Westfield Centre Stratford (and London)

The Westfield Centre, Stratford

In 2011, Westfield opened Westfield Stratford City, the prestigious gateway to the London 2012 Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. With over 350 shops, 70 places to eat and drink, cinema, bowling, hotels and offices, Westfield Stratford City is Europe’s largest urban shopping centre.

08ac0a87-1565-4c65-9083-1f4a8e7730ea (image/png)

What is it?

It covers 176000 square metres and is owned by The Westfield Group, an Australian property development company. It looks more like an American shopping mall than a British high street. It is part of the larger commercial centre, Stratford City, which also has office space. The shopping complex is the core of the Westfield. 240 out of the 300 shops are up-market fashion outlets which specialize in luxury designer brands like Prada. There are mainstream chain stores like M&S, Waitrose, Next and Debenhams who also bring luxury items along with high street and supermarket functions to one location. This is unusual for London as it usually separates the high-spend and the mass-market stores.The centre also aims to offer more than shopping: 70 restaurants and a 14 screen multiplex cinema (originally it didn't offer McDonald's or KFC, instead offering more upmarket choices e.g. the Square Pie Company but has since relaxed this policy). 120000 square metres of hotel space. 640000 square metres of commercial space (half the space of the Canary Wharf complex).

Why was it built and how will it continue to bring back services?

It was built to improve the area around the Olympic park and to regenerate the economy of the area as well.This area has been identified as a focus for development and the Council, along with the Greater London Authority and Transport for London, has adopted a Planning Framework for the area. This Framework focuses on environmental, social, economic and design objectives for the regeneration and development of the area. These aims include the creation of a new urban quarter with 10,000 new jobs and 4,500 new homes to the east of Wood Lane. Local people were invited to a public consultation on the White City Opportunity Area Planning Framework in summer 2011 and again on a revised draft Framework in summer 2013. We will be investing over £1 billion in creating a new residential quarter and expanding the retail and leisure facilities provided at Westfield London. In April 2014, the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham granted Westfield outline planning consent to build 1,347 new homes, new leisure facilities and shops including a new John Lewis department store. The application was approved by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, in May 2014 who said:"Westfield has had a transformational impact on Shepherds Bush and White City, kick starting widespread social and economic regeneration.This expansion will create thousands of much-needed new homes and jobs and ensure that the area remains one of West London’s leading shopping destinations for many years to come."

Pros and Cons

Pros                                                                                                      It improved  and regenerated the area close to the new Olympic Park, using retail, which made the image of Britain that much better. It brought in businesses which otherwise would not have located in this area. This area being in the heart of one of London's most deprived boroughs (Newham). Unlike the regeneration of the Docklands, the jobs created by this regeneration (around 8500) could mostly go to local people instead of those who were highly qualified. Set up a Retail Academy designed to improve qualifications in the retail industry, helped to address the issue of a low - skilled population. It also helped to redevelop Stratford's town centre which had become run down due to competition from out-of-town shopping. 

Cons London has plenty of shops, what the East end needed was more affordable housing. Even though there are now plans to build new blocks of housing in the area, how much of these will be affordable is highly questionable. Apart from the location it is not particularly accessible to local people. There are too many stores which cater to those on high salaries and so local people have this huge complex on their door step but can't really use it. Traffic is also a problem for local people.

f4df595f-131a-444f-88e3-c6518d173821 (image/jpg)