Trivia: Railway stations primarily accessed through shopping centres

[thenorthern]

London St Pancras certainly feels like it for domestic services.

 

[172007]

Birmingham New Street.

Grand Central is a third party shopping centre owned by Hammerson, not station retail.

i am not sure where the shopping centre starts but i suspect most people would agree upstairs. Not sure where the legal boundry is.

You access directly off the street into Birmingham New Street station from Stephenson St, Hill St & Smallbrook Queens way With not a single shopping centre shop. All there is are 2 x pub, Marks & Spencer, Prett and Boots which are regular railway station fayre.

 

[CharlieSpotted]

Birmingham New Street.

Grand Central is a third party shopping centre owned by Hammerson, not station retail.

Yes, except as I understand it only the first floor is the Hammerson-owned 'Grand Central', the retail units on the ground floor (concourse level) being let by Network Rail as part of the station.

Most of the entrances are on the ground floor so I'm not sure you could say that it is 'exclusively or mainly accessed through' Grand Central.

 

[mailbyrail]

I well remember the later years of the original Liverpool Central when all that remained was an empty shell with a few trains to Gateacre when the easiest and most pleasant access to the Low Level station was through Lewis's store

 

[Mattplans]

The entrance of Fulham Broadway is in a shopping centre.

 

[Djgr]

I well remember the later years of the original Liverpool Central when all that remained was an empty shell with a few trains to Gateacre when the easiest and most pleasant access to the Low Level station was through Lewis's store

Indeed. The demise of Lewis's is not a pretty tale.

 

[riceuten]

Poznan Gl. is an adjunct to a large shopping centre - looks like a bread bin from a distance.

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Welwyn Garden City through the Howard Centre.

I believe when the development on the other side of the bridge is finished you will be able to access the station from there

 

[gg1]

Yes, except as I understand it only the first floor is the Hammerson-owned 'Grand Central', the retail units on the ground floor (concourse level) being let by Network Rail as part of the station.

Most of the entrances are on the ground floor so I'm not sure you could say that it is 'exclusively or mainly accessed through' Grand Central.

Agree, although the old pre-rebuild New Street would definitely have qualified, the majority of passengers entered/exited the station via the Pallasades shopping centre.

 

[Trackman]

Canary Wharf comes to mind first for me, will have a think about international examples. Can't name any off the top of my head.

Same here, Canary Wharf was my first thought.
I remember a couple seemingly lost to find the exit and I advised them to walk through the shop. Chatting further they wanted a connection to Bank so advised them to walk straight through the open carriage doors to the next platform!

 

[styles]

Sometimes St Pancras feels like a shopping centre with a few railway platforms as an afterthought, especially walking towards the Eurostar and East Midlands Railway platforms.

I suppose this is part of making it feel a bit like an airport for people getting off the Eurostar.

 

[frankmoh]

Windsor & Eton Central, although the shopping centre was built long after the station opened.

 

[Broucek]

Stockholm Central (except the Airport Express)

 

[NCT]

I wouldn't count St Pancras. Yes it's a highly commercialised station environment, but it's railway estate and the whole way between street and platform is by railway wayfinding.

Stockholm Central (except the Airport Express)

I forgot about that! Yes, and I find the whole station complex an impenetrable labyrinth.

 

[satisnek]

In the UK - Walsall?

Yes, indeed, is this unique?

When the shopping centre was built there was just an hourly shuttle to New Street, so the new station incorporated within it served the island platform only - it was all that was needed. A passageway across the tracks to the street provided access when the shopping centre was closed.

The legacy lives to this day with this passageway giving access to Platform 1, which is effectively a completely separate station.

 

[endecotp]

Cairns, Australia: my recollection from 20 years ago was that it was accessed through a huge (and freezing-cold, air-conditioned) shopping centre. A look on Google Earth now mostly confirms that, though there might be a back entrance of some sort.

 

[Thirteen]

I'm not sure it counts as it's more a bus station than a shopping centre but I would say maybe Hammersmith?

Canary Wharf kind of counts as the Jubilee Line station is sandwiched between two shopping centres

 

[rmHawk765]

Canary Wharf kind of counts as the Jubilee Line station is sandwiched between two shopping centres

The DLR also has a direct entrance/exit to one of the shopping centres.

 

[NCT]

I wouldn't count Canary Wharf myself, at least the Jubilee part. It's possible of course that stats say more than 50% of access is via the shopping centre, which would satisfy the 'mainly' part.

However, from the perspective of the uninitiated leisure passenger, the main 'Way Out' signs point to the street level and the escalators are more prominent (in my experience) than the side doors to the shopping centre / office basement complex. It's not like at Krakow that the shopping centre seems the only route out.

 

[Mattplans]

Agreed for Canary Wharf. I think a good test would be if you were banned from the shopping centre, would you still be able to access the station? There are other entrances to Canary Wharf that don't involve the shopping centere.

 

[philjo]

Welwyn Garden City - the ticket office is on the upper floor of the adjacent Howard Centre.

Not sure if Southport counts ? Most of that arcade is for accessing the station but the back entrance to M&S is in there.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Coming out of Peckham Rye takes you through some derelict (looking) arcade.

 

[johntea]

One I just remembered that is perhaps slightly different - Stevenage has bonus access from the nearby Leisure Park

 

[Djgr]

Liverpool Central is mostly accessed via a shopping centre (though there is a small side entrance that avoids it) though the shopping centre is quite small and only just worthy of the name.

And the "shopping centre" doesn't really have its own name. Handy for the Sainsbury's though.

 

[Ivor]

Fulham Broadway

 

[Sonic1234]

Coming out of Peckham Rye takes you through some derelict (looking) arcade.

Now demolished and in the process of being "regenerated"

 

[eoff]

Tricky because many stations have a maze of underground shopping extending out from the station or are mostly used because of a close-by shopping centre.
I suppose, the best I can think of is...

Mall of America transit station (more of a metro)

 

[LUYMun]

One side, and probably most foot traffic going by anecdote, of Regensburg Hbf in Germany can be accessed through the Arcaden shopping centre.

 

[eoff]

I suppose Châtelet–Les Halles (Paris) counts.

 

[Highview]

Kensington High Street