UK retail parks, shopping centres and designer outlets
Out-of-town shopping is where most of Britain now actually shops, and almost nobody has written it down properly. This is our attempt: 156 destinations across twelve regions — 101 retail parks, 20 out-of-town shopping centres and 35 designer outlet villages. Town-centre malls are deliberately left out.
Each finished article covers the shops, how to drive or get public transport there, what parking costs, when it opens and what is actually worth knowing before you set off. We are working through them region by region.
Written up so far
13 of 156
Browse by region
| Region | Destinations | Retail parks | Shopping centres | Outlets | Written up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North East | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| North West | 20 | 15 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Yorkshire & the Humber | 17 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| East Midlands | 10 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| West Midlands | 15 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| East of England | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| London | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| South East | 14 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| South West | 14 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| Wales | 13 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Scotland | 16 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Northern Ireland | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
What counts as out-of-town
A destination is on this list if it was built away from a town or city centre and is reached mainly by car. That covers three formats, and they are not the same thing to shop in:
- Retail parks — terraces of big-box units with parking at the door. Cheapest rents, so this is where the furniture, electrical, pet and sports sheds go.
- Out-of-town shopping centres — enclosed malls on the ring road, with the fashion and department-store mix a city centre used to have.
- Designer outlet villages — brand-run stores selling past-season and made-for-outlet stock, usually laid out as a street rather than a mall.
City-centre schemes are excluded, however big — the Bullring, Liverpool ONE, both Westfields and Eldon Square among them.