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Bluewater Shopping Centre

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

Bluewater Shopping Centre is a large "out of town" shopping mall located in Greenhithe in the borough of Dartford, just outside London in north west Kent. It was opened on March 16 1999 and is connected by shuttle bus to Greenhithe railway station. All trains running between Gravesend and Dartford now stop at Greenhithe, which had previously been served infrequently. It has recently (May 2005) caused controversy by banning people from wearing baseball caps or hooded tops on its premises, despite these products being sold in the centre.

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Site

The centre covers an area of 154,000 m² (1,600,000 ft²) and claims to be the largest centre in the United Kingdom. It was built on a former chalk quarry and is jointly owned by four major UK institutions, Prudential (35%), Lend Lease Europe Ltd (30%), the Lend Lease Retail Partnership (25%) and Hermes (10%).

The centre is in a triangle shape on two levels with a large department store at each corner. These being House of Fraser, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer. There are 27 million visitors a year to the site and it includes over 330 stores and 40 cafés, bars and restaurants plus a 13-screen Cinema. It has parking spaces for 13,000 cars. The Bollywood film Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham was filmed out here.

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Competition

Bluewater is in direct competition with Lakeside Shopping Centre in Thurrock on the other side of the Thames and positions itself as a more upmarket proposition and alternative to London's West End.

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Features

Aside from retail, its recreational facilities include Land Rover Adventure Zone, Nestlé All Stars Active Zone, The Blue Rock Climbing Wall, The Timberland Discovery Trail, Fishing, Golf Pro Tour Putting, Cycles and Tandems, Boating, Showcase Cinemas, and Molton Brown Day Spa.

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