Trafford Centre

From Freepedia

The Trafford Centre is a large indoor shopping centre located in Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. It has 118,766 square metres of retail space and attracts 29 million visits annually. It is made up of 4 main areas: Peel Avenue, Regent Crescent, The Dome and The Orient.

The Trafford Centre was the largest shopping centre in the United Kingdom for six months from its opening in September 1998 until Bluewater opened in Kent in March 1999, and it is still the fifth largest after the Metrocentre, Bluewater, Merry Hill and Meadowhall. A recently started 200,000sq ft expansion of the centre will make it once again the largest centre in the UK, alongside Bluewater.

The Trafford Centre houses over 280 shops, including large anchor stores such as Debenhams, the first Selfridges outside of London, and the new large John Lewis, alongside common high street names such as Marks & Spencer, Boots, H&M, W H Smith and Bhs.

Other non-retail facilities are all located in a central spur called The Orient, which includes a 20 screen UCI multiplex cinema, Lazer Quest arena, a large Namco Centre with Dodgems, Bowling and Arcade Games. There are also dozens of restaurants and bars including McDonalds, Bradwells English, Ma Potters, Nando's and Cathay Dim Sum.

The Trafford Centre announced in October 2005, that a proposed expansion had been approved. A new outdoor area is due to begin construction in mid-2006, and will be connected to the centre using a large walkway/bridge