Town centre development of indoor shopping malls in major towns and cities. Examples include the Manchester Arndale Centre, the St. James Centre in Edinburgh and the Bullring Centre in Birmingham. They tended to be constructed in a Brutalist or Modernist fashion reflecting the architectural styles of the period. During the Thatcher government of the 1980s, a change in planning policy allowed competing out-of-town shopping and leisure centres to be developed. Examples include the Metro Centre in Gateshead, the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Dudley, and the Gyle Centre in Edinburgh. Developments of this type have, in a number of places, resulted in
The Mercat Shopping Centre The Mercat Shopping Centre The Mercat Shopping Centre is located in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, United Kingdom. The Mercat has two anchor stores; Marks and Spencer and TK Maxx. The Mercat – including surrounding areas – accounts for at least 30% of all the floorspace in Kirkcaldy town centre, which in total is and providing as much as 200 shops, making Kirkcaldy the largest shopping area in Fife. The shopping centre was built in two phases between 1972 and 1981–83 with a refurbishment completed in 1997. A proposal to extend the shopping centre for a third phase is pending. In 1996