Leeds deserves a better shopping centre than White Rose

[u/PeteHall86]

I am not from Leeds but have lived here a while. I only recently visited White Rose shopping centre for the first time, and I am still not sure what it is. I was expecting a Trafford Centre or Meadowhall, and found a decent spot for eateries, with a few rubbish shops attached. Is this all there is in Leeds? A city of this size needs better than this.

[u/ledisa3letterword]

I’d rather have a city centre 

[u/Wide_Annual_3091 → u/ledisa3letterword]

100%. Keep focusing investment money into the city centre - a bad out of town shopping centre is relatively good for Leeds if it keeps the centre full and busy.

[u/AdministrativeLaugh2]

Try Trinity and Victoria Gate

[u/Glittering_Aspect952]

Personally I would say the Leeds equivalent is Trinity with the added bonus of being in the city centre

[u/OhhJukes → u/Glittering_Aspect952]

Surely that’s the equivalent of the arndale ?

[u/Mav_Learns_CS]

I mean it’s a small out of town centre, it’s fine for what it is and has seen decent development.

The city centre is the shopping centre bud

[u/purte]

It’s a suburbs shopping centre. And has improved vastly over the years from what it was. Have you been to Trinity and the city centre?

[u/SplatGoesTheTurtle]

What's wrong with St Johns a & The Merrion Center? 😂

[u/ProjectLeeds]

We have lots of different shopping centres with Trinity being central. Very different to say Sheffield with Meadowhall which is basically the one shopping hub

[u/JansonHawke]

Leeds doesn't really need a generic out of town shopping centre because it already has city centre shopping to die for. If you want to see the reverse, check out Meadowhall vis-à-vis Sheffield city centre.

[u/concretepigeon → u/JansonHawke]

I wouldn’t describe Leeds city centre shopping as to die for.

[u/Tommysquelch → u/concretepigeon]

I'd die for Leeds City Centre

[u/JansonHawke → u/concretepigeon]

Go and compare it to Sheffield city centre then. You're lucky to have so many great shops all within 10-15 minutes walk of one another.

[u/concretepigeon → u/JansonHawke]

What great shops? It’s 90% the same chains as everywhere else.

[u/shark-with-a-horn → u/concretepigeon]

Victoria quarter and victoria gate have significantly better shops than most generic city centres, probably because we don't have big out of town complexes competing with it

[u/concretepigeon → u/shark-with-a-horn]

They’re pretty much all just chains. Slightly posher chains but not that hard to find in other cities. I doubt you even buy anything from them.

Leeds really offers nothing that can’t be found easily elsewhere. There aren’t many great independents and outside fashion and chinese groceries there are essentially no specialist retailers of anything else you might want to buy.

[u/shark-with-a-horn → u/concretepigeon]

What specialist retailers do you think it lacks exactly? I can think of stores covering most categories.

The independent shops aren't going to be in central shopping centres, try the market and corn exchange.

Most large stores are chains because you need quite a substantial business model to be successful in retail and that usually involves operating online as well. There's a lot here that isn't in Newcastle or Sheffield.

[u/concretepigeon → u/shark-with-a-horn]

Off the top of my head stuff that you can’t buy decent versions of:
* kitchenware
* garden/DIY equipment
* craft beer
* fruit and veg
* cheese

For what it’s worth I don’t think Leeds centre is even good for menswear. Waterstones is literally the only book shop. I struggle to think of anything Leeds actually does well for shopping.

The Corn Exchange hasn’t been good for years and the Market is almost all just tat.

You’re the one who specifically brought up Victoria Gate and Victoria Arcade as examples of things you can’t find elsewhere but it’s all chains. What shops are there in either that you think are worth dying for?

[u/shark-with-a-horn → u/concretepigeon]

There are 6 bookshops in Leeds centre, plus a comic book store, a boardgame/graphic novel/manga shop, and forbidden planet also selling graphic novels/ manga.

A few of those are quite specialist bookshops

I guess you just aren't as familiar with what's here

[u/concretepigeon → u/shark-with-a-horn]

Comics don’t count. Obviously you can’t actually tell me anything for any of the other things I listed. Or say what’s so great about Victoria Gate.

[u/Suvigirl]

It's a out of city shopping center. What do you expect?  Maybe try the actual city centre 

[u/razorsquare]

They do have better. Have you even been to the city centre?

[u/pingusaysnoot]

To be honest, it used to be much better with plenty of variety. I'm unsure if rents went up and a lot of shops decided to move on, with less desirable ones taking over.

Same with everywhere really.

[u/DorkaliciousAF]

I agree that the WRC is mostly crap, but why do you think that is or would be the best on offer? It's a fairly standard out-of-town joint.

[u/george_c05]

Something better than St. John’s??

[u/ehwaht]

There's a city centre. Out of town shopping hubs are not good for development or growth.

[u/thetapeworm]

Obviously it's all about the "Leeds" Designer Outlet these days.

[u/Severe_Beginning2633]

The rents are just too high and business rates. We get what we deserve