Westfield London

Westfield London is a large shopping centre in Shepherd's Bush, London, England. The centre was developed by the Westfield Group, at a cost of £1.6bn, on a site bounded by the West Cross Route (A3220), the Westway (A40) and Wood Lane (A219]]), and opened on 30 October 2008.

The site is part of the White City district, where several other large scale development projects are under way or in the planning stages. The development is on a large brownfield site which was once the location of the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition; the initial site clearance demolished the final set of halls still remaining from the exhibition.

The centre is noted for its size: with a retail floor area of 150,000m² (1.615m ft²), the equivalent of about 30 football pitches. It is said to be London’s largest shopping centre (overtaking the Centrale in Croydon), the third largest shopping centre in the UK (behind MetroCentre and Bluewater), and the largest inner-city indoor shopping centre in Europe (as distinct from out-of-town centres).

Construction
The development was build by Westfield Construction, the developer's own construction arm and was delivered on schedule.

Retail area
The centre opened to the public on 30th October 2008 and has a retail floor area of 150,000m² (1.615m ft²). The completed centre features around 255 stores, including All Saints, Apple, Bershka, Boots, Bose, Build-A-Bear Workshop, the multiplex cinema Cinema de Lux (opening late spring 2009), Coast, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, French Connection, Geox, Gerry Weber, Habitat, Hackett, HMV, Hollister Co., House of Fraser, Jaeger, Kurt Geiger, Mango, Marks & Spencer, Mulberry, Next,	Nomination, Reiss, Topshop, Waitrose and Zara. There is also a Waitrose located in the venue and despite it being already opened for 2 weeks now, the lifts still do not work. Furthermore, the widescreen tv that should be in the dining hall has still not been installed which is very behind schedule. They are the same company that will get the contract to install the lifts at London 2012. Other retailers speculated to be in negotiations include. On Sundays in order to maximize available shopping times whilst keeping within the UK's Sunday trading laws some of the stores will open from 09:00 to 15:00 and the others 12:00 to 18:00.

An unusual aspect of the development is a new high-end retail area to be called The Village. Building on experience in attracting high-end retailers to its Australian malls, developer Westfield hopes to attract black label brands unheard of in the London shopping mall market. As of August 2007 Louis Vuitton had already signed up for a unit in the area, with more rumoured to be in negotiation.

This was followed in the subsequent months with confirmed tenants in the form of the likes of TAG Heuer, Mulberry, Tiffany & Co, Thomas Pink, Armani, Duchamp, Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, Gieves & Hawkes, Tommy Hilfiger and TM Lewin - arguably establishing The Village at Westfield London as London's third biggest luxury retailing centre after the West End and Sloane Sq retail destinations.

Transport connections
The Westfield centre opening coincided with the completion of several major London transport infrastructure projects which now serve the centre and the surrounding area:


 * London Underground: two Underground stations serve the centre - the newly constructed Wood Lane station (Hammersmith and City Line) on the western side and the rebuilt Shepherd's Bush station (Central Line). There are also 2 other stations close by, White City and Shepherd's Bush Market.

The opening of the station was delayed by several months when the finished platform was found to be 18 inches narrower than the required width.
 * London Overground: Shepherd's Bush Overground Station is a new station which has been constructed on the West London Line and opened on 28 September 2008. It is located on the southern side of the development, immediately next to the Central Line tube station.


 * Bus and taxi: the Shepherd's Bush Interchange is located to the south of the centre next to the Overground station and includes a bus station and a taxi rank. Close to Wood Lane tube station is the White City Interchange on Ariel Way; the bus station here is housed in the redeveloped Dimco Buildings (1898), Grade II listed red brick buildings which were originally built in 1898 as a shed for a London Underground power station. The Dimco buildings were used as a filming location for the ‘Acme Factory’ in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
 * Cycle routes: the development includes new cycle routes.
 * Road links: a grade-separated junction connects to the West Cross Route (A3220) which runs alongside the development site.