Whitgift Centre - North End, Croydon, UK
N 51° 22.508 W 000° 06.040
30U E 701781 N 5695532
The Whitgift Centre is a large shopping mall in Croydon. It sits between Wellesley Road, on its east side, and North End, a pedestrianised street, on its west side.
Waymark Code: WMJ3PR
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/18/2013
Views: 3
The Wikipedia website
tells us about the Whitgift Centre:
The Whitgift Centre is a large shopping centre and
office development in the centre of Croydon, London, opened in stages
between 1968 and 1970. The centre currently comprises 1,302,444 sq ft
(121,001.0 m2) of retail space and was the largest covered shopping
development in Greater London until the opening of Westfield London at White
City in October 2008. The shopping centre was used in the titles of the
first series of Terry & June. Hammerson and Westfield have formed a joint
venture to redevelop the shopping mall and combine it with Centrale.
The name comes from John Whitgift, a former Archbishop of Canterbury. The
freehold of the Centre is owned by the Whitgift Foundation, a registered
charity in England & Wales. They sold a long term lease to a company 75%
owned and controlled by Howard Holdings plc, and 25% by the Whitgift
Foundation themselves. Designed by Geddes Architects, the centre was built
on the site of Whitgift Middle School, renamed Trinity School of John
Whitgift in 1954, which moved to a new site at Shirley Park in 1965.
The first shop to open was Boots on 17 October 1968, and the centre itself
was officially opened in October 1970 by the Duchess of Kent. In the middle
of the Whitgift Centre there was a Roman-themed pub called The Forum. In the
1990s, the centre was almost completely rebuilt to an atrium design, and the
Forum pub was demolished.
The shopping centre is on three storeys — the upper two are for retail and
the basement provides vehicle access to any of the retail units with a 1
kilometre (0.62 mi) network of service roads. It adjoins the now closed
Allders department store, which has substantial frontage onto the Centre.
The office accommodation consists of five tower blocks rising above the
shopping centre.
As part of Croydon Vision 2020, plans to develop and expand the centre were
formalised by leaseholder and landlord Howard Holdings plc, for which a
planning application was submitted. Construction of the extension was due to
start in 2009 and be finished in 2014, as promised by Geddes Architects who
were the main contractor.
In 2010, Howard Holdings went into administration. Their 75% of the lease
company and management of the centre is now managed by their administrators,
on behalf of Royal London Asset Management and the Irish Bank Resolution
Corporation.
In mid-2011, two companies were invited to pitch for the redevelopment:
Australian-based Westfield Group and UK-French based Hammerson. The Whitgift
Foundation resultantly came to a binding agreement with Westfield for a £1Bn
redevelopment scheme. However, RLAM/IBRC preferred Hammerson, and so came to
an alternate agreement, announcing Hammerson as the winner in April 2012.
Much as though RLAM/IBRC owned 75% of the leasehold company, no development
could take place without the freeholder, the Whitgift Foundation's, full
agreement. In mid-2012, the joint-lease holders agreed on a public
consultation of the two rivals and their schemes. The winner will be
provided with a long-term lease, subject to redevelopment.
In January 2013 the Hammerson and Westfield formed a joint venture to
redevelop the shopping mall. The joint venture company will purchase a 25%
interest in the Whitgift Centre, following completion of Hammerson's
conditional acquisition agreement with Royal London. Under the new
agreement, they intend to redevelop and combine the two main Croydon
shopping centres, the Whitgift Centre and Centrale. The mixed use scheme of
around 200,000 m2 will include retail, leisure and residential use with the
potential for hotels and offices.
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