would otherwise never come, with no downside on trade from the typical mall-regular.

(Then again, I'd rather these things didn't exist at all. I like 'real' streets.)

 

[Geri]

Just went there in my lunch break, and found it slightly scary to be honest. It is a shiny temple to consumerism at the moment - I wonder how long it will be before the SALE signs appear.

Is it all inside? Does it feel claustrophobic, or not?

 

[paolo]

I was at a loose end today so I popped along early evening.

I arrived at Wood Lane station. The Westfield web site proudly talks about it being the first new station on an existing tube line for 70 years. That maybe true, but there's little to shout about. No Jubilee Line grand architectural gestures here. The developers may have stumped up some cash for the station, but it looks like it was change they found down the side of the corporate sofa.

Arriving at the shopping centre itself, looking at the streams of people leaving, it was clear that the place was a hit with at least one group: teenagers. The Apple store was overrun with youngsters huddled around Macs and iPods and iPhones. All good natured enough, but probably a bit more budget limited than the shops would want. And it didn't look like the adults were spending much either. The place was heaving - to the point of being annoying - but the not inside the shops themselves. Noone struggling with a clutch of shopping bags.

Some of the food places looked liked they had great stuff - quite upmarket. But then you'd have to eat out in the open space of the mall. A bit like going for a classy meal where your table is in the middle of a bus station.

After struggling with the sparse signage, I finally found some loos. The women were having to queue. How do you build something which - surely - has to appeal to women at least as much, if not more, than men, then not provide enough women's loos? It was worse inside though... pools of urine on the floor, no paper towels, hand dryers all broken. And from the comments I heard outside, the piss-soaked floors thing had happened in the ladies too.

Some bits are mildly impressive, albeit purely in a simplistic scale way. The double height shops give it a some kind of visual impact, but overall there's very little charm or beauty. Which I guess was exactly what I expected.

A little bit of Birmingham has arrived in West London. I won't be going back.

 

[teuchter]

^^ Not too dissimilar from my thoughts when I went to have a look last weekend.

I arrived by train on the newly designated "overground" line from Clapham Junction, at the new station which is functional but little more. Like you say, no Jubilee line type of attempt to create anything of any particular architectural merit. The same applies to the revamped Central Line Tube station just across the road.

As for the architecture of the shopping centre itself, they can forget about it being a "spectacular landmark" or whatever they claim on the website; it's really just any old shopping centre anywhere in the UK multiplied a couple of times in size. The wavy glass roof is there, and nice enough - although hardly a remarkable example of that kind of structure - but it's pretty much drowned out by the hyperactive jumble of everything crammed beneath it. The main atrium is mildy impressive but nothing special.

As for the exterior, it seems to turn its back on most of its surroundings (although it was dark while I was there so didn't get a proper look) and there are a few residential roads nearby which are a little surreal - rows of modest terraced houses lining a street that terminates at a massive 3 or 4 storey blank wall which is the side of Westfield.

It did seem to be busy though - I don't know how many people were just there to be nosy like me, or were actually buying stuff.

 

[HackneyE9]

A little bit of Birmingham has arrived in West London. I won't be going back.

Most succinct description I have yet seen of Westfield.

 

[teuchter]

Birmingham's arguably got a more interesting shopping centre than any in London...

 

[Dillinger4]

Yeh, but its in Birmingham.

 

[paolo]

Birmingham's arguably got a more interesting shopping centre than any in London...

Kind of. That's Selfridges and it looks great. The main shopping centre stuff isn't any where near as impressive.

 

[teuchter]

Kind of. That's Selfridges and it looks great. The main shopping centre stuff isn't any where near as impressive.

Yeah I know. I was hoping no-one would pick up on that technicality. I was quite disappointed to find this out when I went to look at it.

There is quite a nice shopping centre that just opened recently in Cambridge though; much more civilised than the norm and it fits quite sympathetically right into the middle of the town:

 

[skyscraper101]

I don't think the cinema makes enough to keep a place open. It's number 2 after the Morrisons but it's a distant second.

I'm not sure that shopping centre will close. Morrisons is always pretty busy, Wetherspoons gets pretty packed too, and the cinema is pretty decent. As for places like JJB Sports and Argos - they don't exist in Westfield so its still a good bet if you're after cheap stores.

My take on Westfield though - as I'm an unemployed and living in Shepherds Bush I've been twice now for a laugh.

Once on opening day with a festival size crowd which was hell on earth. I arrived just in time for Boris Johnson to announce over the PA 'I now declare Westfield Open' - cheers. I left after getting annoyed with the crowds and failing to find anywhere giving away free stuff.

The second time was on Thurday morning. Much better. It was pretty quiet. No problem getting served in the shops. Yo Sushi (and many other restaurants) had zero customers and I spent a good hour sitting at the Nintendo DS exhibition stand where they had a chef demonstrating the cooking software on the DS and handing out free food. Bonus!

 

[quimcunx]

As for the architecture of the shopping centre itself, they can forget about it being a "spectacular landmark" or whatever they claim on the website; it's really just any old shopping centre anywhere in the UK multiplied a couple of times in size. The wavy glass roof is there, and nice enough - although hardly a remarkable example of that kind of structure - but it's pretty much drowned out by the hyperactive jumble of everything crammed beneath it. The main atrium is mildy impressive but nothing special.

Did the undulating glass roof, made up of thousands of solid and clear panels, convey the intriguing interplay between water and light?

 

[teuchter]

Did the undulating glass roof, made up of thousands of solid and clear panels, convey the intriguing interplay between water and light?

But of course.

 

[quimcunx]

Good. Because I'm not going unless I am going to be intrigued by how reminiscent of water, light and the interplay between the two the undulating roof is.

 

[paolo]

Now if they'd taken the roof idea, and swept it gloriously and organically right down, sloping and meandering, to ground level, it could have been a devastatingly brilliant. An almost alien-like splodge of a building. As it is, it's just a slightly fancy roof on an otherwise anonymous box. And unless you walk along and continously look up, it might as well not be there.

 

[BEARBOT]

everytime i see pics of that selfridges in brum i think..yeah ive GOT to see that!
that is possibly the coolest looking building ive ever seen
is the interior 1/2 as interesting as the exterior?

as far as westfield goes..shame the design is boring..i doubt ill be going there anytime soon unless convinced to go by freinds.i do have some "girly" freinds.its all upmarket shops isnt it? im not too into window shopping..i only like practical shopping..and im not majorly into that as an activity IF they suddenly open the worlds largest poundland at westfield ill make the effort to go west

 

[pinkmonkey]

I went on Thursday night. My impressions. Its rubbish if you want to buy anything other than mid to high priced clothing or pointless gadgets. I really don't think I'm their target customer at all. I did go to buy clothes, so I guess it did its job. It wasn't that busy when I went. I found it confusing and I got lost. There are barely any signs in there, no maps, they have these interative screens instead and there aren't enough of them. The food court is so dimly lit you can't read the signage to see what the food outlets are selling (my God I sound like an old biddy!). The food court is really expensive - I spied a duck burger for £14! Without fries!!
According to Drapers Record, they report they did their sales targets for the first week so they are happy.
I don't think I'll bother to go back, it's not for me, the West End has more choice.

 

[nino_savatte]

I went on Thursday night. My impressions. Its rubbish if you want to buy anything other than mid to high priced clothing or pointless gadgets. I really don't think I'm their target customer at all. I did go to buy clothes, so I guess it did its job. It wasn't that busy when I went. I found it confusing and I got lost. There are barely any signs in there, no maps, they have these interative screens instead and there aren't enough of them. The food court is so dimly lit you can't read the signage to see what the food outlets are selling (my God I sound like an old biddy!). The food court is really expensive - I spied a duck burger for £14! Without fries!!
According to Drapers Record, they report they did their sales targets for the first week so they are happy.
I don't think I'll bother to go back, it's not for me, the West End has more choice.

I agree...I also spent ages looking for a loo. The maps are very confusing to read.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Mind you, thinking about it, if I spill wine over my keyboard again I can now pop down to the Apple Store there and buy a new one. Though I'll have to make sure to do that before 10pm.