Festival Place

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Festival Place


Location	Basingstoke, UK
Opening date	2002
Management	Jones Lang LaSalle
Owner	Grosvenor Group
No. of stores and services	165
No. of anchor tenants	3
Total retail floor area	102,000 m² (1.1m ft²)
Parking	3000
No. of floors	5,2 Retail, 3 Car Parking
Website	http://www.festivalplace.co.uk/

Festival Place, eastern frontage

Festival Place is a shopping centre in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England which opened in Tuesday, 22nd October 2002. It houses 165 shops^[1] including large department stores such as Bhs, Debenhams, and Marks and Spencer and designer stores such as Austin Reed, Kurt Muller and LK Bennett. There are also restaurants, bars, and cafés, mostly located outside in the covered Festival Square.

Festival Place has a Vue (formerly Ster Century) cinema, "Liquid" Nightclub, Sports Centre, and the town's library. It is located within Basingstoke town centre, close to Basingstoke railway station, and incorporates the town bus station.

There is a car park above the centre with 3,000 spaces above the Centre with designated Parent and Children and Badge Holder spaces.

Festival Place is 102,000 m² (1.1 million square feet) in size and is owned by the Grosvenor Group.^[2].

During the week the majority of shops are open 9am - 8pm, and the centre itself is open 6am - 1am daily.

[edit] History

The area of Basingstoke which Festival Place now stands on was cleared in the 1960s where a large brick shopping centre was built. The first phase, which became The Walks was completed at the end of the decade and was covered in the 1970s. The second phase became The Malls and has hardly been altered. The third phase was abandoned and became The Anvil concert hall.

Festival Place was completed in 2002. The development replaced The Walks centre, and saw covering Porchester Square, and extending the centre to the east into a new two-level section, Festival Square and the tower which is illuminated at night (see image). The bus station was redeveloped. An amphitheatre near it was built and also area with fountains, across the road from Eastrop Park. St John's Square, which was originally part of The Malls but is now owned by Festival Place is the only part which hasn't received attention.

The development helped increase Basingstoke's popularity as a shopping destination in Hampshire, but has also speeded the decline of The Malls.