# Trafford Centre



## Rocket Romano (Oct 10, 2005)

Had a trip to the Trafford Centre at the weekend.

And what an utter disappointment it was.

Its quite small and bar the food court and Selfridges it has nothing going for it all.

Don't understand how anyone can spend the day there. Sure it looks pretty but its soooooo small


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## chio (Oct 10, 2005)

It looks pretty?!

The thing is grotesque - a falsely opulent cathedral to vacuous consumerism.


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## AnnO'Neemus (Oct 10, 2005)

I felt the same.  Only been the once.  Have friends who shop at the Trafford Centre a lot, but I live closer to Manchester city centre (a 10 minute walk). Finally went to see what all the fuss was about.  And what was it about?    It's just a relatively small shopping centre with horrible food courts and a cinema tacked on.


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## Throbbing Angel (Oct 10, 2005)

Chio, Ann, couldn't agree more - with both of you!

Horrible food court - what a feckin' nightmare that is
Cinema's average I suppose - handy having so much parking - that's all thats going for it in my opinion tho'

The only shops I use in there are H&M [cos it's cheap and near one of the main exits so I can go in-get - go out]

The Boots chemist opposite the H&M

The Music Zone for cheap DVDs which is also opposite [t'other way] the H&M

I go to Trafford CNtr and have a maximum radius of 100metres


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## comstock (Oct 10, 2005)

Why go to a place like that when city centres across the country have so much more to offer?


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## chriswill (Oct 10, 2005)

Rocket Romano said:
			
		

> Had a trip to the Trafford Centre at the weekend.
> 
> And what an utter disappointment it was.
> 
> ...


I have to go there every bastard day.


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## sorearm (Oct 11, 2005)

chriswill said:
			
		

> I have to go there every bastard day.



lol, no wonder you're an angry chef!

me - I fucking loath the place. It's the most tackiest, god-awful, enclosed version of hell I had the misfortune to experience. Only been there about 3 times since it's been open and each time took me ages to recover - its so stressful! and don't even think of going there at the weekend!


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## chriswill (Oct 11, 2005)

Dont ever go

Its full of cunts.


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## Jambooboo (Oct 11, 2005)

I pride myself on the fact that I have never once been to the place. Mall type places confuse me big time. It took me years to 'understand' the Arndale. 

Never set foot in The Triangle either (used to love the Corn Exchange when I was a nipper) or Selfridges or Harvey Nicks and apart from the flicks I never go in the Printworks.

Partly this is because blind sheeplike consumerism fucks me off and partly it's cos I've turned into a cheapskate (I prefer the term 'savvy' - I must be Primark's #1 customer - even H+M is pushing the boat out!).


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## Alf Klein (Oct 11, 2005)

chriswill said:
			
		

> Dont ever go
> 
> Its full of cunts.


That's the good thing about it. If it wasn't there, all those cunts would be on the loose!!


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## binka (Oct 11, 2005)

only been once, to go bowlin, hated the place. 

but i hate busy shopping centres anyway. i try to avoid going into manchester city centre whenever possible aswell. too many people aimlessly walking round, getting in my way


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## Rocket Romano (Oct 11, 2005)

At least the Metrocentre's got a theme park for the grown ups to hide in!


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## parallelepipete (Oct 11, 2005)

Rocket Romano said:
			
		

> Its quite small...


What's happened to it since I left Manchester?  

It's a monster of a building! (Admittedly there's nothing inside it worth visiting the place for)

I went there twice myself in two years, and I think each time the only reason was because the shops were open so late and I was running out of time to buy a present. 

And each time the bus I was on got caught in the queues of cars trying to get out of the place. Miserable experience - more cloned than a cloned thing.


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## Rocket Romano (Oct 11, 2005)

parallelepipete said:
			
		

> What's happened to it since I left Manchester?
> 
> It's a monster of a building! (Admittedly there's nothing inside it worth visiting the place for)



Compared to Meadowhall its pretty small and compared to Metrocentre, its like a corner shop


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## Bomber (Oct 11, 2005)

Rocket Romano said:
			
		

> Sure it looks pretty but its soooooo small



 .........  Small !! Pretty ? !!   Place is a bloody nightmare !! Give me Nantwich town centre anyday !!


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## chio (Oct 11, 2005)

Bomber said:
			
		

> Give me Nantwich town centre anyday !!



You can keep it.


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## Bomber (Oct 11, 2005)

chio said:
			
		

> You can keep it.



 I quite like Nantwich


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## tangerinedream (Oct 11, 2005)

It's rubbish - but show me an out of town shopping centre that isn't rubbish and full of the same identikit shops and I'll say 

_"actually the freeport shopping centre is a perfect example of urban regeneration and it's handfull of low paid low prospect jobs have gone a long way towards renewing a town on the recieving end of a 25 yr decline in skilled industry - and what's more, the sensitive design of it adds well to the aesthetic qualities of the area, the people of fleetwood have long needed a New England style fishing village consisting of shops made out of corrugated iron and breezeblock"_

You can't beat Chorley Market  








(the result of google image search and 'chorley market' = 'man with three large onions'   )


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## Fledgling (Oct 11, 2005)

I spent the most horrible time in Meadowhall one weekend near Christmass a while back, and lo and behold they created its even nastier clone, what a dump, hideous place. 

I've been there three times and admit it was useful once, but it's so life-sapping and silly. I think the food court looks daft. 

My second visit was without a car as I waas helping a London friend find a travel inn he had booked as he's a Utd fan. Spent hours trying to get there, found the wrong travel inn as it turns out that for some perverse reason there are two in the vicinity. So we spent about 40mins walking across the car park, the sodding car park, yes, 40mins AND over roads, crash barriers, metal fences all the usual things us pedestrians have to endure at these out-of-town places as some kind of Dante-esque punishment for not taking a car with us (in fact I hear the definition of "car" in out-of-town places will soon only include 4x4s with blacked out windows). 

Just pointless and the food court with the foreign/intl resturants looks cheap.


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## Fez909 (Nov 3, 2005)

Small? Don't be ridiculous. It was the biggest shopping centre in the UK when it opened, and will be again, after the new expansion they have planned.

According to Wikipedia, it's currently the 5th largest shopping centre in UK.

Hardly "small."


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## Rocket Romano (Nov 3, 2005)

Fez909 said:
			
		

> Small? Don't be ridiculous. It was the biggest shopping centre in the UK when it opened, and will be again, after the new expansion they have planned.
> 
> According to Wikipedia, it's currently the 5th largest shopping centre in UK.
> 
> Hardly "small."




Its small compared to the Metrocentre and Meadowhall were my EXACT words

Compared to Metrocentre the Trafford Centre is minute and has nothing


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## Wookey (Nov 4, 2005)

You can see the twin blue domes from my front step, it's a lovely shiny thing on the horizon!!

Before the Trafford Centre came, my town of Eccles was a depressed former mill and munitions town, with high unemployment, closed and boarded-up shops, a shitty old bus station.

Now, a huge number of locals are employed by the Centre, we have international name shops on our doorstep, we got a brand new bus terminal to cope with the increased traffic - and we were joined to the tram system, the building of which was wholly dependant on the Trafford Centre build going ahead.

All the local cinemas we used to have were closed with the advent of VHS, and turned into bingo halls. For most of the 80s and 90s there were no local cinemas - now we have a vibrant 8 screen cinema that shows a huge percentage of foreign and Bollywood films to cater for our growing Asian population. This is unheard of in my town.

The pubs of Eccles were famed for their violence - and until Trafford the only safe night out was a long trip into town. Now, you're a short walk away from a film, a curry, a club-night piss-up, and a stumble back home. No, it's not real, it's not authentic, and its reeks of naffness and philistinism - but when all you had before was fuck all, it's ain't a bad improvement.

Now, with the increased interest in Eccles, we've got a new Morrisons, a new market hall, they've redesigned the town centre to take account of the increased traffic, and at least partially undone the nasty vandalism of the 1960s, that destroyed our streets and turned the town into a concrete jungle.

I would love to return to the days of little independent shops in our town centre, the bakeries and the milliners and the cobblers, the little record store the Play Inn, or the novelty shop that sold glittery things and potions.

But the major High Street players have changed the way we shop irrevocably in the last 20 years, and car ownership has made out-of-town commercial meccas de rigeur. This has happened all over the country, and is certainly regrettable. 

Personally, I think the mish-mash of Romanesque and Grecian styles at Trafford reveals a cheap, badly-designed theme behind the centre. I object to its plastic fakery, despite the fact that you can eat from 7 continents in one day.

But I would say that the understandable reactions against mass commercialisation should be tempered with the knowledge that many local people (who live every day with the increased traffic) thank God for the day the Trafford Centre was opened, and sorely missing facilities suddenly began having an effect on our forgotten little burg.


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## Fez909 (Nov 4, 2005)

Rocket Romano said:
			
		

> Its small compared to the Metrocentre and Meadowhall were my EXACT words
> 
> Compared to Metrocentre the Trafford Centre is minute and has nothing


They may have been, but:




> Sure it looks pretty but its soooooo small



Were also your EXACT words.


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## chriswill (Nov 4, 2005)

Wookey said:
			
		

> You can see the twin blue domes from my front step, it's a lovely shiny thing on the horizon!!
> 
> Before the Trafford Centre came, my town of Eccles was a depressed former mill and munitions town, with high unemployment, closed and boarded-up shops, a shitty old bus station.
> 
> ...




Nice post    and all too true.
it provides me with an income so I best not speak too ill of the place.


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## chio (Nov 4, 2005)

Fez909 said:
			
		

> They may have been, but:
> 
> Were also your EXACT words.



Bloody hell, you're a bag of laughs aren't you?!

(Good post, Wookey.  )


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## moose (Nov 5, 2005)

Every civilisation sees the need to build some enormous over-blown monument to itself shortly before its destruction. One day, the Trafford Centre will be marvelled over like the Lost City of Atlantis or the Valley of the Kings.


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## Throbbing Angel (Nov 5, 2005)

We've told you before Moose

PUT MORE TOBACCO IN!


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## stereotypical (Nov 5, 2005)

Yeah, Trafford Centre is pretty shit.  All these shopping centres are the same, full of dead expensive designer shops sellin shite clothes.

Meadowhall in Sheffield is utter tosh


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