Location | Nottingham City Centre, England |
---|---|
Coordinates | 52°57′23″N1°8′50″W / 52.95639°N 1.14722°W Coordinates: 52°57′23″N1°8′50″W / 52.95639°N 1.14722°W |
Opening date | 1972 |
Developer | Intu SGS |
Management | Intu SGS |
No. of stores and services | 120 |
No. of anchor tenants | 4 |
Total retail floor area | 91,140 m2 (981,000 sq ft) |
No. of floors | 2 |
Parking | 2,700 |
Public transit access | |
Website | www |
Victoria Centre is a shopping centre in Nottingham, England, constructed between 1967 and 1972. It contains fashion and high street chain stores as well as cafes, restaurants, a health and fitness centre, and the Nottingham Victoria bus station.
The Victoria Centre stands on the site of the old Nottingham Victoria railway station, which was demolished in 1967. The clock tower and the former Victoria Station Hotel [1] (now run by Hilton Hotels) were the only parts of the old station to be retained. The shopping centre was built between 1967 and 1972 by Taylor Woodrow. [2] Above the shopping centre rise the 26 floor, 256 ft (78 m) high Victoria Centre Flats, which run north–south along their length. There are 464 flats and 36,000 sq ft (3,300 m2) of office space.[ citation needed ]
In 1970, the kinetic sculptor Rowland Emett was commissioned to design and build a "water-powered" clock known as The Aqua Horological Tintinnabulator . [3] The clock was installed in late 1972 and chimed on the hour and half-hour, playing "Gigue en Rondeau II" (1724) from Rameau's "Pieces de Clavecin" Suite in E minor. This musical animated sculpture was originally located on the lower mall and was a popular meeting place. The clock was later modified to chime and play the music every fifteen minutes. In February 2014, the clock was dismantled and refurbished by engineer Pete Dexter and the Rowland Emett Society. It was reassembled for exhibition in Millennium Point, Birmingham, during the summer of 2014 before being dismantled again and stored until December 2014. The parts were then transported back to Nottingham, where Dexter and Intu Victoria Centre staff carried out further refurbishment work. It was reassembled in its new location, at the north end of the upper mall. Its stature, colour scheme, and most of its original water features were restored. It was officially restarted on 17 June 2015.
In 1997, the centre was extended to provide more retail space and allow the addition of a new anchor, House of Fraser. The rest of the centre was refurbished.
In 2010, it was announced that the Victoria Centre would be expanded to compete with Westfield's nearby Broadmarsh Centre and new centres in Derby and Leicester. In November 2011, Capital Shopping Centres purchased the Broadmarsh Centre. [4] [5] The purchase prompted an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission, which was concerned the company's monopoly over the city's shopping centres could negatively impact competition. [6] Following the purchase, the owners wished to begin the planned development of the Victoria Centre, but Nottingham City Council insisted that Broadmarsh must be their "priority" and offered £50 million towards its redevelopment. [7] The deputy leader of Nottingham City Council said the council would withhold planning permission for the development of the Victoria Centre until they "see bulldozers going into the Broadmarsh Centre". [8]
In February 2013, the parent company, Capital Shopping Centres, changed its name to Intu. [9] The centre was rebranded Intu Victoria Centre as part of the company's £25m nationwide rebrand. [10]
In 2013, plans were revealed for the centre to be refurbished. The refurbishment began in February 2014 and was completed in summer 2015. It was undertaken by Laing O'Rourke and features a new restaurant quarter in the clock tower area and new lighting, flooring, entrances, and toilet facilities. This is the second refurbishment of the centre since the last major refurbishment in 1997. There are plans for an extension to the centre to increase floor space, but these will not be considered until plans for Intu Broadmarsh have been submitted.
Following Intu Properties plc entering administration in June 2020, a subsidiary of the company called Intu SGS received funding to take full control of the centre along with Lakeside, Braehead and Intu Watford. The transfer involved Global Mutual becoming asset manager of the centres and Savills serving as property manager. [11] In November 2020, the centre's name reverted from intu Victoria Centre back to Victoria Centre. [12] [13]
On the first floor, opposite John Lewis, is Nottingham's largest indoor market, the Victoria Centre Market. It sells a range of goods, including fresh food, meat, and fish. [14] There are also speciality stalls selling items such as books, jewellery, and haberdashery. The market is open from Monday to Saturday from 9:00 to 5:00 p.m.[ citation needed ]
In 2008 it won the award for the Greenest Market in the Midlands from the National Market Traders Federation. [15]
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located 110 miles (180 km) north-west of London, 33 miles (53 km) south-east of Sheffield and 45 miles (72 km) north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robin Hood and to the lace-making, bicycle and tobacco industries. The city is also the county town of Nottinghamshire and the settlement was granted its city charter in 1897, as part of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Nottingham is a tourist destination; in 2018, the city received the second-highest number of overnight visitors in the Midlands and the highest number in the East Midlands.
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Intu Properties plc was a British real estate investment trust (REIT), largely focused on shopping centre management and development. Originally named Liberty International plc, it changed its name in May 2010 to Capital Shopping Centres Group plc after demerging its Capital & Counties Properties business unit to form an independent business. The company adopted the Intu name on 18 February 2013, and this was followed by the rebranding of most of its shopping centres under the Intu title from May 2013.
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Nottingham city centre is the cultural, commercial, financial and historical heart of Nottingham, England. Nottingham's city centre represents the central area of the Greater Nottingham conurbation.
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Derbion is a large indoor shopping centre in Derby, England. It is the largest shopping centre in the East Midlands and the 15th largest in the United Kingdom.
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The Flying Horse Walk is a shopping arcade located at the heart of Nottingham City Centre in Nottingham, England. The arcade houses a variety of fashion boutiques and other retailers. It is situated just off the city's Old Market Square on The Poultry. The arcade takes its name from a fifteenth-century public house, the Flying Horse Inn, that is located at the Market Square end of the walk. The facade of the public house has been retained and is Grade II listed building. It was extensively restored in 1935 and converted in 1989 as an entrance to the shopping centre.
Atria Watford is a shopping centre in the middle of Watford, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. It opened in June 1992 as the Harlequin Shopping Centre. The centre was rebranded as intu Watford in 2013 following the renaming of its parent Capital Shopping Centres Group as Intu Properties. It received its current name in March 2021 by the new owners, Global Mutual.
Nottingham is the seventh largest conurbation in the United Kingdom. Despite this, the city had a poor transport system in the 1980s. The government has in the early twenty-first century invested heavily in the transport network of Nottingham, which has led to the re-opening of the Robin Hood Line and the construction of a light rail network, Nottingham Express Transit.
Broadmarsh bus station is a bus station serving the city of Nottingham, England.
Nottingham Parksmart is a parking scheme which divides Nottingham city centre into five distinctive zones to aid parking in the city, and to help tourists find attractions.
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The Aqua Horological Tintinnabulator (also known as the Victoria Centre Clock or the Emett Clock or The Time Fountain is a 'water-powered' clock. From 1973 to 2010 it was installed on the ground floor at the Victoria Centre in Nottingham, England. In 2015 it was reinstalled in the shopping centre on the first floor.
Media related to Victoria Centre, Nottingham at Wikimedia Commons