Brent Cross Shopping Centre
17 June 2025(2025 Jun ) – News that Hammerson have bought Standard Life’s (Abrdn) 95% interest in the Brent Cross Shopping Centre in NW London and are now working on buying from another a further 3% interest so as to own 100%, led me to read about the Centre on Wikipedia.
I know a lot of about BCSC already, having been on the Montagu Evans & Son planning team for the public inquiry for planning consent. I do not know who wrote the entry on Wikipedia, but it omits material information. It’s true that Hammerson developed the Centre, but I wouldn’t agree that it was on undeveloped land. And I wonder if it was the “first out-of-town and American-style indoor shopping centre in the country”. Moreover, there’s no explanation for why called the Brent Cross Shopping Centre.
For why called, a plausible possibility is that it’s in the London Borough of Brent. Except it’s not, it’s in LB Barnet. And why the Cross? A cynic might surmise that because the BCSC ruined Golders Green Road, the primary shopping for the area, from which GGR has never recovered, the local shopkeepers were cross. But no. Originally, the cross road was the junction of the North Circular Road and Hendon Way.
The land upon which the BCSC was built is in between the River Brent and the North Circular Road. Unlike the South Circular Road, for decades a series of local roads knitted together, the North Circular Road (A406) is a 25-mile road, from Chiswick Roundabout (Flyover) to North Woolwich – a ring road around London north of the River Thames before the M25 was built. In its day, the Ace café, by the viaduct at Stonebridge Park, a haven for bikers: 100 mph late at night.
The land was, in my view, not undeveloped as such because, in 1935, it was a greyhound track, owned by Hendon Stadium Ltd. After the War, Hendon and Hackney Wick merged to become Hackney and Hendon Greyhounds Company Ltd. In 1970, businessman George Walker, brother of boxing champion Billy Walker, did a reverse takeover and the merged company was called Brent Walker Ltd. In 1972, the stadium closed, and the site was sold for the building of BCSC, with some of the land forming the new links to the M1 motorway and the rest as parking spaces for the new shopping centre.
As for the first out-of town American-style centre. Sort of. In 1964, the first edge of town superstore, 110,000 sqft in 50 departments, under one roof, aimed at motorists and families, was in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, developed by Gem International Supercentres Inc., to bring American shopping habits to Britain. A drive in, load up, drive out, It was too far ahead of its time, as then only 47% of the population had refrigerators. It lasted 2 years before sold to Associated Dairies. Keen to take advantage of the law banning retail price maintenance, Asda wanted to create a large-scale, low-price superstore.
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