- Thistles Centre
Infobox shopping mall
shopping_mall_name = The Thistles Shopping Centre
image width =
caption = H
location =Stirling ,Forth Valley ,Scotland
address = Gooseport Road, Stirling
coordinates =
opening_date = 1977
1997 (Thistles Marches extension)
developer =
manager =
owner = Standard Life Investments
architect =
number_of_stores = 87
number_of_anchors = 3
floor_area = 2
parking =
website =
footnotes =The Thistles Shopping Centre is located in
Stirling ,Scotland . The shopping centre caters for over 500 000 sq ft of retail, providing 87 units in total [http://www.stirling.gov.uk/stirling_eye_-_winter08.pdf page 4] , since opening in 1977. [http://www.stirling.gov.uk/stirling_eye_-_winter08.pdf page 11]Thistles Marches
A new phase, known as Thistle II Ltd was financed by three joint ventures being Stirling Council (49%), John Laing Property (49%) and DepFa Bank (2%). [http://minutes.stirling.gov.uk/pdfs/community/minutes/ce19981105.pdf page 2] A new 970 two storey car park, 14 stance bus station, 40 new units within the new phase and the creation of 400 jobs was the focus of the plans. [http://minutes.stirling.gov.uk/pdfs/community/minutes/ce19981105.pdf page 3] The Thistle Marches opened to the public in September 1997 retaining Stirling's importance as the major regional centre outwith the main cities.
Standard Life Investments eventually bought the entire shopping centre in 1998 for £37.2 million, at least a year after the Thistles Marches phase was complete. The company paid £8 million back to the financies for their contributions. [http://minutes.stirling.gov.uk/pdfs/community/minutes/ce19981105.pdf page 2]
Current Stores
The anchor stores are
Debenhams , a convert|46900|sqft|m2|abbr=onMarks and Spencer store [http://www.stirling.gov.uk/stirling_eye_-_winter08.pdf page 6] andBhs . Other stores include Zara,River Island ,Topshop , Game,Zavvi ,HMV and Woolworths. There was also a Burger King restaurant located in the centre, however it closed suddenly and without warning in July 2008. [ [http://www.thethistles.com/floorplans.html Thistles - Floor Plans ] ]Thieves Pot
The Thistles Shopping Centre is the only one in the world to have a replica 16th century jail with an extensive history of the Bastion's. The jail is of historical importance in Stirling, being used at one time to guard an angle of Stirling's Town Wall. [ [http://www.thethistles.com/thievespot.html Thistles - Thieves Pot ] ]
External links
* [http://www.thethistles.com/ Thistles Centre official site]
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
