Meadowhall (shopping centre)

History and facts

Originally the site of the 19th century Meadow Hall Iron Works, owned by John Crowley and Co., the shopping centre was built by Bovis on the site previously occupied by Hadfields' East Hecla steelworks.

The centre was opened on 4 September 1990. With a floor area of 139,355 m² (1,500,005 sq ft), it is the tenth largest (second largest when first opened) shopping centre in the UK. It is similar in concept to the Merry Hill Shopping Centre at Brierley Hill in the West Midlands, which was completed just before Meadowhall.

With over 280 stores, Meadowhall has been widely blamed for the closure of shops in Sheffield City Centre and in Rotherham. Meadowhall is owned by British Land, a property developer. The centre attracted 19.8 million visitors in its first year of opening, and now attracts about 30 million visitors a year.

Scenes from the music video of the Sheffield-based duo Moloko's first single "Fun For Me" were shot in the Oasis area of the shopping centre.

Meadowhall can be very busy in the run-up to Christmas, and the January sales. In extreme cases the centre has been known to have a one in, one out policy at some stores. This has led to the centre earning the nickname Meadowhell among many local people.

One of Meadowhall's largest stores of the past was Sainsbury's which closed in mid-2005. There was a Namco Station arcade which closed in September 2007 after more than 15 years at the shopping centre. In December 2005, Meadowhall became home to the fifth Apple Store in the UK, and in late 2007, it became home to the third Puma Store in the UK after London and Glasgow. The centre was also home to the only McCafé in Yorkshire, which has since closed. The centre's Burger King was replaced in October 2007 by a very small franchise called "Burger Knight", which has also closed.

Meadowhall was inundated by the River Don during the June 2007 floods, with water peaking at 1.8 metres (6 ft). The centre re-opened and trading commenced within six days, before fully relaunching in October 2007 Meadowhall has since fitted flood gates to prevent this happening again.

In May 2012, British Land announced that planning permission had been sought to provide a 52,000 sq.ft. retail extension to Meadowhall on adjacent land, the plans however were not approved.

In October 2012, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) announced that the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global has bought 50 percent of the UK shopping centre Meadowhall for £348 million, or approximately 3.2 billion Norwegian kroner.

In 2015 Meadowhall celebrated its 25th anniversary, and announced in the same year a £50m interior refurbishment, which allow some retailers to install double-height shop fronts. The work is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2017. In 2016 it was announced plans had been put forward for a £300 million leisure extension to be built next to the Oasis. Should the development attain full planning permission, construction work could potentially begin in 2018, with a view to completion by 2021.

Shops

Meadowhall has over 280 stores, most of which are major high street stores, including Armani Exchange, Debenhams, House of Fraser, Primark, Zara, Topshop/Top Man, Next, USC, Burtons, Dorothy Perkins, Republic, Marks & Spencer, Blue Inc, Tucci, Miss Selfridge, Officers Club, Foot Locker, JD Sports, H&M, Waterstones, HMV, Apple Store, Game, Boots, Superdrug, Sweatshop and Barratts.

Fashion labels have their own stores in Meadowhall including Hugo Boss, French Connection, Bench, G-Star Raw, Super Dry, River Island, Timberland, Ted Baker, Jack Wills, AllSaints, Hollister and more.

The Lanes is an area next to the Oasis Dining Quarter which includes small independent shops.

Oasis Dining Quarter and cinema

The Oasis Dining Quarter is Meadowhall's food court which has food outlets and seating on both floors. The ground floor contains mostly fast food outlets including McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Shere Khan and El Mexicana but includes restaurants Nando's and Harvester. The upper floor consists mostly of restaurants including Frankie & Benny's, Coal Grill And Bar, PizzaExpress, Wagamama, Hand Made Burger Co, Zizzi and T.G.I. Fridays. In July 2011 following the opening of T.G.I. Fridays, the food court underwent a £7 million redevelopment which saw it re-branded from 'Oasis Food Court', to 'Oasis Dining Quarter'. Restaurants such as Las Iguanas, and Giraffe were added as part of the redevelopment.

Vue cinema

The dining quarter includes an eleven screen Vue multiplex cinema. It opened as a Warner Bros. Theatre before becoming a Warner Village Cinema and was rebranded Vue as part of their takeover of the chain.

Transport connections

Meadowhall has a public transport interchange, Meadowhall Interchange, making it the only shopping centre in the UK that combines a bus, rail and tram interchange as well as making the centre accessible to both the local region and the rest of the country.

Motorway

The centre is located at junction 34 of the M1 motorway.

Sheffield Supertram

Meadowhall is served by two stops on the Sheffield Supertram network; the Yellow Line terminus at Meadowhall Interchange is located to the north of the shopping centre, while Meadowhall South & Tinsley tram stop is located to the south of the shopping centre and is served by the Yellow Line and, from 2018, tram-train services to Rotherham Parkgate.

Meadowhall Interchange tram stop is located 15 minutes from the city centre and Meadowhall is used as a park and ride. The Yellow Line from Meadowhall passes the Motorpoint Arena, Don Valley Stadium, Ice Sheffield, the Institute Of Sport and the Valley Centertainment entertainment complex.

Bus

The interchange has a large bus station with routes covering most of South Yorkshire, but especially the local Sheffield and Rotherham area.

Train

There is a multi-platform railway station at Meadowhall which has several routes including the Trans Pennine route to Manchester Piccadilly station.

Awards

The Centre has won awards, including two awards for innovative events at the ICSC maxi awards 2006, held in Chicago and two awards for its Retail Bonding Programme (in best Retail Partnership category) and also for its commercialisation, (adding value to the customer shopping experience) at the BCSC Purple Apple Awards in London.

Environmental policy

The centre recycles 97% of waste from retailers and customers, with the remaining three percent going to incineration with energy recovery; no waste goes to landfill.

Meadowhall was the first UK shopping centre to develop an on-site recycling facility. The Resource Recovery Centre, which opened in 2006, operates a conveyor belt system to separate out types of waste, from paper to plastic, cardboard to cans.

Meadowhall began to harvest rainwater in 2006. Four water storage tanks collect rainwater and condensation from air conditioning. This is then used throughout the Shopping Centre for cleaning, flushing toilets and watering the external landscaped areas. The tanks are nearly 7 metres high and hold some 6,600 imperial gallons (30,000 l) of water each.

In 2008 Meadowhall installed a bore hole. This is a narrow shaft drilled into the ground that collects water from beneath the earth. Water from the bore hole is collected into a master tank. The storage tanks are connected onto a "network", which will ensure 90-95% of all water used by customers and retailers for flushing toilets is derived from rainwater harvesting or bore hole water.