whitgift shopping mall uk

The Whitgift Centre is a large shopping centre and office development in the centre of Croydon, London, opened in stages between 1968 and 1970. The centre currently comprises 1,300,000 sq ft (121,000 m2) of retail space and was the largest covered shopping development in Greater London until the opening of Westfield London at White City in October 2008. The Whitgift Centre will be expanded as part of the Croydon Vision 2020 scheme.

The name comes from John Whitgift, a former Archbishop of Canterbury. The centre was built on the site of Whitgift Middle School, renamed Trinity School of John Whitgift in 1954, which moved to a new site at Shirley Park in 1965.

The first shop to open was Boots on 17 October 1968 and the centre itself was officially opened in October 1970 by the Duchess of Kent. In the middle of the Whitgift Centre there was a Roman-themed pub called The Forum. In the 1990s, the centre was almost completely rebuilt to an atrium design, and the Forum pub was demolished.

The shopping centre is on three storeys — the upper two are for retail and the basement provides vehicle access to any of the retail units with a 1 km network of service roads. It adjoins the major Allders store, which has substantial frontage onto the Centre. The office accommodation consists of five tower blocks rising above the shopping centre. The other major shopping centre in Croydon is Centrale across North End, with Park Place due to begin development shortly.

The freehold of the Centre is owned by the Whitgift Foundation, a registered charity in England & Wales.[1]