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The Trafford Centre is a large indoor shopping centre and leisure complex in Greater Manchester, England. Located in Urmston in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, the centre is within the Trafford Park industrial estate, five miles west of Manchester city centre.

The Trafford Centre opened in 1998 and is the third largest shopping centre in the United Kingdom by retail size. It was developed by the Peel Group and sold to Capital Shopping Centres (later to become Intu in 2013) following a £1.65 billion sale in 2011 – the largest single property acquisition in British history. As of 2017, the centre has a market value of £2.312 billion. After the previous owner Intu Properties had entered administration in June 2020, the Centre was placed into receivership by its creditors in November 2020 and ownership transferred to The Trafford Centre Limited. In December 2020 the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, who had loaned Intu £250 million in 2017, exercised their rights as creditors to acquire the shares from the administrators and take ownership of the complex.

The site was owned by the Manchester Ship Canal Company and built around the owners (Mr & Mrs Trafford) ship, that was decommissioned in 1985, until 1986, when the company was acquired by John Whittaker of Peel Holdings, who had plans to build an out-of-town shopping centre. The planning process was one of the longest and most expensive in the history of the United Kingdom; concerns surrounded the effect the shopping centre might have on retailers in smaller towns and villages in Greater Manchester and potential traffic problems caused by its proximity to the M60 motorway. The matter was decided by the House of Lords in 1996.

Twelve years after the Trafford Centre was conceptualised by the Peel Group, it opened on 10 September 1998. Construction took 27 months at a cost of £600 million - approximately £1 billion in 2016. Two further extensions have since opened, Barton Square and the Great Hall in 2008, at a combined cost of over £100 million. Its rococo/late baroque architectural style pays homage to the history of the area. The Orient food hall is built around a steam ship, reflecting the centre's proximity to the Manchester Ship Canal.

Ten per cent of the UK population live within a 45-minute drive of the shopping centre, which attracts more than 35 million visits annually. It has Europe's largest food court in The Orient and the UK's busiest cinema, attracting more than 28,500 visitors each week. There are over 11,500 car parking spaces. The Trafford Park Line forms a direct Metrolink tram connection from the Trafford Centre to Manchester city centre via Pomona - construction began in 2016, and the extension opened on 22 March 2020.

The Trafford Centre's unorthodox style of architecture was prompted by the wish to offer a unique shopping experience. John Whittaker, chairman of Peel Holdings, had to convince architects that a lavish design would not alienate shoppers. Peel Holdings were keen to avoid the problem that afflicts many shopping centres after years in use whereby they become dated and stale, this has become a problem for many dilapidated shopping centres in the United Kingdom that were built in the 1960s and 1970s. Although the extravagant Rococo and Baroque design may be viewed as gaudy the prospect of the shopping centre ageing and becoming dated is greatly mitigated.

The centre has four main areas across two floors, Peel Avenue, Regent Crescent, the Dome, and the Orient, and was designed so that visitors enter on both main shopping floors in equal numbers. This avoids the problem where visitors do not visit the upper floors and retailers avoid upper floor units. The ODEON Cinema is on the third floor along with other leisure facilities such as Laser Quest. The Trafford Centre was built to be "future-proof" in the words of developer John Whittaker with the infrastructure for an additional fourth floor built during construction.

The Trafford Centre is Rococo/late Baroque in design, with eclectic elements of Art Deco and Egyptian Revival. It is decorated primarily in shades of white, pink and gold with ivory, jade and caramel coloured marble throughout. There are three domed atria along the length of the mall, and Peel claim the middle dome is bigger than that at St Paul's Cathedral. The central dome cost £5 million to construct. The Trafford Centre has 45,000 square metres of marble and granite flooring from Montignosa and Quarlata in Italy at a cost of £5.8 million (1996 value) and gold leaf adorns the building's columns.

The Trafford Centre has features which pay homage to the local area and North West England. The Orient food hall is themed around a steam ship, paying homage to the Industrial Revolution and the nearby Manchester Ship Canal. The Lancashire Rose also permeates the décor on window panes and interior cornices.

Source - Wikipedia