Originally developed by the Peel Group, the Trafford Centre was sold to Capital Shopping Centres, later to become Intu, in 2011 for £1.65 billion;[14] it set a record as the costliest single property sale in British history.[15]
The battle to obtain permission to build the centre was amongst the longest and most expensive in United Kingdom planning history.[4] As of 2011[update], the Trafford Centre had Europe's largest food court and the UK's busiest cinema.[1]
History
Genesis
The site was owned by the Manchester Ship Canal Company which John Whittaker's Peel Holdings had been acquiring shares in since 1971[16]Manchester City Council also had a stake, but by the mid 1980s Whittaker had a majority control and proposed building an out-of-town shopping centre, and other schemes.[17]
The council faced a conflict of interest as both a local planning authority and shareholder. Its minority shareholding also no longer gave it any real control over the company. Accordingly, in 1986 it surrendered the right to appoint all but one of the Manchester Ship Canal's directors, and sold its shares to Whittaker for £10 million.[17]
Manchester City Council opposed Whittaker's proposal for retail development, stating it would impact negatively on the city centre economy, but accepted it was "obviously in the interests of the shareholders".[17]
Twelve years after being proposed, the Trafford Centre opened on 10 September 1998. Construction had taken 27 months at a cost of £600 million.[23] The Barton Square and Great Hall extensions opened in 2008, at a combined cost of over £100 million.[24]
Intu
Peel Group sold the centre to Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) in January 2011 for £1.6 billion, in cash and shares,[25] and John Whittaker, chairman of Peel Group, became deputy chairman of CSC.[26] He later claimed he could have sold the centre for over £2 billion if he had been prepared to accept just cash.[27] Nevertheless the £1.6 billion deal remained the largest property transaction in British history,[15][28] and the biggest European property deal of 2011.[29]
As of 2017[update], Intu claimed a fair market value of £2.312 billion for the centre.[31] However, the firm entered administration in June 2020 and the centre was placed into receivership by its creditors in November 2020.[32] In 2020, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, who had loaned Intu £250 million in 2017, exercised their rights as creditors to take ownership of the complex.[6]
Post Intu
Construction of the Trafford Park LineMetrolink tram connection from the Trafford Centre to Manchester city centre via Pomona began in 2016 and opened during 2020.[33]
Building
Looking up into the main dome
John Whittaker, chose a lavish, unorthodox style seeking to avoid the centre rapidly appearing dated and stale, as so many United Kingdom shopping centres built in the 1960s and 1970s had become. Although the extravagant Rococo and Baroque design may be viewed as gaudy, he argued the prospect of the shopping centre rapidly ageing was mitigated.[34]
When we first started the architects said, "you shouldn’t be doing all this and giving it all the razzmatazz and showbiz, leave that to the retailers. Make it plain, make it clinical, make it white and hospitalised and let them do the work". So then we put in the paintings, we put in the real gold leaf, we put artefacts everywhere, paintings. It is the people’s palace. It is something to attract shoppers ... to give them the Dallas effect.
The design was a collaboration between the architectural practices of Chapman Taylor and Manchester-based Leach Rhodes Walker. Main contractor was Bovis,[36] with structural engineering services provided by WSP Group. Such was the size and detailing of the building, architects ended up producing over 3,000 separate shop drawings and the construction process required 24 chartered architects to work on the project full-time to monitor it.[4]
Peel Avenue, Regent Crescent, the Dome, and The Orient, comprising the original centre were designed so that visitor flows split equally between their two floors.[37] The Cinema and other leisure facilities are on the third floor, with the infrastructure for an additional fourth floor built ready during the initial construction.[35] There was a originally a market-style area at the end of Peel Avenue called Festival Village, playing host to a range of children's entertainment, independent retailers and restaurants.[38] It was eventually closed in late 2003 to make way for a John Lewis store, which opened in May 2005.
The Trafford Centre also contains eclectic Art Deco and Egyptian Revival elements. It is decorated primarily in shades of white, pink and gold with ivory, jade and caramel coloured marble throughout.[39][35]
As of 1996[update] there were 45,000 square metres (480,000 sq ft) or £5.8 million of Tuscanmarble and granite flooring from Montignoso and Quarrata,[40] and gold leaf adorns the building's columns.[39] The marble floors and handrails are polished nightly to maintain the centre's opulence.[41]
Portraits around the walls of the mall depict members of the Whittaker family. A Mercedes car formerly belonging to John Whittaker's mother was initially displayed on the first floor mall outside F. Hinds but is now in Trafford Palazzo.[43]
Sculpture
A feature of the centre, and particularly Trafford Palazzo, is the statuary, fountains and other sculpture. There are over 100 figures, mainly in a classical Greek / Roman, or Art Nouveau style.[44]
Greek and Art Nouveau style figures in the link to Trafford Palazzo
Lion sculptures in Trafford Palazzo
Roman style sculpture in Trafford Palazzo
Dolphin fountain
Mermaid fountain, Trafford Palazzo
The Orient
The Orient
The Orient is Europe's largest food court with 1,600 seats and 35 retail outlets.[1] It is decorated in the style of a 1930s ocean liner,[48] incorporating detail representing China, New Orleans, Egypt, Italy, americana and Morocco.[49] The two floors incorporate restaurants, bars and fast food outlets in sight of a giant screen.
Great Hall
Great Hall
The Great Hall opened 2007, its glazed structure housing five restaurants and cafes. Construction took 18 months at a cost of £26 million and incorporates a sweeping staircase with marblebalustrades. The centre claims its Great Hall has the largest chandelier in the world at 11 metres (36 ft) wide and 15 metres (49 ft) high. The feature incorporates three internal maintenance walkways and weighs five ton.[50]
Shops inside the centre
Trafford Palazzo (formerly Barton Square)
Barton Square before new level & roof addedEntrance to Trafford Palazzo
The 19,000 square metres (200,000 sq ft), covered Trafford Palazzo opened in 2008[51] and cost £70 million.[52] The former name referenced nearby Barton-upon-Irwell.
Trafford Palazzo is linked to the main Trafford Centre by a glazed bridge and incorporates a mock Italian renaissance square with fountain and campanile tower.[citation needed]
Barton Square in 2021
A £75 million renovation commenced in mid 2018[53] for Primark to open as an anchor tenant in 2020.[9] The first floor extension created 110,000 sq ft of new retail floor space.[54]
Domed roof added after the addition of the second floor
As of 2011[update], 10 percent of the UK population lived within a 45-minute drive of the Trafford Centre.[1]
Road
The Trafford Centre has 12,500 car spaces and 350 coach spaces; it is sited off the M60, at junctions 9 and 10. Its popularity has resulted in traffic congestion on the M60's Barton High-Level Bridge, requiring a link road adjacent to the M60 crossing the ship canal on a new lift bridge.[citation needed]
All vehicles entering the centre have number plate details recorded via automatic number plate recognition. Since its introduction in 2003 at a cost of £220,000,[2] the system has reduced the number of thefts of and from vehicles to a level described as "negligible".[59] The ANPR tracks cars which have been used for serious offences and details of any car with such a number plate can then be passed to Stretford Police station.[2]
Buses
There is a bus station at the west end of the Trafford Centre, with services to most towns in Greater Manchester.[60][61]
^Lord Lloyd of Berwick (24 May 1995). Opinions of the Lords of Appeal for Judgment in the cause Bolton Metropolitan District Council and others (respondents) versus Secretary of State for the Environment and others (appellants) (Report). House of Lords.
^From de Trafford to the House of Lords, Trafford Centre, 1997
^Thomas, Daniel (26 January 2011). "Investors agree CSC deal for Trafford Centre". The Financial Times. Archived from the original on 25 August 2011. Retrieved 27 March 2012. The deal is the largest-ever UK property transaction. Mr Whittaker, Peel chairman, told the shareholder meeting the sale had nothing to do with the amount of money, which would have been higher through a cash sale, but was related to the long-term future of his family business.
^Packard, Simon (23 February 2012). "Capital Shopping Earnings Rise as Trafford Centre Purchase Lifts Revenue". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 9 March 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2012. The company's 1.6 billion-pound purchase of the Trafford Centre in Manchester, England, in January 2011 was the biggest single property transaction in Europe last year, according to New York-based Real Capital Analytics Inc.
^"Is the dream over for the man who built the Trafford Centre?". Manchester Evening News. 28 June 2020. Archived from the original on 29 June 2020. Retrieved 29 June 2020. Whittaker looked to Las Vegas for inspiration, but the devout Roman Catholic also looked to the Vatican, with the domes and Romanesque frescoes included 'so it wouldn't date'.
^ abcSwanton, Oliver (2 September 1998). "The mall that ate Manchester". The Independent. Archived from the original on 20 February 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
^"Play". The Trafford Centre. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
^Scheerhout, John (23 May 2004). "Spy in sky cure for car crime". Manchester Evening News. Archived from the original on 10 January 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2009.
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