It was at the time the largest enclosed shopping centre in Europe
Rare footage captures the early days inside a “science fiction” style shopping centre near Liverpool back in the 1970s. For decades, many from Merseyside and beyond have headed a little further out to visit Runcorn Shopping City, an indoor shopping centre in Runcorn.
Opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972, the site was once the largest enclosed shopping centre in Europe and was inspired by American-style shopping malls. The City represented the dawn of a new age for Runcorn and when it opened, it also contained offices and other amenities such as a theatre, library, and central sports hall.
It was a few years prior that Runcorn was designated as a new town in 1964, and the plans were for Shopping City to be its centrepiece. The town’s planner, Arthur Ling, envisaged the shopping centre to be the “natural meeting place for the town’s social and cultural life,” the Liverpool ECHO previously reported.
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The complex was built on columns, allowing three different levels segregating pedestrians from the traffic below. In the early days, shoppers would arrive at the retail level using elevated walkways from its neighbouring estates.
But rare footage, taken over half a century ago, offers a glimpse into what life was like in Runcorn Shopping City in its early years. Taken in 1973, a year after opening, the footage is courtesy of British Film Institute/Getty and shows everything from customers to the shops inside and how the site looked at one moment in time.
The video, which is 33 seconds long, first shows a tiled mosaic of the Widnes-Runcorn Transporter Bridge. Next, the camera pans and shows the various shops inside Runcorn Shopping City and how busy it is with customers.
Here, you can see well known brands such as Dixons, Littlewoods, Burton and Boots. There is also a large store for Hardys Furnishing.
You’ll also be transported back in time looking at the many customers, all wearing 70s fashions. You may also spot a familiar face who was featured on camera.
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The camera then cuts to customers in a seating area which has a bold red carpet, with a Halfords store in the background. You can also see people head up the escalator to the upper level.
It has now over been 50 years since this footage was captured, but many will Runcorn Shopping City as it looked in the 70s. And if you’re too young to have visited then or remember, the footage is a great window into the past.
The arrival of the shopping centre was hugely anticipated and a half page advertisement placed in the Liverpool ECHO in November 1971, just before it opened, colourfully described what the 1970s shopper could expect. Pitching itself as a complete one-stop-destination for everyone’s shopping needs “under its one giant roof”, it teased the centre as being like nothing “anywhere else in the region”.
There were no roads to cross and so no traffic to avoid, adding: “It’s safe to bring the children – they’ll love it. The elderly will have no problems – there are places where one can sit down and just rest.
“It’s a city without the weather. Once you’re in Runcorn Shopping City, you’ll see it’s like summer all year round, because it’s fully air conditioned and centrally heated.”
The advertisement contained detailed illustrations on what the complex would look like, and how easy it was to access. In its first opening weeks, it also boasted shoppers would be “rubbing shoulders with the world of celebrities” such as comedy double act, Mike and Bernie Winters, Doris Speed – who played Annie Walker in Coronation Street – and Miss England.
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Images, courtesy of our archives, Mirrorpix, also capture what the shopping centre looked like decades ago. Shortly after its official opening, a review in The Times newspaper said: “Shopping City is possibly the nearest planners have come to the sort of building imagined by science fiction writers.
In appearance, it resembles a supersonic mosque, with gleaming white bricks even on the dullest day.” The interior of Shopping City was finished with tiles and marble lining the walls, columns and shop fronts.
The shops were laid out along malls designed in a ‘H’ formation, with its ‘town square’ in the centre, while bars and restaurants were planned for the second storey. The centre opened to great success, attracting large numbers of shoppers brought in by Runcorn’s central location between Liverpool and Manchester and established itself as a premier shopping destination in the North West.
However, despite its promising start, by the mid-late ’80s, the shopping centre’s fortunes began to decline. A change of ownership and disputes about the condition of the complex led to significant renovation taking place, and by 1995, it had been rebranded to Halton Lea Shopping Centre.
In September 2009, Halton Lea was taken into receivership although the centre continued to operate as normal. After coming under the control of new owners and undergoing further renovation, it was once again to experience a name change, being rebranded as Runcorn Shopping Centre.
Despite several name changes, most Runcorn residents continued to call it Runcorn Shopping City, which the centre’s name officially reverted back to its original as part of its 45th birthday celebrations in July 2017.
In recent years, various proposals have surfaced over the past few years as to what needs to happen to update the complex.
