MetroCentre (shopping centre) MetroCentre (shopping centre) intu Metrocentre, formerly MetroCentre and known on road signs as Metro Centre, is a shopping centre in Dunston Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. Located in Dunston, Gateshead, on a former industrial site near to the River Tyne, the Metrocentre opened in stages, with the first phase opening on 28 April 1986 and the official opening on 14 October 1986. It has more than 370 shops occupying of retail floor space, making it the largest shopping and leisure centre in the UK already at its opening. Additional retail space is available in the adjoining Metro Retail Park and
Out-of-town shopping centres in the United Kingdom built. All other British shopping centres are in town and city centres. In the 1960s and '70s, most town and city centres had seen the development of a major shopping precinct. Redditch, in Worcestershire, had the Kingfisher Shopping Centre; Birmingham had the Bull Ring Centre; Manchester, the Arndale Centre; Newcastle, the Eldon Square Shopping Centre and Leeds, the Merrion Centre. Brent Cross, which opened in 1976, was the country's first out-of-town shopping centre. Construction of later out-of-town centres was facilitated by removal of regulations under the Thatcher government. In some cases such as Meadowhall in Sheffield (opened in 1990), they