The Mercury Mall

The Mercury Mall is an enclosed shopping centre in Romford town centre, in the London Borough of Havering, Greater London. It opened in June 1990 as Liberty 2. From 2006 to August 2010 it was owned by The Mall Fund and was known as The Mall Romford.[2][3] It is—along with The Liberty and The Brewery—one of the three main shopping centres in Romford.

The Mercury Mall
The Mercury Mall logo
LocationRomford, England
Opening dateJune 1990
No. of stores and servicesapprox 45
No. of anchor tenants2
Total retail floor area188,000 square feet (17,500 m2)[1]
No. of floors4
Parking999
WebsiteOfficial website

History

The Liberty 2 opened with a mix of retail and leisure tenants, although these were spatially separated[4] with the shops on the first two levels and the nightclub, cinema and bingo hall on the third floor. The name referred to existing Liberty Shopping Centre.

Premiere Cinemas at the Mercury Mall

It was initially anchored by a Sainsbury's supermarket, but when this relocated to The Brewery elsewhere in the town centre, the former supermarket space in the mall was taken by Wilko. In 2001 shortly after the opening of The Brewery the Odeon Cinema closed, but reopened in 2012 as Premiere Cinemas which was then the cheapest multiplex cinema in the UK.[5]

In 2006 the Liberty 2 was expanded with the redevelopment of the adjacent former Dolphin Centre to form part of the retail site. The redevelopment included the development of a new anchor store, an Asda supermarket, which was also linked into the mall at level two. The redevelopment also saw a housing block above the supermarket site. As part of the revamp, the centre - which had previously still been heavily carrying the 'Liberty 2' branding - was rebranded under The Mall Fund's corporate identity.

The Mercury has been used as a filming location; for instance, it was featured in the Reebok "Belly's gonna getcha!" television advertisement. In the advert one can clearly see The Mercury's lifts.[6] The centre is also frequently used in hidden camera TV shows Bad Robot's and Off Their Rockers.

In 2011 the centre was sold to Rockspring UK and The Other Retail Group as part of a package of centres from The Mall Fund, the centre was then rebranded The Mercury Mall.[7]

In 2013 The Mercury Mall became the backdrop for the horror movie Death Walks.[8][9]

In 2014 Rockspring announced it was to sell its raft of shopping centres,[10] these centres were sold to Ellandi and Lone Star.[11]

Since 2017 the Mercury has been the home of Romford Film Festival, showing movies over 5 to 6 days at the centres Premiere Cinema during the months of May or June.[12]

Layout
Interior

The Mercury is separated from the adjacent The Liberty shopping centre at ground level by the Romford ring road, but is connected to it by an underground section of the shopping mall, accessed from the lower level, which leads up into The Liberty. Although the two centres are connected physically in this way, they are independently owned and are run separately from one another.

It comprises two levels of retail stores, and a third level which includes a Mecca Bingo hall and, since late 2012, the independently run Premiere Cinemas & Stages Dance Studio since 2013.[13] There is a forth level which used to be the home of Pulse Nightclub, which closed in 1999.

The centre is iconic in Romford due to its glass dome enclosure, which is represented frequently in local art and illustration.[14]

Other stores and services in The Mercury include McDonald's, GAME, Blue Inc and Peacocks.

References
  1. "Ellandi - the Mercury Shopping Centre, Romford". Archived from the original on 27 September 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  2. "Shopping Centres in the UK - The Mall Shopping Centres". www.themall.co.uk.
  3. "The Mall Romford web site message". Themall.co.uk. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  4. Rosemary D. F. Bromley (1993). Retail Change: Contemporary Issues. Taylor & Francis.
  5. ""UK's cheapest multiplex", Premiere Cinema in Romford, celebrates first 50,000 visitors". 19 September 2012.
  6. "Bellies gonna get ya!!". YouTube.
  7. "Rockspring and The Other Retail Group welcome new anchor tenants - Shopping Centre". Archived from the original on 13 May 2016.
  8. "Death Walks". IMDb. 15 July 2016.
  9. "Spencer Hawken prepares to turn Mercury Mall, Romford, into the set of a horror film - literally". 29 June 2013.
  10. "Rockspring to sell 265m of UK shopping centres - Shopping Centre". Archived from the original on 13 May 2016.
  11. "Ellandi LLP - Ellandi Tames The Tiger". Archived from the original on 13 May 2016.
  12. "Romford Film Festival".
  13. """UK's cheapest multiplex", Premiere Cinema in Romford, celebrates first 50,000 visitors" - Romford Recorder - September 19, 2012". 19 September 2012.
  14. "Instagram".

51.5794°N 0.1857°E / 51.5794; 0.1857

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