Trafford Centre
The Trafford Centre in Greater Manchester is one of the largest shopping centres in the United Kingdom, a vast retail and entertainment complex covering approximately 150,000 square metres of retail floor space that was opened in 1998 and has become one of the most visited destinations in the north of England. The centre is notable not only for its commercial scale but for the extraordinary architectural excess of its interior design, which applies a succession of themed environments of baroque and classical ornament, painted ceilings, domed spaces and elaborate decorative schemes to what is fundamentally a very large regional shopping centre.
The interior theming of the Trafford Centre, designed by the American firm Chapman Taylor, draws on a range of historical and cultural references applied with what might charitably be called uninhibited enthusiasm. The food court in the Orient section is housed under a domed ceiling painted with clouds and classical figures, the surrounding facades suggesting New Orleans, Rome and various other historical environments simultaneously. The overall effect is simultaneously absurd and impressive, and the scale and consistency of the decorative programme make the Trafford Centre an unusual cultural artefact as well as a retail destination.
The centre contains over two hundred shops across a range of retail categories, a large cinema complex, a food court seating several thousand, the Legoland Discovery Centre and Sea Life Manchester aquarium. The Barton Square extension added a further significant retail area focused on home and lifestyle brands.
The Trafford Centre occupies a site adjacent to the Manchester Ship Canal in the former industrial landscape between Manchester and Salford, and the development of the surrounding Trafford Quays area has created an extensive leisure and commercial district in what was previously disused industrial land.