Bluewater
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| Bluewater
<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller;">Image:Bluewater5.jpg | |
| Mall facts and statistics | |
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| <tr><th>Location</th> <td>Greenhithe, Kent, England</td></tr><tr><th>Opening date</th> <td>March 16, 1999</td></tr><tr><th>Developer</th> <td>Lend Lease</td></tr><tr><th>Management</th> <td>Lend Lease</td></tr><tr><th>Owner</th> <td>Prudential plc (35%), Lend Lease Europe Limited (30%), The Lend Lease Retail Partnership (25%), and Hermes (10%) <ref>http://www.bluewater.co.uk/bottom-navigation/corporate</ref></td></tr><tr><th>No. of stores and services</th> <td>330</td></tr><tr><th>No. of anchor tenants</th> <td>3</td></tr><tr><th>Total retail floor area</th> <td>1,675,000 ft² (155,700 m²)</td></tr><tr><th>Parking</th> <td>13,000 cars, 100 coaches</td></tr><tr><th>No. of floors</th> <td>2</td></tr><tr><th>Website</th> <td>www.bluewater.co.uk</td></tr> | |
- This article is about a shopping mall. For the census-designated place, see Bluewater, California.
Bluewater is a super-regional shopping centre, opened on March 16, 1999. It is located in Greenhithe in the borough of Dartford, just outside the M25 motorway in northwest Kent, England. It is jointly owned by four major UK institutions, Prudential plc (35%), Lend Lease Europe Ltd (30%), the Lend Lease Retail Partnership (25%) and Hermes (10%) <ref>http://www.bluewater.co.uk/bottom-navigation/corporate</ref>.
The centre is in the middle of a 240-acre (97 ha) lot and has a sales floor area of 154,000 m² (1,600,000 ft²) in two levels, making it one of the largest shopping centres in the UK. The floor plan is a triangular shape, with a department store at each corner. There are 330 stores of which 40 cafés and restaurants, 3 anchor stores, and a 13-screen cinema. The centre employs 7,000 and serves over 27 million visitors a year.
Bluewater is in direct competition with Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock which is a short distance across the river Thames in Essex (via the Dartford Crossing).
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[edit] Description
The three department stores located at each corner of Bluewater are: House of Fraser, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer. Around them, many well-known chain stores are represented in the centre. Such shops include: Schuh, HMV, Zara, Next, H&M, Topshop, New Look, Boots, WH Smith, Virgin Megastores, Waterstone's, and Jessops. In addition, there are many unique boutiques, either exclusive to Bluewater or as complementary shops to their London branches. The parking at Bluewater is extensive with multi-level features and connections directly onto the shopping center.
In addition to its large retail area, 13-screen cinema, and 40 cafés and restaurants, Bluewater offers recreational facilities either indoor or in the park surrounding the centre, such as a climbing wall, a discovery trail, fishing, cycling, boating, miniature golf and an ice skating rink in winter.
Regular buses to and from local towns serve the Centre, via its own Bus Station. Greenhithe railway station is connected by shuttle bus to the Centre's bus station. All trains running between Gravesend and Dartford now stop at Greenhithe, which had previously been served infrequently.
The A2 runs nearby and is the primary route to the centre. The Bean interchange is the junction that serves the centre.
[edit] History
There had been plans as early as the mid-to-late eighties to build a shopping centre in the former chalk quarry. Two companies, Shearwater and Blue Circle, had joined forces to create a shopping centre to be called Bluewater Park (a combination of the names of the two companies). The recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, left only Blue Circle in the project. Planning permission was granted in 1990 for the shopping centre but the project was left undeveloped.
In 1994, Blue Circle approached Australian mall developer Lend Lease to form a partnership. Instead, Lend Lease bought the land and the project from Blue Circle, and gathered a group of major investors, which included: Prudential, Barclays Mercantile, Hermes (acting for Britel), Lloyds Leasing, and Royal Bank Leasing. Lend Lease also formed a pool of minor investors, called the Lend Lease Retail Partnership, with 18 institutions and corporations.
With the Bluewater project finally underway, it was time to sign up the tenants, beginning with the major ones. John Lewis was the first in February 1995, albeit with major concessions, such as the offer of 300,000 ft², one-fifth of the entire floor space, on three levels. Still, this gave Bluewater the credibility it needed to sign more names, including the two other anchor stores. House of Fraser was next and in June 1996 Marks & Spencer signed too. By March 1998, 90% of the retail space was committed.
Construction started on May 1, 1996. At its peak, the construction site employed 2,500 workers simultaneously. In all, 20,000 people worked 11.5 million hours on the construction of Bluewater. At the planned opening date, March 16, 1999, Bluewater was inaugurated with 99% of the shops open for business. The total cost of construction was around GBP £400 million.
In May 2005, Bluewater became one of the first shopping centres in the UK to ban swearing, smoking (except in designated areas), clothing that obscures the face (including hoods), and groups of more than five without the intention to shop. This provoked outrage in the liberal press and among Kentish youth.
[edit] Trivia
- The full name of the shopping centre is just Bluewater.
- A 224-page coffee-table book was published by Lend Lease in 1999. It contains the full history and details prior to the opening. As of 2005 it was still available at Bluewater's Welcome Halls.
- Over 400 CCTV cameras monitor the centre. Security for the centre is provided by a deployment of Kent Police officers.
- Bluewater used to host a Land Rover trial track, but this closed to make space for a bus route.
- There was a multi-faith chapel/relaxation area, but this space was reassigned.
- Footballers Wives filmed scenes in Bluewater during Series 3, during one of which the character Amber went shopping, and fell asleep in a bed in the window of House of Fraser.
- The Bollywood film Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham was partly filmed in Bluewater.
- The Sims 2: Open For Business, an expansion pack to the popular computer game The Sims 2 contains a default shopping district dubbed "Bluewater Village".
[edit] References
- Emma Dorreen, editor/project manager; Michael Evamy, writer (1999). Vision to Reality. London: Lend Lease. ISBN 0-9537054-0-4.
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[edit] External links
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