On Malls

Today I took a trip to the Westfield mall in Shepherd's Bush. I needed to visit Kathmandu, and I thought it would be appropriate to visit a New Zealand store where many New Zealanders live.

I took the bus there, and having never been to the area before I thought I'd just wait until I saw it before I got off. I was expecting to get off at the White City tube station, but instead I got off much earlier than that when the mall stop was announced. I was puzzled, until I saw why.

The Westfield here is enormous. Not just "wow, that's pretty big", but enormous. It is 150,000m² in size, which doesn't sound that big until you read that Sylvia Park, New Zealand's second-largest mall, is a paltry 65,000m². The Riccarton Mall in Christchurch is 47,000m², and Dunedin's Meridian Mall is 16,000m² (which Wikipedia still thinks is the South Island's largest mall).

And what awaits you in Europe's "largest urban area indoor shopping centre"? Just like all malls, fashion stores. There is an Apple Store and a few bookshops, but little else. I did a circumnavigation of some of the floors (I got bored after 20 minutes), briefly looked in hmv, and then left to get my bus.

Oh, and I did find Kathmandu. They were conveniently located right next to my entrance, and even more conveniently were having a sale.