WestQuay

WestQuay Shopping Centre

300px The Arundel Circus entrance to WestQuay
Location	Southampton, United Kingdom
Opening date	28 September 2000
Developer	Chapman Taylor & Partners
Management	Donaldsons
Owner	Hammerson
No. of stores and services	150 active
No. of anchor tenants	2
Total retail floor area	74,000 sqm (796,536 sqf)
No. of floors	6
Parking	Yes, 1 Podium, 1 Multi Storey
Website	Official website

WestQuay is a shopping centre in Southampton, United Kingdom, and has an area of 800,000 square feet (70,000 m²) of retail space and contains around a 150 shops, including major retailers such as, John Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Zara, Schuh, Waterstone's, Hollister Co., Bank, Apple, and many more top brand names.

It is situated in the centre of the city, close to the docks, with entrances on the main High Street (Above Bar Street), on Portland Terrace, through Waterstone's and through John Lewis. There is also a built in multi-storey car park with an entrance into the centre along with a 3 tier car park beneath. Building work began in 1997 as the former Daily Echo building and Pirelli Cable Works were demolished to make way for the centre. The centre was opened on 28 September 2000.

The building is heated using geothermal energy, as is the civic centre. A centralised plant uses heat from an aquifer underground and then distributes it to the buildings in the city centre via a district heating scheme.

The John Lewis store replaced the local department store Tyrrell & Green (a branch of the John Lewis Partnership), which met with mixed emotions from the local people. Marks & Spencer re-located from Above Bar Street to take the second anchor store.

There have been a few major changes to the centre's shops since its opening. Tower Records (which faced fierce competition from the HMV store across the street) was replaced with a Nike store, which closed after just a few months. This unit is now Pret A Manger a sandwich retailer. Waitrose moved to Portswood in 2006. The old Waitrose space has now been replaced by New Look as the current New Look store in the WestQuay was smaller. The smaller store, although having an upper floor, is now occupied by River Island. They have also moved, however they have come into WestQuay from a smaller high street store. In October 2007 some representatives from America came to Southampton (WestQuay) to learn about geothermal energy.

In mid May 2009 the first Hollister Store to be opened outside of the extended London area opened in WestQuay, this is considered to be a major coup for WestQuay as it reflects well on the strength of the retail offering available within WestQuay.

Construction

File:West-quay-under-construction.jpg

June 1999

WestQuay has been constructed on the former site of the Pirelli Cable Works and the 1960s Arundel Towers development (two office tower blocks above a multistorey car park) and it measures approximately ¼ of a mile from one end of the site to the other.

Demolition of the previous buildings began in September 1997 and WestQuay opened on 28 September 2000.

The development crosses over three major roads: The 20 m support structure from the two-storey glazed retail link over Portland Terrace weighs 400 tonnes, and Western Esplanade, opened in 1900 to link the Royal Pier with the West (now Central) Railway Station, was cut in half by the centre. Harbour Parade is crossed by a footbridge to the adjacent multistorey car park.

It absorbs a 4½ metre change in ground level between east and west boundaries and the length of the mall from Above Bar to Harbour Parade is 400 m, and on top of the mall, The rooflights extend to around 350 m in length. There are a total of 32 lifts throughout the development. The steelwork took 20 weeks to design, order and manufacture, 13 tower cranes worked on the site. The tallest crane had a 66 m mast and a reach of 65 m.

Southampton's nearby Geothermal Heat Station supplies heat and chilling facilities to the centre.

Television publicity

The WestQuay has had many of adverts on television in the local television region, particularly in the months leading up to christmas, often produced by well known creative firms such as Aardman Animations.

WestQuay has appeared briefly on an episode in the first series of Trinny & Susannah Undress on ITV and on an episode of Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.

WestQuay Watermark

There were original plans to refurbish the slope up from the High Street in 2010. These works would include the replacement of many shop fronts and the pulling up of the floor. As of September 2014, no further action has been taken on these plans.

During the late-2000s, Hammerson thought up plans for the £70 million extension entitled Watermark WestQuay. In December 2012, the model of the master plan was unveiled to the public. On 11 April 2013, it was announced that Hammerson has submitted the planning application to Southampton City Council, on which the council approved the outline planning application on 23 July 2013.

Then, on 14 April 2014, Hammerson submitted detailed designs for phase one of its Watermark WestQuay scheme to Southampton City Council. On 25 June 2014, the designs for phase one of the development has been approved. With the new name of WestQuay Watermark, the building work for phase one began in January 2015, with the closing of the existing walkway and the demolition of the entrance ramp.

The first phase comprises a landmark 10 screen cinema, which was owned by Showcase Cinemas as part of the Cinema De Lux brand, and up to 20 restaurants (including Wahaca, Zizzi, Byron Hamburgers, Five Guys, Nando's, Bill's Restaurant, Jamie's Italian, Cabana, Comso, Cau and Red Dog Saloon as of November 2015) alongside a major high quality public piazza.

Food Terrace redevelopment (2012)

During summer 2012, there was redevelopment going on at the Food Terrace. Completed in Autumn 2012, the updated area have some new restaurants including Wagamama, Café Rouge, Pizza Express, Ed's Easy Diner and Tortilla Mexican Grill. The other restaurants, such as McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Harry Ramsden's and [[Toby Carvery]] were refurbished as part of the redevelopment.

The existing outside terrace area is glazed for all-weather access, the seating area updated to include a mixture of soft and hard furnishings and a glass bridge installed linking Café Rouge and Wagamama. Also, the Food Terrace is rebranded as 'Dining at WestQuay', reflecting the casual dining option and environment that is now available. The official opening was Thursday 22 November 2012, even though Pizza Express opened on 8 November 2012, followed by Wagamama on 12 November 2012. In 2014, Cafe Rouge was shut and its unit is now being used by The Handmade Burger Company. Also, the Toby's Carvery unit is now being used by Subway.

Gallery

• Southampton the bargate street 2008 (England).jpg
• West-quay-shopping.jpg
• Westquaysoton.jpg
• West-quay-inside.jpg
• West-quay-stairs.jpg

See also

• Geothermal power in the United Kingdom

External links

• Official website