The Shires Shopping Centre
Recommendation added: 14/04/2006 22:26
By: angiebaby (YSUK rating +20)angiebaby has been thanked 4 times for this contribution
"Living in trowbridge has been brilliant. We have brilliant train and bus links to the rest of the UK and Wiltshire. With Bath a train ride away, or even Bristol, trowbridge is easy to get to and easy to get away from. But there's one specific part I'm going to talk about in trowbridge in this review. The shires shopping centre. This is a brilliant place to go shopping in trowbridge. This shopping centre contains over fifty high, middle and lower order shops, plus a museum. In each season, there are different stalls within the middle of the shopping centre attracting visitors, and brining in more customers. If you ever come to trowbridge, I advise you to come shopping in this shopping centre.
I will start with the centre of the shopping centre. Every week, is something different, whether a jewellery stall, or a painting stall, or a charm stall. Each and every stall has to pay so much to be in there for a week and have a license. All around the shires will also be smaller company stalls trying to sell you insurance or car policies, and occasionally, especially during summer holidays, for the children there will be clowns or balloon artists – all of which have to pay to be there and have special licenses. During the Christmas month of December, there is always a Santa's grotto for the younger generation of us. During September, the shires get free publicity when the Wiltshire times hold its cutest baby darling competitions. The photo shoots take place from time to time during the year as well in there, but generally occur around September for the Wiltshire times. The shires really do provide for the family side of matters and can really entertain children. As most parents will know, taking younger children can be a pain when they go 'I want I want' all the time or seem to be crying or bored. The shires seem to understand this problem and so provide extra services for the younger generation to make it easier on the parents and carers.
I will then go onto the security. The security in this place is brilliant. If there seems to be any trouble, the security guards are straight onto to the case. There tends to be a security guard on each end of the shires (three) plus there are security cameras everywhere. As soon as something seems to be going wrong, it is immediately put right by the security guards.
The general niceness and cleanliness seems to be high quality every time as well. The toilet facilities are always clean, and have just been modernised, but there is a problem with the smell of either disinfectant or urine it seems, just like most public toilets, but apart from that, the toilet facilities are good. The shires floors always seem to be clean, and if there is any cleaning going on, or spillages, there always seems to be a slippery sign near by to warn shoppers not to go near, which means fewer accidents it seems. On the bottom floor, next to the bottom floor car park, are lovely planting areas which always seem to be full of plants. You also have the river running alongside the shopping centre as well.
The car parks are brilliant as well. There are two floors underneath the actual shires, and then with Asda right next door, there are also two more floors right next to it. This is fine in the summer months it seems, but as soon as it hits the Christmas months, it seems as if people wanting to park in this car park, are queuing from the road. There is a pay to park charge to help with funds in updating the car park and keeping it looking nice. Occasionally, they re-paint the walls in the car park which keeps it looking bright and colourful.
This shopping centre provides not only stairs, escalators, but also ramps and lifts for the disabled and for mothers and father with prams. This makes it easier access for everybody and makes it generally easier.
Now onto the shops. This is the best part about shopping I reckon, the shopping and the retail therapy of it all. We have new marks and Spencer food store being built, and an Asda supermarket for food and general everyday shopping. Then we have two Clinton card stores which I don't understand, but both are good though. We have around 4 different phone shops, such as Phones for you, an orange shop and others. We have an Argos, a superdrug which has to be my favourite place to shop right now, a few stationers, of which, DTB's has got to be my favourite due to the quality and price of everything in the store. We have two book shops, one which is Ottakers which stocks every book you could possibly need, but at the RRP prices usually, and then a cheaper book shop which stocks fewer titles. We have a shoe shop, and many other shops. My favourite has to be Claire's accessories being female, and Revert, a designer shop. I also like the jewellery shops such as F Hinds, or H Samuel. New look, the trowbridge jean company and MK one are brilliant clothes shops as well to go to. There are many more shops, that I could go on forever but there's not much point to it. Every shop in the shires has a point, and the butchers and fruit shop are definitely high quality places. There is only one empty shop at the present time waiting to be bought. The marks and Spencer's food store should be open within the next few months and I will update when it is open. Every shop sets itself high standards on the way they are clean and laid out. This is a brilliant place for shopping and it's all under a rain proof roof…
If you fancy a coffee after all that hard work, then you can go to Boswell's coffee shop, placed in the centre of the shires. Or if you fancy taking out then there is a Gregg's in the centre as well, fighting competition off from the coffee shop. With Gregg's, you can take your order two minutes down the road to trowbridge park where you can either have a summer picnic during the summer, or watch your children play in the park.
Overall, this is a brilliant shopping centre to visit if you are in the area, and right next door is an older building called the mill shopping centre, pretty much empty now, but it was once an old mill house. There is also trowbridge museum giving you the historical side of trowbridge if you fancy taking a walk just past Boswell's coffee shop. This really brings out the historical side of trowbridge, showing that it's not just a modern town, but has an industry related past. The shires are clean, the people are friendly, the services and shops provided are top quality and the shops aren't all expensive, although a few are. Overall, a ten out of ten for trowbridge shires.
How to get there: by train – get to the train station and find the pizza parlour opposite. To the right behind that, there's a huge shop called Asda, and you just need to follow the road to that for a two minute walk and right next to that is one of the entrances to the shires.
By car: follow the A321 from Melksham, Westbury or Devizes route. Then get onto Hilperton road and then onto County way until you get to Bythesea road, which at the end is the entrance to the shires car park or you can follow the sign posts to trowbridge museum.
Thanks for reading.
Angiexxx"
Was this recommendation useful?
|
