EDITORIAL
P.9
ea is definitely a good thing for residents who in the long run should
see a reduction in crime and also
will have a beautiful, modern town,
as Westfield have hired a highly
skilled architect to work on this project – they have promised to make
Westfield Croydon as original as
possible.
Looking at Stratford as an example,
the new centre has been a boost to
the community and we are still yet
to see the long term positive economic impacts of the Olympics being hosted there and the two year
old mall. You feel the vibe that it is
the place everyone wants to be,
with virtually everyone with shopping bags in their hands and the
centre never empty. This is helped
by fantastic transport links such as
the DLR and tube stations adjacent
to the centre which brings thousands of commuters daily to empty
their wallets into the mall’s thriving
shops such as Forever 21 and OFFICE.
Croydon, arguably has even better
transport links and a huge target
market with “people of the right
spending ability”. There is the primary market of the people who live
in Croydon and the surrounding
boroughs but there is also a secondary market of people outside the
M25. This has made Croydon the
perfect location.
Of course, with all the positives
there are always going to be negatives. There is definitely going to be
disruption caused due to the construction of the new Westfield Croy-
don. However, since Westfield also
own the Centrale shopping centre
they plan to move most of the big
shops to Centrale for the time being
to reduce this disruption and allow
shoppers access to their favourite
shops.
There is however speculation of a
rise in housing prices due to the
regeneration of the area and therefore people wanting to live in the
surrounding area. This could lead to
a housing bubble. However, due to
the negative perception of Croydon,
many houses are undervalued and
therefore the increase in prices will
hopefully not have a significant effect. The local authority is also planning for this eventuality by building
more affordable housing.
Overall, the regeneration of the ar-
Westfield has two successful
branches in London: Stratford and
Shepherd’s Bush and have had
success internationally in Sydney,
Melbourne and soon in Cannes,
South of France. It is likely that
Westfield Croydon in the long run
will have a lot of success by centralising all of the top brands in one big
shopping centre. Although there
will definitely be disruption in the
short term, the long term economic
benefits will hopefully outweigh this.
Croydon has the right amount of
diversity and the perfect demographics for a modern shopping
centre as there is such a wide spectrum of people of different backgrounds; it is also one of London’s
biggest boroughs. The new Westfield is just the