BLUEWATER

:''For other uses, see Bluewater (disambiguation).''
'Bluewater' is a super-regional shopping centre, opened on 16 March 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%) ^[1].
The centre on 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 the largest shopping centre in the UK. The floor plan is a triangular shape with 330 stores, including 3 anchors, 40 cafés and restaurants, and a 13-screen cinema. The centre employs 7,000 and serves over 27 million visitors a year.

Contents

Description

History

Trivia

References

External links

See also

Description

The centre is the second largest in the UK after the MetroCentre in Gateshead. The centre's architecture is based on Kentish life, with influences from oast houses and the nearby River Thames. The concept architect was Eric Kuhne, and the implementation architect was Benoy.
On each corner of the triangle is a deparment store: John Lewis, House of Fraser and Marks and Spencer. The centre has a mix of designer and High Street stores.
In addition, there are many boutiques, either exclusive to Bluewater or complementary shops to their London branches. There are 9 car parks with space for 13,000 cars.
The centre comprises three malls, each with different style and theme: ''Thames Walk'' is aimed at young people, complemented by ''The Water Circus'' with a 13-screen cinema and catering outlets, ''The Guild Hall'' is aimed at the designer goods market, and gives access to ''The Village'', which has higher-end catering and outside dining areas, and ''The Rose Gallery'' has shops and food outlets more typical of a High Street.
In addition to its large retail area, Bluewater offers recreational facilities including a climbing wall, a discovery trail, fishing, cycling, boating, miniature golf and ice skating.
The Mall has facilities including concierge service, Childrens play area, creche, baby changing and feeding rooms, Parent & Child Toilets, post box service and shopmobility.
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, which is accessed via the Bean interchange.

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 introduced a code of conduct to ban swearing, clothing that obscures the face (including hoods and baseball caps), and groups of more than five without the intention to shop[1]. This policy has divided opinion, with high-profile figures such as Tony Blair showing his support[2], but has been criticised in the liberal press and those working with young people locally.
In late 2006 Dartford Borough Council granted planning permission for Bluewater to build an events venue[3] of 5000 sq.m, and extend the south side of the centre.

Trivia

★ The full name of the shopping centre is just ''Bluewater''.

★ Bluewater was once the largest shopping centre in Europe, until the crown was reclaimed by the MetroCentre, Gateshead in 2004.

★ 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. The book is called Vision to Reality

★ 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.

★ , an expansion pack to the popular computer game The Sims 2 contains a default shopping district dubbed "Bluewater Village".

★ Bluewater had its own police station and ambulance station with a private entrance from St James' Lane in Stone.

References

★ Emma Dorreen, editor/project manager; Michael Evamy, writer (1999). ''Vision to Reality''. London: Lend Lease. ISBN 0-9537054-0-4.
1. http://www.bluewater.co.uk/bottom-navigation/corporate
2. http://www.bluewater.co.uk/bottom-navigation/corporate

External links

★ Official website

★ Mall bans shoppers' hooded tops

See also

★ London Buses route 96

★ London Buses route 492

★ Greenhithe railway station