Shopping City, Runcorn

Runcorn Shopping City. The designation of Runcorn as a New Town in 1964 brought many changes for the people and landscape of Old Runcorn. Designed by Fred Roche C.B.E., the Chief Architect and Planning Officer of the New Town, Runcorn Shopping City was built on a greenfield site near Halton Village in 1971, and was intended to be the centrepiece of the New Town. Roche is best known for his later, seminal role in the creation of Milton Keynes. Influenced by the fully enclosed shopping malls that had begun to emerge in North America in the 1950s, the Shopping City was to house other amenities such as a cinema, a post office, a library and a pub. It was also close the the law courts, the police station and the hospital. The shopping complex itself was linked by pedestrian bridges and footpaths to some of the new, modern estates of the New Town such as the radical, but ill-fated Southgate estate. This was designed by Sir James Stirling, together with his partner at the time, Michael Wilford C.B.E. Stirling is considered by many to have been the premier architect of his generation. Other examples of his work include the Leicester University Engineering building (with James Gowan) and the Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart. Runcorn Shopping City was officially opened in 1972 by Queen Elizabeth II. At the time of its opening it was the largest fully enclosed shopping centre in Europe. Served by excellent transport links, not just within Runcorn itself (including the town's innovative busway system), but also with surrounding towns and cities, it quickly established itself as Runcorn's premier shopping location. In 1995 it was renamed Halton Lea, and in 2013 it was rebranded to become Runcorn Shopping Centre. At the time of writing (2016), it remains the most important shopping area in Runcorn.

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