Trafford Centre Manchester UK focus tourist

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The Trafford Centre
Trafford-arial.jpg
The main Trafford Centre mall is pictured centre and the Barton Square extension is towards the top left.
Location Dumplington, Trafford,
Greater Manchester, England
Opening date 10 September 1998; 23 years ago[1]
Previous names Intu Trafford Centre
Developer The Peel Group
Management Savills[nb 1]
Owner Canada Pension Plan Investment Board[2]
Architect Chapman Taylor[3]
Leach Rhodes Walker
No. of stores and services 200
No. of anchor tenants
6
Total retail floor area Retail: 185,000 m2[5][6]
Leisure: 16,258m2[5]
Dining: 13,935m2[5]
Total: 207,000 m2 (2,230,000 sq ft)[5]
No. of floors 3
Parking 12,500[7]
Website traffordcentre.co.uk
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.[8][9] 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[10] – the largest single property acquisition in British history.[11] As of 2017, the centre has a market value of £2.312 billion.[12] 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.[13] 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.[2]

The site was owned by the Manchester Ship Canal Company 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.[14] The matter was decided by the House of Lords in 1996.[15][16]

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.[14] 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 themed as a steam ship, reflecting the centre's proximity to the Manchester Ship Canal.[17][18]

Ten per cent of the UK population live within a 45-minute drive of the shopping centre,[6] which attracts more than 35 million visits annually.[19] It has Europe's largest food court in The Orient and the UK's busiest cinema, attracting more than 28,500 visitors each week.[6] 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.[20]TRAFFORD CENTRE BIGGEST SHOPPING MALL AND FOOD COURT IN MANCHESTER SHOPPING IN UK focus tourist