Large Shopping Malls

I just thought I would talk about huge shopping complexes today as I was talking about Miranda Fair (Westfield) yesterday and it got me to thinking about the largest shopping complex in the world. One of my colleagues is planning to go to the largest complex, West Edmonton Mall in Alberta Canada, in a few weeks and I thought I would check it out. Apart from shops it has two hotels and a camp ground, it has a water park and putt putt golf as well as two indoor walking tracks to keep you fit. It sounds like you could spend a whole holiday there.

The largest shopping mall in England is at Gateshead, near Newcastle, Metrocentre. We drove past here last year on our way south from Edinburgh, but did not stop. In addition to the 330 shops it has an indoor theme part and a computerised bowling alley. It claims to be the largest shopping centre in Europe!

While in Scotland we visited the Paisley Centre, on the edge of Glasgow. I thought it might have been the largest shopping centre in the UK, however I think that despite having a skating rink, which the kids really enjoyed, its real claim to fame is that the town is the largest in Scotland. This town had a large textile industry in the 19th century and is where the Paisley Pattern originated.