I visited the Westfield shopping centre in London's Shepherd's Bush yesterday. I don't know much about it. I've not been there before. I see that it's been open for just about two years.
I also read that the development is on a brownfield site used for the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition and as a railway depot, which remains, excavated to a lower level and built over.
Two things I did notice: Westfield is massive and it was packed.
The area is big, the centre consists of large spaces and large stores. A shoppers' paradise, no doubt.
Another thing struck me. Despite recessions, unemployment, strikes and cuts, the British appetite for retail continues unchecked. The stores were full (OK, maybe not everyone was buying), but the restaurants and coffee shops were full of queues. Half-term may be a reason why the shops thronged, and of course this is the supposedly affluent south.
But life looked pretty good for these happy shoppers.
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