The Olympic Park in east London is coming along nicely in preparation for next year's big sporting extravaganza, and part of the development includes what is Europe's largest urban shopping centre -
Westfield Stratford City.
What's it got? What hasn't it got, more like. Shoppers will be able to spend a whole day here, no worries, what with the more than 300 retail outlets to explore. After a day of heavy duty shopping, they could even collapse in one of the three new hotels they've built as part of the complex.
On top of that you'll find a whopping 70 restaurants, a 14-screen cinema, a bowling alley and Britain's biggest
casino.
The place is incorporating some nifty tech too, with a number of large digital screens placed around the centre that will, of course, be showing live coverage of events during the Olympic Games next summer.
Of course, the best way to find out about this sparkling new shopping centre is to jump on a train and see it for yourself. But to give you a flavour of the kind of
stores and
restaurants you can expect, read on…
For those who like to include a department store in their shopping expeditions, there's a John Lewis and a Marks & Spencer in the centre.
You'll find 37 men's clothing and fashion stores (All Saints, Gerry Weber, Bershka, H&M, Hugo Boss, Republic etc). For women there are some 50 clothing stores (An Original Penguin, Miss Selfridge, Forever 21, Hawes & Curtis, Primark, The Sting, Traffic People etc).
Of course, these days a shopping centre seems somehow lacking unless it has an Apple Store inside. Well, you're in luck. There's one here.
Gadget lovers will also be able to explore Currys PC World, Samsung and all the regular mobile phone stores.
Foyles and hmv will take care of your book and music needs, and if you really must go the new centre merely to do a weekly food shop, you have a Waitrose there to take care of that.
And restaurants! There are lots of
restaurants. Jamie's Italian has a location in the complex - Jamie being of the Oliver type. There's a Pizza Express (naturally), together with Strada, The Cow, The Real Greek, Cabana, and Bumpkin - among many others.
The above is a fraction of what you'll find at Westfield Stratford City shopping centre.
To get there, make your way to Stratfield regional train station (connects with the Central and Jubilee tube lines) - the shopping centre is just a few minutes walk from there. For detailed access information for all forms of transport, click
here.
And for accurate information regarding the opening hours of the various businesses, click
here.
Happy shopping! (and eating)
