Crowngate Shopping Centre Explained

Crowngate Shopping Centre Worcester
Location:	Worcester, England
Coordinates:	52.192°N -2.2227°W
Opening Date:	1992
Manager:	King Sturge
Owner:	Crown Estate^[1]
Number Of Stores:	60
Number Of Anchors:	2 House of Fraser & Primark)
Floors:	1 (Some shops have extra floors)
Parking:	750

Crowngate Worcester is a shopping centre in Worcester, England, built in part on the historic site of the Worcester Blackfriars monastery, and replacing the former Blackfriars shopping centre.^[2]

It contains forty-nine stores, with a range of both large and smaller units, including House of Fraser and Primark. There are three restaurants in the recently refurbished Friary Walk: Wildwood Kitchen, Bills restaurant and Anatolian Palace.

Other facilities include a 780 space, multi-story car park, Worcester's bus station and the Huntingdon Hall Theatre.

In October 2009 the centre underwent a £5 million refurbishment.^[3] In 2017, plans for a new look for Crowngate were published,^[4] which were completed in 2019, and gave the existing building a brand new frontage.

Construction and excavations

Archaeological excavations were carried out in 1985–6, prior to the construction of the new centre. They uncovered:

• a Roman road and timber buildings
• a Saxon building and bread ovens
• the cloisters and friary church of the monastery, which were aligned with the Roman Road
• civil war defences facing towards St Johns.

Nevertheless, the nine months of funding to excavate the site "proved insufficient to complete the work and analyse the finds". The small finds were repackaged by volunteers in 2010.^[5]

There are plaques dotted around Crowngate, to be found, which tell the history of the site.

Stores

Stores present include House of Fraser, Primark, Boots, The Body Shop, Claire's, Smiggle, Ryman, Warren James,^[6] Rise,^[7] New Look, Superdrug, Iceland, and Cornucopia.

Bus Station

The bus station is located below the shopping centre^[8] and the main bus operator is First Midland Red.

Routes serving the bus station

Route	Destination	Operator	Notes
	Henwick Park	First Worcestershire
	St Peters		Only peak time journeys continue beyond St Peters towards Kempsey
	Shire Park
	Blackpole
	Royal Hospital
	Royal Hospital
	Great Malvern

Notes and References

1. Web site: Pryce. Mike. Company behind Crowngate enjoys another record year. Worcester News. 3 August 2016. 30 June 2016.
2. http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/worcester/15611255.Memories_of_Blackfriars_shopping_centre_shared_for_Crowngate_anniversary/ Memories of Worcester's Blackfriars shopping centre shared for Crowngate 25th anniversary
3. Web site: £5m revamp is up and running – video. Worcester News. 3 August 2016. 2 October 2009.
4. Web site: Planning consent secured for regeneration project at Crowngate Shopping Centre. Retail Bulleting. 19 May 2018. 30 August 2017.
5. https://researchworcestershire.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/blackfriars-worcester/ BLACKFRIARS, WORCESTER
6. Web site: Al Rasheed. Tarik. New store opening in Crowngate. Worcester News. 3 August 2016. 29 April 2016.
7. Web site: Kelly. Alicia. Queues at Worcester record store as Record Store Day kicks off. Worcester News. 3 August 2016. 16 April 2016.
8. Book: Planet. Lonely. Wilson. Neil. Berry. Oliver. Duca. Marc Di. Dixon. Belinda. Dragicevich. Peter. Harper. Damian. Kaminski. Anna. Nevez. Catherine Le. Symington. Andy. Lonely Planet Great Britain. 1 March 2015. Lonely Planet. 9781743605295. 3 August 2016. en.