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
Whitefriars Shopping Centre Whitefriars Shopping Centre Whitefriars Shopping Centre is a shopping centre in Canterbury, Kent, England. It is the biggest shopping centre in East Kent. The Whitefriars Shopping Quarter is situated on the site of the former multi-storey car park and Ricemans department store. Following the demolition of these buildings a new multi storey carpark and a Fenwick department store were constructed. The "Big Dig" archaeological excavation was carried out on the site by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust in conjunction with Channel 4's television programme "Time Team" from 2000–2003, unearthing mostly Roman and Mediaeval finds. The centres's main stores are Tesco Metro,