Crowngate Shopping Centre
Crowngate Worcester is a shopping centre in Worcester, England, built in part on the historic site of the Worcester Blackfriars monastery, and replacing the former Blackfriars shopping centre.[2]
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| Location | Worcester, England |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 52.19198°N 2.22267°W |
| Opening date | 1992 |
| Management | King Sturge |
| Owner | Crown Estate[1] |
| No. of stores and services | 60 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 2 House of Fraser & Primark) |
| No. of floors | 1 (Some shops have extra floors) |
| Parking | 750 |
| Website | crowngate-worcester |
It contains forty-nine stores, with a range of both large and smaller units, including House of Fraser and Primark. There are three restaurants in the recently refurbished Friary Walk: Wildwood Kitchen, Bills restaurant and Anatolian Palace.
Other facilities include a 780 space, multi-story car park, Worcester's bus station and the Huntingdon Hall Theatre.
In October 2009 the centre underwent a £5 million refurbishment.[3] In 2017, plans for a new look for Crowngate were published.,[4] which were completed in 2019, and gave the existing building a brand new frontage.
Construction and excavations
Archaeological excavations were carried out in 1985–6, prior to the construction of the new centre. They uncovered:
- a Roman road and timber buildings
- a Saxon building and bread ovens
- the cloisters and friary church of the monastery, which were aligned with the Roman Road
- civil war defences facing towards St Johns.
Nevertheless, the nine months of funding to excavate the site "proved insufficient to complete the work and analyse the finds". The small finds were repackaged by volunteers in 2010.[5]
There are plaques dotted around Crowngate, to be found, which tell the history of the site.
Stores
Stores present include House of Fraser, Primark, Boots, The Body Shop, Claire's, Smiggle, Ryman, Warren James,[6] Rise,[7] New Look, Superdrug, Iceland, and Cornucopia.
Bus Station
The bus station is located below the shopping centre[8] and the main bus operator is First Midland Red.
Routes serving the bus station
| Route | Destination | Operator | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31/31A | Henwick Park | First Worcestershire | |
| 32 | St Peters | Only peak time journeys continue beyond St Peters towards Kempsey | |
| 34 | Shire Park | ||
| 35 | Blackpole | ||
| 36 | Royal Hospital | ||
| 38 | Royal Hospital | ||
| 44 | Great Malvern | ||
References
- Pryce, Mike (30 June 2016). "Company behind Crowngate enjoys another record year". Worcester News. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
- Memories of Worcester's Blackfriars shopping centre shared for Crowngate 25th anniversary Worcester News, 23 October 2017
- "£5m revamp is up and running – video". Worcester News. 2 October 2009. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
- "Planning consent secured for regeneration project at Crowngate Shopping Centre". Retail Bulleting. 30 August 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- BLACKFRIARS, WORCESTER, Research Worcester blog, 8 November 2010
- Al Rasheed, Tarik (29 April 2016). "New store opening in Crowngate". Worcester News. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
- Kelly, Alicia (16 April 2016). "Queues at Worcester record store as Record Store Day kicks off". Worcester News. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
- Planet, Lonely; Wilson, Neil; Berry, Oliver; Duca, Marc Di; Dixon, Belinda; Dragicevich, Peter; Harper, Damian; Kaminski, Anna; Nevez, Catherine Le; Symington, Andy (1 March 2015). Lonely Planet Great Britain. Lonely Planet. ISBN 9781743605295. Retrieved 3 August 2016.