A New Shopping Centre for Northwich

Retail therapy is a well-known way of giving yourself a little lift, but it certainly doesn't hurt if the place where you are spending your money looks attractive as well. The new Barons Quay shopping centre, due to open in Northwich, Cheshire, later this year, looks just the job; not only will it have many of your favourite shops, but it's located right by the River Weaver. The new centre's restaurants and cafes will have great views across the river and Barons Quay will also be connected to the existing town's facilities.

Of course there are other shopping centres in Cheshire -- the Grosvenor centres in Chester and Macclesfield, the Forum centre in Chester, Winford Cross in Winsford to name just a few, and there are many closer to Manchester. But Northwich itself lacks a central hub with the sorts of facilities that Barons Quay will offer, including a five-screen Odeon, a large Asda and a flagship Marks and Spencer shop.

While Northwich is a beautiful market town, it has struggled in the past to meet demand for some of the larger chains of shops. The new centre will allow development of such stores without a complete change to the character of the town centre. There will also be plenty of parking for those who visit the new centre, so that they're not overloading the town's existing facilities. While it's a laudable plan to have more people using public transport to access this sort of facility, the catchment area for Northwich shoppers is largely a rural one, and it's foolish to ignore the fact that people will be wanting to use their cars in such a situation.

Really looking forward to this!