Bull Ring Shopping Centre by Galahad
Well I finally have been to see The Bull Ring which opened on 4th September 2003. This brand new £500m city centre shopping centre maybe the largest shopping centre in Europe but I was a little disappointed.The new Selfridge's Department Store is certainly architecturely stunning but I think it is better on the outside than the inside. The food hall is certainly exciting but the exotic is carried too far most of the time. I'm afraid I do not feel qualified to write about the other departments.
March 2004 Selfridges have announced that the store has been so successful that they are to spend GBP2m on refurbishing, reorganising and extending some departments. The main areas will be the food hall, the wine department (50% of sales are champagne) and some of the clothes departments.
October 2005 The readers of the magazine "In Style" have voted Selfridges as the best department store both in London and outside the capital.
The new Bull Ring contains 1.2 million sq ft of retail space. About 100 different retailers opened in the centre and they recruited about 8000 staff for the whole of the centre when they opened.
Glass from the old Bull Ring Centre has been reused to create a major glass artwork at one of the entrances for an observatory cafe for Border Books overlooking St Martin's Square, but on the day I visited I could not find it.
November 2007 In the first year after opening, The Bull Ring had 36.5 million visitors and is the most visited shopping centre outside of London's West End.
