Shopping
Something else that Liverpool has to look forward to in 2008 is the completion of what is promised to be Europe’s largest retail development around the Paradise Street area. The scheme, which will cover 43 acres of the city centre, will cost around £800m to develop and will include vast numbers of shops (approximately 1.65 million sq ft of retail space), as well as restaurants, hotels, a gallery, offices, recording studios, a meeting hall and a new public park.
Rather than being a covered mall, the new shopping area will retain the existing open streets plan, but will be divided into 6 distinct areas – a central, pedestrianised street for the flagship stores, an area of galleries and small squares to attract fashion boutiques, a two-storey shopping street for High Street stores, an ‘informal’ district for homeware stores, the public park and the ‘point of arrival’ area, which will include 3,000 parking spaces and an interchange for the new tram system due to be installed in Liverpool by 2008.
The development will give a much-needed boost to a shopping scene that has long been regarded as inferior to Manchester. That said, the city still has a variety of interesting shopping experiences to keep both the label-obsessed and the quirky shopper content until 2008. While the main centres at Clayton Square and St John’s are largely composed of chain stores, designer shops – including the (Vivienne) Westwood Store which opened in 2003 – can be found at the Cavern Designer Centre off Mathew Street and trendy brands – for example, Karen Millen, Dune and Kookai – proliferate along Bold Street, which is also the location of the Jeffs womanswear department store, commonly described as the “Harrods of Liverpool”.
The Albert Dock also has a sprinkling of fine art and gift shops while, further out of town, upmarket shops abound in Lord Street, Southport, a mile-long boulevard with numerous glass-roofed shopping arcades containing a mix of high-end chain stores and independent speciality shops, with a particular accent on jewellers, arts and crafts and fine goods.
The city of Chester is also within easy striking distance of Liverpool, and also offers both run-of-the-mill and upmarket shops. It is most famous for its ‘rows’, two-storey galleried streets dating back to medieval times. Eastgate Street contains a range of traditional shops selling clothing, books, jewellery and gifts while high street chain stores are concentrated on Foregate Street. Bridge Street features a number of specialist shops, for example a vintners, delicatessen, perfumier, herbalist and a handmade candle shop and the last of the rows, Watergate Street, is the centre of Chester’s antiques trade. The city also has two covered shopping areas – the upmarket Grosvenor mall and the Forum indoor market.
Also, in Cheshire, off junction 10 of the M53 at Ellesmere Port, is the Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet, which has 120 shops selling designer names at knockdown prices. Otherwise, the nearest proper ‘out-of-town’ shopping mall experience is the Trafford Centre in Manchester, 30 miles away. Roll on 2008.
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