Report - (revisit) Grand Arcade Shopping Centre, Wigan, april 4th 2013

Tom Sherman · Apr 4, 2013

Visited with my brother and his friend while working up there

Every 6 months we go up there and clean the atrium glass (a-pex) windows. I let them start the job and i fooked off to take a few snaps, it would of been rude not to.
It was freezing up there and very windy and i had my camera on the wrong setting AGAIN

so 1 or 2 of my pics are not the best of pics but here goes.

Here is some history of the shopping centre

The Grand Arcade shopping centre was opened on 22 March 2007. Construction, which cost Â£120M, started in 2005 on the site of Wigan Casino and The Ritz.
They had planned to build a 18-storey apartments called "Tower Grand" that was suspended in 2008 due to a slump in the residential homes market.
There are over 40 stores, including Debenhams, Marks & Spencer, River Island and TK Maxx. There is also the Casino CafÃ©, which is themed on the illustrious Wigan Casino, the Soul Club which stood on the site of Grand Arcade until the early eighties, and is the perfect venue to relax and meet friends whilst sampling the offers from Coffee Delight, Costa Coffee or Le Petit Four.
Another exciting historic addition to Grand Arcade is the bronze statue of George Formby, which was located in the centre during its opening year of 2007.
Whilst we were surprised to find out the site that Grand Arcade was built on was once an important Roman settlement, we would not have been surprised if any old vinyls had been dug up. This is because Grand Arcade was also built upon the ground where the famous Wigan Casino Soul Club once stood, which was once voted the World's Best Venue by America's Billboard Magazine, beating New York's Studio 54.
At Grand Arcade we like to embrace the history of Wigan, which is why we have a bespoke eating area called Casino CafÃ© which has been themed on the illustrious Wigan Casino Soul Club, which stood on the site of the centre until the early eighties.

Here are my shots i hope you enjoy