Centrale

Centrale is a shopping centre in Croydon, South London, one of the largest covered retail developments in London. It is owned and managed by Hammerson and was opened in 2004. Plans were announced in January 2013 to redevelop Centrale and combine it with the Whitgift Centre.

Centrale is located on North End, Croydon, facing the Whitgift Centre. It was developed from the existing but much smaller Drummond Centre. It now contains two large stores - House of Fraser and Debenhams - and around 50 smaller stores including Next, H&M, Zara, Budwals and Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Retail area
The 820000 sqft development also houses Croydon's first and only dedicated indoor food court on the upper level. The Food Gallery was given planning permission after the main centre was built and opened in November 2005 with seating for 200 diners and food outlets such as Papa John's Pizza and Quizno's Subs. Other food outlets available in the centre include McDonald's (one of eleven in the London Borough of Croydon), Auntie Anne's and House of Fraser's World Of Food which has international cuisine available from a number of concessions including Yo! Sushi. Recent reports suggest that the remaining un-let units in the centre will be opened to exclusive outlets opening their first London stores outside the West End. The centre also houses a Mecca Bingo establishment.

It also boasts a 168000 sqft House of Fraser, 21000 sqft Zara and 51000 sqft Next all of which was opened in 2004, along with a larger H&M, Mango, Uniqlo, and Timberland.

Design and Layout
The building has been designed to maximise the view of west Croydon from the eastern windows including the IKEA Towers landmarks on Purley Way. The building also has solar panels on the roof according to a report which was highlighting Croydon's Ashburton Learning Village on 24dash.com. Centrale does not have numbered levels (as do many UK shopping centres), but instead names them as Keeley Road & Tamworth Road (lower basement), Lower Mall (basement), Ground Floor Mall and Upper Mall (first floor).

Transport
As part of the development, Centrale committed to and paid for improvements to North End and the provision of a new Tramlink stop, Centrale, located adjacent to the centre on Tamworth Road. The stop operates as a fully functioning transport interchange with trams stopping on one side of the platform and local buses on the other. It operates, along with West Croydon and East Croydon, as a Tramlink interchange on the 'Croydon Loop'. Along with this Centrale is very close to mainline railway station, West Croydon, which provides frequent services to Sutton and the surrounding areas in the London Borough of Croydon as well as services to Central London. East Croydon station is around a 10 minute walk from the centre.

Drummond Centre
The Drummond Centre was a shopping centre located on North End in Croydon. The centre previously was a large branch of clothing chain C&A. It closed in 2004 to make way for St. Martins Property Group's new shopping centre Centrale, which is more than triple the size of the Drummond. Although the side of the centre where the Drummond used to occupy was never modernised and still stays like a complete opposite of the completely new and stylish Centrale.

The mall was never very popular due to the size of it being very small, this is proved as four of the seventeen units were still vacant when the mall closed. Revenue was also low at the centre, and it could never compete with the larger Whitgift Centre across the road. The only reason why large stores such as TK Maxx and Debenhams opened in the centre was because of it housed the only large suitable units in Croydon.

Even though the Centre was mainly based inside, there are a row of shops outside at the back of the centre which are still considered part of it. The shops were on Keeley Road and was designated like a basement floor, the shops on the road were mainly specialist and are not well known outside of Croydon.

Also on the basement floor was Iceland, located underneath TK Maxx. This closed and moved into premises on Surrey street just down the road.

Shopmobility was also available in the centre along with, baby changing, toilets, lifts, escalators, stairs, entertainment area and seating. Smoking was never permitted in the centre and was not allowed on the premises. The centre was open seven days a week, Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. - 6.p.m., Sunday 11.a.m. - 5 p.m. and late night shopping until 9 p.m. on Thursday.

Stores
Centrale shopping centre has all the main stores, including ALDO, Boots, Carphone Warehouse, Debenhams, Ernest Jones, French Connection, House of Fraser, Jane Norman, La Senza, Miss Selfridge, NEXT, EE, Sports Direct, T.M Lewin, The Body Shop, Zara and other stores.