The opening of the Trinity Leeds shopping centre last week marked a new chapter for retail in Yorkshire’s commercial capital.
The opening of Trinity Leeds last week marked a triumph for the mid-market in the heart of what is the commercial capital of Yorkshire and one of the north’s most important business centres.
The Land Securities scheme is not only an interesting architectural addition to this Victorian city, it also manages at a swoop to shift the city’s retail centre of gravity a couple of hundred metres south.
And arriving at the three-floor centre on opening day last week, it was hard not to be aware of the similarities, in terms of the look and feel of this new space, with Bristol’s Cabot Circus, another Land Securities scheme. That is perhaps not surprising because both centres are the work of architects firm Chapman Taylor.
Like Cabot Circus, Trinity Leeds has a curving glass roof that floods the interior with light. The stores on the mall’s upper levels are arranged along what are, in effect, a series of broad gantries, from which views are afforded across the interior of the shopping centre.
There is also a fair amount of public art, with pride of place going to two galvanised steel sculptures. One is of a woman, standing at the main entrance to the shopping centre, while the other depicts a packhorse carrying a load on its back in a nod to Leeds’ heritage as a former centre of the textile industry.
After this, it’s off to the mid-market with names such as Next, Superdry and Urban Outfitters all vying for the attention of the many shoppers who pack the streets of central Leeds.
There is 1 million sq ft of shopping space in this centre and it is 90% let. That’s a lot of additional space in a city where the retail provision was already reasonably impressive.
Next
The multi-floor Next in Trinity Leeds is a move on in terms of visual merchandising for the retailer, and perhaps the most obvious departure is in the men’s department. Men are apparently scared of the enclosure they are likely to encounter in many fashion shops, craving open spaces. Next gives them this with an entrance to the department that has low fixtures and where busy merchandising forms no part of the blueprint.
There is a subtle variation in the use of materials across the floor with large limestone-coloured tiles punctuated with a tessellated design beneath the tables at the front. Plain steel-framed tables provide the introduction to the department with wooden trestle tables towards the back. All of which means a simple and uncluttered floor and an attention to detail that typifies much of what has been done in this shop.
Coast
On the basis of its windows alone, Coast scoops the prize for the most arresting visual merchandising in the centre.
Whether or not you care for the stock, the idea of creating a backdrop composed entirely of brightly coloured groups of flowers forming a collage-like effect is strong, and passersby were all pausing to take photos.
There is an argument that a backdrop of this kind will distract from the main event - the dresses that are on show. That notwithstanding, it would be almost impossible to pass this window display without pausing to take a look.
Superdry
The street-meets-casual-fashion retailer has created an interior for this store that is second only to the Regent Street flagship, and which is intended to function as a northern flagship in its own right.
In common with the Regent Street shop, this branch has an internally illuminated curving glass vitrine at its entrance. Step beyond this and there is a flatbed railway truck. Doubts were initially expressed about it, owing to its weight, but it is an engaging element of the interior.
With most flagships, the showpiece elements rarely make it beyond the door to other locations. In this instance, however, much of the drama of Regent Street has managed to make it up the line to Leeds.
Made in Leeds
The staff at Made in Leeds, a pop-up with a lifetime of eight weeks initially, were keen to point out that this is the only “independent retailer in Trinity”.
The pop-up is a simple idea that involves local artists and artisans creating objects for sale, with just one criterion - every item has to be made in Leeds.
As might be expected of this form of retailing, the merchandising is simple, with the mid-shop display being created from whitewashed wooden palettes that have been stacked on top of each other.
The point about this kind of pop-up is that the less crafted it looks, the greater the appeal.
Primark
Showing a picture of a hoarding, behind which a store-to-be is taking shape, is a non-standard approach to talking about store design.
Yet it is worth noting that the value fashion retailer has taken a large unit in the centre that will not actually open for some time.
Interesting, because there is already a branch of Primark in the city, only a couple of minutes walk away on the Headrow. In the normal run of things, the decision at this point would be to close the extant shop and trade from the new branch. Instead, Primark has opted to keep the Headrow store open and to capture shoppers who head for Trinity Leeds, which it obviously views as a new destination.
New Look
The value fashion retailer has taken a large unit in Trinity Leeds and crammed merchandise onto the mid-shop and perimeter display space and yet, perhaps surprisingly, there is still room to move. In part, this has to do with the fact that, although the merchandising is dense, space has been left between the units, making navigating around the shop straightforward.
The name on the fascia is illuminated, increasing visibility as the approach to the store is made. And much is made of New Look’s online credentials, with a series of light-boxes displaying the various ways in which the ranges can be accessed.
Pride of place, however, has to be given to the shoe shop at the back of the floor. Here, the displays and visual merchandising put it in the vanguard of the bargain shoe retailers. This is rather more than might be said for German value footwear retailer Deichmann, also present in the centre, where stacked shoe boxes seem to take the place of visual merchandising thought.
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