Eastgate Opens
Eastgate Shopping Centre was opened in stages between 1980 and 1985. The first store to open was SavaCentre in March 1980. This was followed by the completion of Phase 1 and the opening of Allders in 1983. Phase 2 of development was completed in 1985 when the centre was officially opened to much acclaim by Prince Edward. The original owner of Eastgate was Norwich Union, who also owned the former CGU office block attached to the shopping centre. Today, Eastgate is owned by British Land.
When Eastgate opened it was the largest shopping centre in Essex, and one of the largest in the UK. According to the District Council, at this time Basildon town centre "had the most advanced indoor shopping centre anywhere". It was a novelty as there were no other malls nearby and as a result it became very busy.
The Eastgate of the eighties comprised two giant stores. The first, a Sainsbury’s SavaCentre hypermarket was replaced with an Asda store in 2004, while a year later the then Allders was replaced with a Debenhams store.
Read more about this topic: Eastgate Shopping Centre (Basildon)
Famous quotes containing the word opens:
“The day of days, the great day of the feast of life, is that in which the inward eye opens to the Unity in things, to the omnipresence of law;Msees that what is must be and ought to be, or is the best.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)