The Glades (Bromley)

This article is about the London shopping centre. For other uses, see The Glades (disambiguation).

The Glades

Location	Bromley, London, England, UK
Opening date	22 October 1991
Management	Capital Shopping Centres / Europa services
No. of stores and services	135
No. of anchor tenants	3
Total retail floor area	464,000 sq
Parking	1,420 spaces
No. of floors	2 shopping, 2/4 car parking, 1 service

The Glades is a British shopping centre owned by Capital Shopping Centres (63.5%), CGNU (an Aviva company) (21.5%), and London Borough of Bromley (15%). It is located in Bromley, South-East London. It has a total of 135 stores trading from a combined floorspace of 464,000 sq ft (43,100 m²). The Centre opened on Tuesday 22 October 1991. It opened to mixed opinions some people prasing it for creating new jobs in the early 90s recession and others wanting the new building demolished because it will turn Bromley into another Croydon. The original plan for a large shopping centre on the site was in 1970 with planned names "The Holwood Centre" and "The Holwood Mall", named after Holwood Road, a road previously on the site. The name "The Glades" was chosen because Bromley, including the Glades site was previously mainly forests, the definition of glade being an open space in a forest.

Stores

Major stores within the centre include Marks & Spencer (also opening onto Bromley High Street), Debenhams, Boots, Waterstones, Zara, H&M, Game, Disney Store, New Look, Vero Moda/Jack Jones and Superdrug. In all, there are 135 stores within the Glades building.

The Glades also includes Regent Arcade, a parade of small boutique shops which runs from Elmfield Road near the street entrance to Debenhams and links in to the lower mall beneath Waterstones.

When the Glades opened there were 4 department stores:

Department Store 1 - Boots [Opened Monday 28 October 1991] (previously where Next is)

Department Store 2 - Debenhams [Opened Thursday 24 October 1991] (previously where Dreams, Wilkinsons) and the offices above are)

Marks and Spencer - Extenstion to the current High Street store [Extension opened on Tuesday 22 October 1991]

Littlewoods - Extension to the current High Street store [Extension opened on Tuesday 22 October 1991]

The Littlewoods and Marks and Spencer were originally on the High Street before the Glades was built. Both were originally retail use on the ground floor with the upper floors as office, staff and storage areas. When the Glades was built Marks and Spencer got a new food hall and only used the new Glades first floor for retail and later added part of the first floor of a previous extension. The 1st floor of the original building was not used until the late 90s/early 00s when the menswear moved to the previous Littlewoods store. Littlewoods extended the first floor to their existing High Street floor to the mezzanine of unit 225 (currently Republic) giving the store access to both the Glades and the High Street; however, unlike M&S where you can walk straight through from the lower mall to the high street, in Littlewoods you would have to walk in the Glades side go up an esclator (or lift) in the Glades side walk along the mezzanine/first floor and down the stairs (or lift) in the original store or vice versa. The Littlewoods extension was opened by the store's longest serving worker. Unlike Marks and Spencer, Littlewoods used the first floor of their existing High Street store giving them twice as much space with a restaurant and café.

When Littlewoods closed, the store became another Marks and Spencer, but which closed in the early 2000s. There was hope that another department store would take on the vacant unit; however, instead a new Japanese clothing shop Uniqlo wanted the Glades side so a wall was put up between the extension and the High Street store and Uniqlo opened there, while Primark later took the high Street side. A few month later Uniqlo closed due to low sales and later opened a store in The Mall in Bromley. After Allders closed Primark moved out, Uniqlo was replaced by USC (later Republic) and Top Man Top Shop took the High Street side recently adding Miss Selfridge to the store.

What's New

Quiznos relocation (Unit 34)

The Entertainer Toy Shop (Not open on Sundays) - Unit 33 - Opening 26/11/11

Zola Fish (Unit 77) - Closed

Barratts (Unit 255/255a) - Closed

Pumpkin Patch (Unit 257) - Closed

Hawkins Bazzar (Unit 35) - Closed

Rocks (unit 203) - Closed

Oil and Vinegar - Closed

Tides (Unit 56) - Closed, This unit and unit 55 are currently under offer and a new store will open soon

Planned Stores

Esquires Coffee House - Previously Quiznos - Unit 268 with seating area in the centre - planned to open in November but there were issues with the franchisee

Store currently unknown - Unit 55/56 - Currently Select and Tides - Units under offer

Store currently unknown - Unit 256 - Unit under offer

Shops that will/might close soon

Café Nero (Unit 1) - Lease for Sale (expires Feb 2016)

Tresor Paris (Unit 22) - Not on lease, unit available for rent

Select (Unit 55) - Not on lease, unit under offer

Aldo (Unit 57) - Lease for sale (expires 24th December 2014)

Opus (Unit 90) - Not on lease, unit available for rent

Punky Fish (Unit 221) - Not on lease, unit available for rent

Jane Norman (Unit 224) - Not on lease, unit available for rent

Jack & Jones / Vero Moda (Unit 226 - 228) - Lease for sale (expires on 24th March 2019)

Head (Unit 269) - Not on lease, unit available for rent

Boros (unit 209 + Storage on service level basement) - There are plans for the former Lillywhites store area which includes unit 209

Pinapple (Unit 64) - There are plans for a restaurant terrace behind unit 64, this shop will become the widened enterance/exit to the queens garden

Shops Planned to Arrive but didn't

Review Clothing - Unit 1 (currently Café Nero)

Baby Boom (moving from the Mall) - Unit 205b (currently part of Lillywhites) (1991)

Café - Unit 241 (currently part of Zara) (c1993)

Jumpers Knitwear - Unit 230 (currently Viyella) (c1993)

Shoe Studio - Unit 36 (currently Headlines) (c1995)

HSBC - Unit 55 (currently Select) (2005)

Facilities

Due to the sloping nature of Bromley High Street and The Glades, street level at the Boots end of the centre is level to the Upper Mall, whilst street level at the front entrance of the section is at the lower mall level.

The Glades has a gift card that can be used in most of the stores around the centre.

The Glades development site also included provision for the development of a leisure centre called The Pavilion which opened on Saturday 28th September 1991. A new church was built on the site of an old Co-Op store, and modern flats were also built by the owners on the Glades land.

Redevelopments

Food Hall to Ottakars

Floor Plan of the Glades Food Hall

Above the Regent Arcade there was previously a food hall. The food hall had low profile shops called after what they sold. It opened in November 1991 a month after the centre opened. In late 1996 the food hall was closed and extra retail space was created in the upper mall between Gamleys (now Head) and McDonalds where the balcony over looking the food hall was. The lift at that location was also moved slightly and extended to car park 1 and car park 2.

Shops previously in the food hall:

• Unit 100/101 - Health Food (1993 - 1996)
• Unit 102 - Delicatessen [Extended in to unit 103 in 1993] (1992 - 1996)
• Unit 104 - Importers Coffee/Tea (1992 - 1996)
• Unit 106 - Importers Coffee Shop (1992 - 1996)
• Unit 107/108 - Fruit & Vegetables (1992 - 1996)
• Unit 109 - Fish Mongers (1992 - 1993)

Just Sausages (1994/5 - 1996)

• Unit 110 (Glass Kiosk) - Florist (1992 - 1995)

The Bonsai House (1995 - 1996)

Food Court to Shops

The shops including and between Time4Pets and Fun Learning was previously a food court with 6 shops, a large seating area and a fountain. The area was sometimes used for the Glades fashion shows. The area above (currently Zara) was previously County Bookshop (reopened on the lower mall where the food court was), a vaccant shop (previously Christmas Shop), ModelZone (moved to unit 223 until Athena closed down and it was moved to its current location), Sofa Workshop (closed) and a large balcony over looking the foodcourt seating area. Like the Food Hall the Food Court were all independent retailers until 1995.

Shops previously in the food Court:

• Unit 42 (FC1)

Burgers (1992 - 1995)

Burger Box (1995 - 2002)

• Unit 43 (FC2)

Potatoes (1992 - 1995)

Jackets (1995 - 2002)

• Unit 44 (FC3)

Sandwiches (1992 - 1995)

Café Select (1995 - 2002)

• Unit 45 (FC4)

Patisserie (1992 - 1995)

Upper Crust Patisserie (1995 - 2002)

• Unit 46 (FC5)

Chineese (1992 - 1993)

Pizza & Pasta (1993 - 1995)

Pizza Hut Express (1995 - 2001)

Trattoria (2001 - 2002)

• Unit 47 (FC6)

Traditional (1992 - 1995)

Traditional Favorites (1995 - 2002)

Units 204 - 208 to Lillywhites

Before Lillywhites, The Glades (NOT TO SCALE)

In September 1996 Lillywhites signed a 15 year lease (to end in September 2011) for the long term vacant units 204, 205a, 205b, 206, Fire Exit (moved opposite), 207 and 208. In 2002 the Lillywhites company became Sports World (renamed Sports Direct in 2007). In 2003 Sports World was signed as an anchor tenant in the planned redevelopment of The Mall (Bromley) and opened in 2004 and they attempted to sell the lease of the Glades store. Unlike other stores the Glades Lillywhites store was not renovated or rebranded to Sports Direct as the lease could have sold to another company at any time. After 7 years of trying to sell their lease with no interest from other companies, Lillywhites lease ended in September 2011. The unit is currently empty and not under offer. It is being marketed as 1 large store with the opportunity of dividing the unit back to 6 units.

Previous shops in units 204 to 208:

• Unit 204

Birthday Co. (Gifts) (1992)

Eisenegger (Menswear)(1993)

Outback Trading (clothes)(1995)

• Unit 205a

(To be) Original AR (NEVER OPENED) (1992)

• Unit 205b

(To be) Baby Boom (NEVER OPENED)(1992)

• Unit 206

Buttons Hi-Fi (1992)

Price Carver (1995-1996)

• Unit 207

Santa's Grotto (c1993) (Never had a long term tenant)

• Unit 208

Stratton Opticians (1992)

Christmas Magic (1994,1995)

Extension at main entrance

Building began in Autumn 2006 on a £25 million extension close to the main entrance of the centre. The development involved the demolition of two buildings on the high street and several existing units within The Glades. The new facility, when opened, included new H&M, Mango and Rituals stores, as well as storage space in the basement for shops.

Toilets from upper mall to Carpark 2

Before the extension to the main entrance the toilets opposite McDonalds were moved to car park 2 in the middle of the centre, with a small shop occupied by a dry cleaners, which closed down after a few months. There are however concerns that McDonalds don't have public toilets in or near them. McDonalds originally had toilets on the premises but converted them into a fast lane because there were toilets outside making the toilets non essential.

River Island (unit 85/86) mezzanine extension

In 2009 the mezzanine floor which was only staff and stock rooms above unit 86 was extended into empty space above unit 85. The mens wear was moved to the mezzanine. The staff room was moved to the ground floor.

Glades Map from Christmas 2001 when the food court was open

External links

• TheGlades.uk.com (official site)