Long before the days of Liverpool ONE people in the city, and throughout the North West, would travel out of town for a unique retail fix.
Opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972, Runcorn Shopping City in Cheshire was once the largest enclosed shopping centre in Europe. Runcorn was designated as a new town in 1964, and the plans were for Shopping City to be its centrepiece.
The town's planner, Arthur Ling, envisaged the shopping centre to be the "natural meeting place for the town's social and cultural life". As well as shopping, it was also to contain offices and other amenities such as a theatre, library, and central sports hall.
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Its design was influenced by the fully enclosed shopping malls that were being built in the US in the 1960s. The complex was built on columns allowing three different levels segregating pedestrians from the traffic below.
Shoppers would arrive at the retail level using elevated walkways from its neighbouring estates such as the radical but ultimately flawed Southgate Estate. The arrival of the shopping centre was hugely anticipated and a half page advertisement placed in the Liverpool ECHO in November 1971, just before it opened, colourfully described what the 1970s shopper could expect.
Pitching itself as a complete one-stop-destination for everyone's shopping needs "under its one giant roof", it teased the centre as being like nothing "anywhere else in the region". There were no roads to cross and so no traffic to avoid, adding: "It's safe to bring the children - they'll love it. The elderly will have no problems - there are places where one can sit down and just rest.
"It's a city without the weather. Once you're in Runcorn Shopping City, you'll see it's like summer all year round, because it's fully air conditioned and centrally heated."
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The advertisement contained detailed illustrations on what the complex would look like, and how easy it was to access. In its first opening weeks, it also boasted shoppers would be "rubbing shoulders with the world of celebrities" such as comedy double act, Mike and Bernie Winters, Doris Speed - who played Annie Walker in Coronation Street - and Miss England.
Shortly after its official opening, a review in The Times newspaper said: "Shopping City is possibly the nearest planners have come to the sort of building imagined by science fiction writers. In appearance, it resembles a supersonic mosque, with gleaming white bricks even on the dullest day."
The interior of Shopping City was finished with tiles and marble lining the walls, columns and shop fronts. Newly unearthed images from the Mirrorpix archive show its light, multi-level design with 'futuristic' looking pod seating area at its centre.
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The shops were laid out along malls designed in a 'H' formation, with its 'town square' in the centre, while bars and restaurants were planned for the second storey. The centre opened to great success, attracting large numbers of shoppers brought in by Runcorn's central location between Liverpool and Manchester and established itself as a premier shopping destination in the North West.
However, despite its promising start, by the mid-late '80s, the shopping centre's fortunes began to decline. A change of ownership and disputes about the condition of the complex led to significant renovation taking place, and by 1995, it had been rebranded to Halton Lea Shopping Centre.
In September 2009, Halton Lea was taken into receivership although the centre continued to operate as normal. After coming under the control of new owners and undergoing further renovation, it was once again to experience a name change, being rebranded as Runcorn Shopping Centre.
Despite several name changes, most Runcorn residents continued to call it Runcorn Shopping City, which the centre's name officially reverted back to its original as part of its 45th birthday celebrations in July 2017.
Does Runcorn Shopping City awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
Having celebrated its 50th birthday last year, Runcorn Shopping City is now once again a tired and somewhat dishevelled spectre of its once grand ambitions of the 1970s, with the consensus the centre is crying out for considerable updating and renovation. Various proposals have surfaced over the past few years as to what needs to happen to update the complex, but as yet, no official plans have been made public.
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