Metrocentre: Shops, Parking, Directions and Opening Times

Two million square feet, over 270 stores, almost 10,000 free parking spaces and its own railway station — forty years old in 2026, and being sold as we write. Here is what is in it and how to get there without a car.

Last checked 31 August 2026 · Opening times and store lists change — check with the centre before travelling.

Metrocentre opened in 1986 on the ash tip left behind by Dunston Power Station, and for years was described as the largest indoor shopping centre in Europe. It is now generally reckoned the second-largest in the UK. What has not changed is the shape of the thing: five colour-coded malls — Red, Green, Blue, Yellow and Platinum — plus Town Square and Exhibition Square, wrapped in almost 10,000 free parking spaces beside the A1.

It turned 40 in 2026, and it is having an eventful birthday. Footfall hit 16 million in 2025, the best since before the pandemic; a £6m quarter for independent retailers called The Crescent completes this summer; and in August 2026 Landsec entered exclusive talks to buy the place for around £500m. That sale had not completed when we checked.

Metrocentre is Europe’s largest indoor mall-style shopping centres [sic], conveniently situated beside the A1 in Gateshead.

The essentials

Opening times

Checked against the operator's opening-times page on 31 August 2026 and confirmed on three further official pages plus the regional tourism body. One conflict worth knowing: the centre's own FAQ page says Saturday 9am–8pm while four other sources say 7pm — we have published 7pm, but check if a late Saturday matters. Restaurants and leisure venues run later than the malls, and anchor stores set their own hours, which the centre does not publish.

Getting there

By car

The centre sits directly beside the A1 Western Bypass at Dunston and is signed from it. The Metrocentre exit is A1 junction 71, which puts you onto Hollinside Road. Coming up from the south, the centre's own directions are to leave the A1(M) at junction 65 at Birtley, stay northbound for about six miles and take the signed exit. From the north, follow the A1 south, cross the Tyne and follow the signs.

There are six car parks — Red, Green, Yellow and Blue, plus the coach park and a small green car park for the NHS diagnostic centre on site — with multi-storeys in Red, Blue and Yellow. All hold Park Mark Safer Parking awards. Watch the height limits if you are in a van or carrying a roof box: 1.98m in Yellow and Blue, 2.10m in Red. Parking is free with no time limit in the main car parks; the four-hour rule applies only at Metro Retail Park and MetrOasis.

By train

Metrocentre has its own railway station, joined to the mall by a covered footbridge with step-free access. It is seven minutes from Newcastle Central, with trains roughly every 15 minutes in the day, run by Northern on the Tyne Valley line. Through services also reach Sunderland, Teesside, County Durham, Prudhoe and Morpeth. For a big shopping centre this is unusually good, and it is the reason a car-free trip is genuinely easy here.

By bus

The on-site interchange is served by more than 100 buses an hour. Go North East's X66 CentreLink runs from Gateshead Metro Interchange every seven to eight minutes in the day, and Stagecoach's 100 runs at the same frequency from Newcastle Monument. Services 6, 10, 10A, 10B, 47 and X45 come from Eldon Square. A free circular bus links all four mall entrances with Metro Retail Park, Asda and IKEA.

The Metro trap

There is no Metro station at Metrocentre, despite the name. Tyne and Wear Metro passengers change to a bus at Gateshead Interchange or Monument, or to a train at Newcastle Central. It catches out first-time visitors constantly.

Coaches, bikes and taxis

The coach park takes up to 350 coaches. There are bike racks at all main entrances and motorbike parking in the Red, Green and Yellow car parks. Taxi pick-up and drop-off points sit at the mall entrances with direct phone lines to a local firm. Accessible parking is available at every car park except the external Blue Mall car park, and each car park has published what3words coordinates.

The shops

Over 270 stores and around 60 places to eat, spread across five colour-coded malls. Physical occupancy was 89.3% in March 2026, up three points on the year, and the centre says it has taken on more than 80 new brands since 2021.

The anchors

• Marks & Spencer Green Mall
• Primark Exhibition Square
• Next 78,000 sq ft flagship
• Sports Direct former Debenhams
• H Beauty former House of Fraser
• TK Maxx / HomeSense
• Flannels
• JD Sports
• ODEON

Notable names

Fashion runs from Zara, H&M and River Island through Bershka — 16,000 sq ft in the Red Mall — Hollister, AllSaints and Timberland. Apple is the standout for tech. Beauty is unusually strong for a regional centre thanks to H Beauty, Harrods' beauty format, alongside Boots, Lush and a Lovisa flagship with what the centre says is the North East's largest piercing studio. Homeware has KENJI, the region's only branch, and gifts run to Waterstones, Hotel Chocolat and LEGO.

Leisure, in the Qube

The old Metroland site reopened in 2009 as a £35m leisure quarter and it still carries the entertainment. ODEON has 12 screens including Dolby and IMAX — the first IMAX in north-east England. Namco Funscape has 18 bowling lanes, an arcade, soft play and what it claims are some of Europe's fastest indoor dodgems. Add Clip 'n' Climb, Activate, The Escapologist escape rooms, two 18-hole Treetop Golf courses and the 40,000 sq ft Everlast Gyms that opened in November 2023.

What is changing

The Forum is being rebuilt as The Crescent, a £6m, 10,000 sq ft quarter of ten units aimed at independent retailers and modelled on a market-town street, completing in summer 2026 for the centre's 40th birthday. Café Filto opened there on 4 July 2026, with AQUA TCG, Webster & Carr and Thatype to follow. Lefties, Inditex's off-price brand, is due in the Red Mall in winter 2026.

Useful to know

• Shopmobility is on Level 3 of the Blue multi-storey and opens the same hours as the mall. Scooters take up to 35 stone, and there are power chairs, children's, standard and XL wheelchairs and Zimmer frames. Membership is £20, renewal £15; scooter hire £3 a day for members and £6 for non-members; wheelchairs £2. Bring two forms of ID. Members can book a scooter up to a week ahead; wheelchairs are first come, first served. 0191 493 0219.
• Changing Places toilet in the Upper Red Mall near New Look, with a height-adjustable bench, ceiling-track hoist and peninsular toilet. Free, with intercom access.
• Autism and sensory. The centre publishes an autism-friendly guide, including one for its Metrognome children's shows that sets out the sounds and lighting to expect. AccessAble access guides cover the centre in detail.
• Baby feeding and changing rooms in the main toilet areas at lower Exhibition, upper Blue, upper Green and upper Red malls, with individual family changing rooms at Exhibition Square. Fun buggies can be hired from the customer service desks.
• Customer service desks in the Lower Green Mall near M&S and the Upper Platinum Mall opposite Primark, for gift cards, lost property and Shopmobility.
• Centre-run click and collect is currently suspended, along with accompanied shopping. Individual retailers still run their own.
• Free WiFi throughout — connect to "Metrocentre Free WiFi".
• Assistance dogs only. No other pets in the centre.
• An NHS Community Diagnostic Centre operates on site, served by the green and red car parks.

How it got here

The land was derelict ash-waste ground at Dunston, the site of the old power station, and Sir John Hall's Cameron Hall Developments bought it for around £100,000 in the early 1970s. What made the scheme possible was its designation inside an Enterprise Zone; what made it happen was money from the Church Commissioners for England, which is why the Church still co-owns the place four decades later. Hall called it a retail revolution, and for the North East it was.

The Red Mall opened in April 1986 and the rest arrived quickly: Green that October, Blue and Yellow in 1987, the railway station in August 1987, and in February 1988 the £20m Metroland indoor amusement park — for a while the largest of its kind in Europe. Hall sold to Transatlantic Insurance, later Intu, for £364m in 1995.

Metroland closed in April 2008 and its rollercoaster eventually resurfaced at a Devon theme park. The Yellow Mall reopened as the Qube in 2009, the Platinum Mall followed in 2012, and the centre spent the 2010s as intu Metrocentre until Intu collapsed in 2020, leaving £693m of securitised debt against a property worth less than that.

Since then Sovereign Centros has run it for the Church Commissioners and GIC, and the numbers have recovered: occupancy 91.4% financially at the end of 2025, net operating income of £39.7m to March 2026, up 8%, and an £88m upgrade programme running to the end of 2027. It went formally to market through Knight Frank in May 2026 seeking over £500m, and in August Landsec — which owns Bluewater and Liverpool ONE — beat Frasers Group and Hammerson to enter exclusive talks. The trade press is reading the outcome as a test of whether investors still want big British shopping centres at all.