Highcross Leicester

Infobox shopping mall
shopping_mall_name = Highcross Leicester


image_width = 181
caption =
location = Leicester
address = 5 Shires Lane, Leicester, LE1 4AN
coordinates = coord|52|38|11.00|N|1|8|8.00|W|display=inline,title
opening_date = 4 September 2008
closing_date =
developer = Hammerson
Hermes Real Estate
manager = Tom Nathan
owner =
architect = Foreign Office Architects (Highcross extension)
number_of_stores = 120
number_of_anchors = 3 (John Lewis, Debenhams and House of Fraser)
floor_area = 110,000 m²
floors = 2
parking = 3000 Spaces
website = http://www.highcrossleicester.com/
footnotes =

Highcross Leicester is a shopping centre in Leicester, England. It was opened as The Shires in 1991 to supplement the ageing and run-down Haymarket Centre. It was built on a central location within the city centre on Eastgates and High Street. Frontages of buildings that were demolished were retained and new external construction was in a mock-olde style. An extension opened in 1994, with a frontage on to Church Gate. A further large extension opened in 2008, when the entire centre was renamed Highcross Leicester.

Highcross Leicester contains over 120 shops, with a range of both large and smaller units, including branches of the department stores House of Fraser, Debenhams and John Lewis. There are also 15 restaurants and cafés, a cinema and two large car parks.

The Shires becomes Highcross Leicester

The most recent extension, known as Shires West during the planning and early construction phases, doubles the retail space available. This extension lies between the former Shires and the inner ring-road. It includes a John Lewis department store, the first in Leicester, and a Cinema de Lux, the only multiplex cinema in the city centre. There are also two new public squares, residential apartments, a bus interchange and a further 2000-space car park on the opposite side of the ring road, linked by a glass footbridge, which replaces one of the earlier Shires car parks that was demolished to make way for the new extension. Other new tenants include designer fashion brands G-star, Lacoste, Hugo Boss and Zara, and there is also an Apple Store. Thirteen new restaurants and cafés signed up to open in the new centre. [Citation
last = Cornish
first = Jenny
title = Thirteen restaurants and cafes signed up for Highcross
newspaper= Leicester Mercury
year = 2008
date = 2008-07-19
url = http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/diIsplayNode.jsp?nodeId=132943&command=displayContent&sourceNode=132546&contentPK=21115498] The extension makes Highcross Leicester the largest shopping centre in the East Midlands.

The multiplex cinema and John Lewis parts of the centre mark the UK début of architecture firm Foreign Office Architects. The cinema is covered in a slightly buckled, stainless steel cladding, while the department store features two layers of glass, each with a swirling fabric design from John Lewis's archives, allowing light in and a view out, but obscuring the interior from the outside. The use of a fabric pattern recognises Leicester's past as a textile-producing city. [Citation
last = Woodman
first = Ellis
title = Foreign Office Architects: No, it's not a Guggenheim - it's a John Lewis
newspaper = The Daily Telegraph
year = 2008
date = 2008-05-03
url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/05/03/bafoa103.xml]

An open day was held on Sunday, 1 June 2008 to show the people around the new development. More than a thousand people attended.The newly extended and refurbished shopping centre opened to the public on 4 September 2008 with over 125,000 visitors.

Naming controversies

On 14 July 2006, it was announced that the entire centre would be renamed the Highcross Quarter, relating to a Highcross that used to stand in what is now Highcross Street. [Citation
title = Goodbye Shires... Hello highcross!
newspaper = Leicester Mercury
year = 2006
date = 2006-06-14] This received a mixed reaction, with criticism directed in particular at the use of the word "quarter" as opposed to "centre". [Citation
title = Highcross is not bad - but is it a quarter?
newspaper = Leicester Mercury
year = 2006
date = 2006-06-14]

On 19 July 2007, the principal owners of the development, Hammerson, announced that they had decided to change the new name for the centre to Highcross Leicester. [Citation
title = A perfect place for shoppers
newspaper = Leicester Mercury
year = 2007
date = 2007-07-19] On 23 July 2007, the "Leicester Mercury" reported that the latest name change had been the result of a year-long dispute [cite press release
title = Big Business Hammerson Plc commences an audacious...
publisher = highcrossquarters.com
date = 2007-06-21
url = http://highcrossquarters.com/resources_press_releases.html
accessdate = 2008-08-12 ] with a local coven of witches, who pointed out that "High Cross Quarter" is the name of a high point or major sabbat in the wiccan calendar, and registered five [cite press release
title = Domain Name Dispute Case
publisher = highcrossquarters.com
date = 2007-06-19
url = http://highcrossquarter.com/resources_press_releases-2.html
accessdate = 2008-08-12 ] internet domain names relating to the name. Hammerson refused to comment on the dispute, and claimed that the name change was to "give it a stronger identity for customers and raise the profile not only of the development but also the city." [Citation
title = Witches force shopping centre to change name
newspaper = Leicester Mercury
year = 2007
date = 2007-07-23]

"The Daily Telegraph" reported on 25 July 2007 that the Highcross Leicester developers had their offer to buy the domain names from the witches involved rejected. [Citation
last = Adams
first = Stephen
title = Victory for witches in £350m shops fight
newspaper = The Daily Telegraph
year = 2007
date = 2007-07-25
url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1558352/Victory-for-witches-in-andpound350m-shops-fight.html ] Despite Hammerson saying they were no longer interested in the "highcrossquarter" domain names for the renamed Highcross Leicester development as the name had now "evolved", the "Telegraph" reported that Hammerson had escalated the matter all the way to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva where it was seeking a ruling on ownership of the highcrossquarter.com domain name. On 30 August 2007, the WIPO ruled against Hammerson's complaint. [Shires (GP) Limited v. Mel Gordon (Leics Techs), [http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/search/case.jsp?case_id=11327 Case No. D2007-0866] , WIPO]

References

External links

* [http://www.highcrossleicester.com/ Highcross Leicester]
* [http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=505753 Highcross - Shires Shopping Centre extension discussion thread] on SkyscraperCity Forums