westfield shopping centre

homealone_2

i dont know if anyone else went to the opening of this new shoppping mall at white city yesterday but it is enormous!!! apparently it is the largest in europe. i was a little apprensive going last night as i imagined it to be packed to the gills, when in fact it is so huge it would take a lot for you to feel hemmed in. there is lots of space in and around the shops and each shop i went into i was served immediately. people may have been worried too and deliberately stayed away giving it time to settle down. my daughter was one of them and went to the west end only to regret it as every store had long winding queues so each time she ended up putting back her shopping. westfield is very family friendly too and even have a family rest room where children and adults can relax watch tv while giving small ones a break or even to feed your baby away from the madding crowd. they also have concierge staff who if you tell them the sort of thing you are looking for they will go to various stores collecting items to bring back to you for your imspection. they have 60 food outlets ranging from a french take away (a new one on me), sushi bar, milk shake stand, coffee places, nandos and a few champagne bars. definitely no macdonalds. they also have a service where when you feel you no longer wish to carry your shopping any further they have little buggies you can hop on and they will take you to where your car is parked. the only thing i will give them a bad mark for would be parking, the car park is vast and very high tech with sensors going on and off as you leave a space so it can update the signs hanging above with spaces now available. BUT it did not have charges for parking on view as you enter car park and for 2 hrs 10 mins it cost me £6 which i thought was rather alot!! i dont know if any cheaper at weekends and there are no concessions for disabled. but it would not be somewhere you would go every weekend so i guess for a trip christmas shopping with kids in tow the convenience of having a car probably outweighs the cost.

saintscouple

homealone wrote: »

i dont know if anyone else went to the opening of this new shoppping mall at white city yesterday but it is enormous!!! apparently it is the largest in europe..........

3rd biggest in the uk behind Bluewater, and Metro according to this article - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/3286048/Thousands-of-shoppers-defy-credit-crunch-to-visit-Westfield-shopping-centre.html
Handy if you live nearby though..

saintscouple

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penrhyn

Excellent, another reason not to go to that London, got one in Derby BTW.:rotfl:

lolly5648

I am looking forward to going but will go by tube - don't think I could face the parking.

Sharon87

I was planning to go today with my brother, but he ended up working! So I'll be visiting it another time. It's only a 50 minute bus ride away for me The bus is much cheaper than the tube lol.

I was offered a job there at the 'Storm' watched stall, but it was really crap pay so I didn't take it!

I'm looking forward to going, even though I'll have no money to spend!

Ritzyreet

Went to Westfield today & feel stressed & exhausted this evening. Getting there was OK on the Overground although trains only every half an hour from Willesden & Clapham Jnctn. The queues for any type of coffee bar or food place were unbelievably long. We stayed in one queue for 25 minutes without hardly moving, tried several others, they couldnt cope at all. We got so desperate for a hot drink in the end that we left & went to the local shops in the streets nearby which is a long walk. My advice is dont go yet, they are not ready!
Wait for this, London Transport closed down Shepherds Bush central line station causing chaos, it was raining heavily & freezing cold. Imagine that on the 1st Saturday of the new centre opening!! We couldnt believe it. We heard 3 rows kicking off in the space of 3 hours with shoppers getting bad tempered. No bargains there at the moment & no cheap shops. Very little evidence of anybody having bought much at all as hardly any bags on the trains.
May be good for the sales in January.

SootSoot

Its HUGE!!
However, the exterior site still looks like a big building site. DH drove down today and we got there around 9:30ish to beat the crowds and get a parking spot. £2 ph parking :eek:..... extortionate.... we shopped for 2 hours, in fact the ticket went into the machine at exactly 2 hours on the dot...but the machine decided to spit my ticket out, tell me that it was already in use, told me to pay £2, so I did...and it spat out another ticket (someone elses)...hey hum not my fault it was faulty.

Generally, I would say don't bother going yet. They had the London Gospel choir thrashing out their 'M-people' covers (which according to a security guard is the same thing EVERYDAY since it opened), NO LIFTS working from the car park, NO LIFTS working in the main centre-you had to find a big store with lifts, half the car park barriers didn't work, only ONE car park attendent by the machine who told us we had to carry hefty DS in his pushchair up the stairs, but to be fair I said 'WHAT????:mad: you expect US to carry that up? Or are you going to do it?' to which he replied yes he would....
hmmm, what else...oh, as Ritzyreet said there are no bargains to be had, no store opening offers only M&S shoving some competition form in your face as you walk around. Most of the stores in 'The Village' weren't even open yet.
Made a complaint to their concierge desk about someone scrawling 'shi te' on their boards in the staircases already; although I was secretly sniggering at their inability to check and clean all customer areas. It is extremely spacious with lots of seating around for those moany lazy DH/DP's to sit and watch your shopping. Very much like Bluewater in many ways.

Having said all that, I can see that Dec 26th onwards will be a wonderfully super busy time at Westfield London...There are shops for all, M&S, House of Fraser, Debenhams and Next in the 4 corners, ...and best of all there is a beautiful, fragrant CROCS shop...mmmm the smell......also an UGG shop there too, but that was too rammed for me to even venture into. Boots is an OK size although nowhere as big as Sedley Place nor Bluewater but it has SS tills :T .

toadyfrog

is there a primark

FlyingDutchman

You know, I considered going but by the time I did it was pouring with rain and ruddy freezing so I decided not to.

I'm glad I didn't go now considering some of the reviews here and even happier I didn't miss out on those supposed 'up to 70%' bargains the papers were talking about.

In answer to the previous post, no there isn't a Primark. Not according to the website anyhow:

http://uk.westfield.com/london

moxie_2

But there is a Primark in Hammersmith and one now in Ealing so no need for another really.