Star City, Birmingham: What Is Actually There, Parking, Directions and Opening Times

Star City is not a retail park. It is a 23-acre leisure complex beside the M6 in Nechells, built round what was once the largest cinema in Britain, and the nearest thing it has to shopping is a Costa and a row of restaurants. It is also one of the hardest destinations in the country to research honestly: we could not read a single page of its own website, nobody publishes its opening hours, nobody has published a footfall figure since 2006, and the company that owns it has never been named. Here is what can actually be sourced, and a long list of what cannot.

Last checked 12 September 2026 · Opening times and store lists change — check with the centre before travelling.

Star City sits on Watson Road in Nechells, about two and a half miles north-east of Birmingham city centre, on a 23-acre site that fronts the M6. It opened in July 2000 and has always been a leisure destination rather than a shopping one. The anchor is a Vue cinema; the second anchor is a Tenpin bowling alley. Around them sit a trampoline park, an indoor go-kart track, adventure golf, soft play, an arcade, an escape-room operator and a dozen or so restaurants.

We say that plainly because a lot of directories do not. Completely Retail, the industry's own scheme database, files Star City under "Retail & Shopping Park" and then, a line later, describes a scheme that "extends to 408,742 sq ft and is anchored by Vue cinemas". Retail & Leisure International is more accurate: a "leisure-led mixed-use complex". There is no fashion anchor, no supermarket and no department store. If you want shops, you want The Fort at Erdington or the Bullring instead.

Now the awkward part. Star City has a website — starcitycentre.co.uk — and we could not read one word of it. The domain is live: a check on 12 September 2026 showed it registered on 27 October 2003, online, with a valid certificate and the site title "StarCity", and two independent listings sites name it as the official address. But every attempt to fetch it from here was refused at our end. The site is not dead, not parked and not blocking us — we simply could not get to it.

The consequence runs through this page, so read this bit. Nothing below is the operator speaking. There are no operator opening hours, no operator directions, no operator parking statement, no operator accessibility page and no operator store list here, because no such page could be read. Everything comes from trade press, tenants' own websites, a property database or listings sites, and every line says which. What that leaves is still worth having. The ownership arc is fully sourced and rather striking — £90m asked in 2006, under £60m paid in 2016, £65m asked again in 2023 — the cinema's decline from 30 screens to 19 is on the record, and the 2023 lettings are dated and detailed. Where sources disagree, and here they disagree about almost everything including the street number, we have printed every version and named who published each.

We have successfully transformed Star City into a regional destination with a family focus

The essentials

Opening times

We are not printing a headline opening time for Star City, because we cannot defend one. Several sets of hours are in circulation, none from the operator, and they are not reconcilable: two sources say 9am to midnight every day, two say 11am to 10pm, and one says the times vary by attraction. That last one is almost certainly the truth, and it is also the least useful thing anyone could tell you.

There is no operator version for the reason given at the top of this page: starcitycentre.co.uk is live and is this scheme, and we could not read a page of it. The one authoritative answer exists and we could not get at it. If the times matter to your trip, ring 0121 270 4455.

Treat the tenant rows as the reliable ones. Funstation publishes its own hours on its own website, including a separate school-and-public-holiday timetable that opens the arcade at 10am on weekdays instead of noon — worth knowing in half term. The scheme-wide rows above come from nobody who keeps the doors. Our usual fallback does not work here either: when an operator's site will not give up its hours we go to Next, H&M or Mango, and none of the three is a tenant, because Star City is not that kind of scheme. All checks made 12 September 2026.

Getting there

By road

Use B7 5SA and nothing else. We are not printing a motorway junction number. A junction goes in print only when the operator publishes it, and no operator page could be read here. A wrong junction is worse than no junction, and this corner of Birmingham — where the M6 crosses the Aston Expressway above the canals — is not a place to guess at exits.

The third-party sources are consistent enough to be useful. Completely Retail describes "prominent positioning near the M6 motorway, approximately 2.5 miles northeast of Birmingham City Centre". Retail & Leisure International says it "fronts the M6 motorway" and is "less than a 10-minute drive from Birmingham city centre"; Day Out With The Kids says fifteen. Both are printed.

Parking

Parking is free, agreed by everyone including Vue, which describes "free parking on site" on its own page. The number of spaces is not agreed: Completely Retail says over 2,500, Day Out With The Kids says "over 2400 free and secure car parking spaces", hotels.com says 2,400.

No time limit is published anywhere, and no enforcement company or ANPR contractor is named. That is unusual for a free car park of this size beside a motorway, and we would not assume from it that the parking is unmonitored. No height restriction is published either. There is no confirmed coach parking and no confirmed taxi rank, and while accessible bays exist, no count or location is published.

By bus

The hotels.com guide says bus route 66 goes directly to Star City. That is one route from one travel guide, not a bus operator, and we could not reach a National Express West Midlands page to check it or find any other service. Treat it as a lead, not a timetable.

By train

The same guide puts Aston station less than a mile away. Nobody publishes a walking time, a route or a distance in yards — not the operator, not the rail companies, not anyone — and the ground between the station and Watson Road is dominated by the motorway viaduct.

By tram, bike and coach

There is no tram — the West Midlands Metro does not serve Nechells and nobody claims otherwise. No cycle parking and no coach parking could be sourced.

Accessibility

There is almost nothing here, and what there is comes from a listings site rather than the operator. Day Out With The Kids lists toilets and accessible toilets, baby changing, accessible parking and card payments, and describes the venue as "wheelchair accessible throughout" and pushchair friendly. That is a tickbox set on a directory, not an accessibility statement.

The only first-party access information on the whole site belongs to a tenant: Vue offers accessible and autism-friendly screenings, welcomes assistance dogs, and takes access queries on 0345 308 4620. We could find no Changing Places toilet, no Shopmobility scheme, no quiet hours and no AccessAble or Euan's Guide page for Star City. Absent from the record is not the same as absent from the site — but if one of those decides your visit, phone first.

The shops

There is no published store directory for Star City and therefore no published store count. Everything below was assembled from lettings announcements, a property database and tenants' own websites. It is not a complete list.

The anchors

Vue is the scheme. It opened on 20 July 2000 as Warner Village Star City and was rebranded Vue in 2004, and it opened with 30 auditoria, 5,731 seats and 83 wheelchair spaces — the largest megaplex cinema in the United Kingdom. Three screens were "Gold Class": over-18s only, luxury seating, a bar and free popcorn.

It is now roughly two thirds of the cinema it was. Cinema Treasures records 19 screens and about 3,750 seats as of early 2024, "after some screens were mothballed". No date is given and Vue has never announced it. The largest cinema in Britain quietly losing eleven screens is the most significant thing that has happened at Star City, and nobody has written it up.

Tenpin is the other anchor. The lane count is disputed: 22 per hotels.com, 24 per Leisure Opportunities in 2006. Completely Retail describes the unit as "recently extended". Both anchors' leases were re-geared, per Retail & Leisure International in November 2023.

What was signed in 2023 — all dated, none confirmed open

Quadrant announced two rounds of lettings in the second half of 2023 — the best-documented events in Star City's recent history. Be clear that a signing is not an opening: we could find no confirmation that any of these actually trades today.

Announced 10 August 2023:

• Capital Karts — 39,000 sq ft on a 20-year lease, due to open early 2024. An 800-metre double-height indoor track, the longest and fastest in the Midlands and, per BirminghamWorld, the UK's second fastest at 45mph. Retail & Leisure International gave 40,000 sq ft; both are printed. Agent: Bruce Gillingham Pollard.
• Taco Bell — 2,700 sq ft on a 10-year lease, its first central Birmingham location.
• Chaiiwala — a 386 sq ft kiosk on a 10-year lease, replacing Subway: the only departure in the record with anything like a date on it.
• Shere Khan's — expanding from 6,612 sq ft to 14,384 sq ft by merging the unit next door, on a 15-year lease, with banqueting facilities.

Announced 30 October and 1 November 2023: Jungle Rumble, adventure golf with food and a bar, 13,407 sq ft on a 15-year lease; Monster Mayhem, children's indoor soft play, 8,947 sq ft, existing lease extended by ten years; and Zauq, southern Asian buffet dining, 5,460 sq ft, renewed for 15 years.

Everyone else

Named in passing, with no dates and no sizes: Gravity Active (a trampoline park), Costa Coffee, Nando's, Virgin Active, Funstation, McDonald's, KFC in Unit 1a, and at least one escape-room operator. Whatsonlive also lists an "all-weather five-a-side football centre", a "laser station" and a "family climbing centre" with no operator names — they may or may not still trade.

Two things that were here in 2006 and are in nobody's writing since

When X-Leisure put Star City on the market in May 2006, Leisure Opportunities described the scheme as containing "Europe's largest casino" and, among X-Leisure's additions, a mini-snow slope. Neither appears in a single source we could read from the 2020s. We are not telling you either has closed — no closure has ever been reported. But a facility once billed as the largest of its kind in Europe has fallen out of the public record entirely, and that is worth knowing before you drive over expecting to find it.

What is empty right now

On 12 September 2026 the Completely Retail scheme record carried five units — Unit 3 at 4,019 sq ft, Unit 7 at 3,585 sq ft, Unit 8/9 at 11,520 sq ft and under offer, Unit 15 at 6,911 sq ft, and the first floor of Unit 24 at 4,364 sq ft. That is about 30,400 sq ft on the market, roughly 7% of the scheme.

Useful to know

Go in the evening

TripAdvisor rates StarCity Centre 2.9 out of 5 from 230 reviews, 121st of 171 "Fun & Games" attractions in Birmingham, read on 12 September 2026 — crowd-sourced, and we print it as such. The consistent theme is a timing one: one reviewer says the place "came to life after 8pm" but felt deserted during the day. For a cinema-and-bowling scheme that is what you would expect. Want atmosphere, come in the evening; want a quiet lane at Tenpin, come in the afternoon.

Free parking, no published limit — but do not assume

Nobody publishes a maximum stay and nobody names an enforcement contractor. That is not the same as there being no limit and no enforcement. Read the signage in the car park when you arrive rather than relying on this page, because on this specific point this page is working from silence. Allow three to four hours for a visit — that is Day Out With The Kids' estimate and it is about right for a cinema plus one activity plus food.

Things nobody publishes at all

We could confirm no Wi-Fi beyond the McDonald's, no gift card, no lost property arrangement, no dogs policy, no prayer or quiet room, no Changing Places toilet, no Shopmobility scheme and no cash machines. All of those probably exist in some form in a complex this size — we simply could not find anybody saying so.

If you actually want shops

Star City will not give you a clothes shop. Within a short drive: The Fort Shopping Park at Erdington on the other side of the M6, the Bullring in the city centre, and Gallagher Shopping Park at Wednesbury — which, as it happens, is asset-managed by the same firm that manages Star City.

How it got here

Star City opened in July 2000, and the date that can be pinned down precisely belongs to the cinema: Warner Village Star City opened on 20 July 2000. It was designed by Jon Jerde, the American architect of Horton Plaza and Universal CityWalk, with Geoffrey Reid Associates in Britain — which explains the layout, because Jerde's practice was about routing people through outdoor-feeling entertainment streets rather than along a mall. We could not source a developer, a construction cost, or anything about what stood on the site before 2000. Nechells is a former industrial district and the site has the shape of a reclaimed one, but we have no citable source for its earlier use, so this page says nothing about it.

The ownership arc, in three numbers

£90m asked in 2006. Under £60m paid in 2016. £65m asked again in 2023. All three are sourced, and the shape they make is the story of British out-of-town leisure in miniature.

In May 2006, Star City belonged to X-Leisure, which put it on the market at £90m. Leisure Opportunities then described 390,000 sq ft containing one of the UK's largest multiplex cinemas and Europe's largest casino, drawing more than four million visitors a year, after X-Leisure had repositioned it towards families with a mini-snow slope, a 24-lane bowling alley, a climbing wall and five-a-side pitches.

Then a decade goes missing from the public record. The next thing anyone reports is that Cerberus Capital Management owns it. How and when Cerberus acquired Star City is not documented in anything we could read — a genuine hole of about ten years in the chain.

On 10 November 2016, CoStar reported that Quadrant Estates had exchanged contracts to buy Star City from Cerberus for below £60m, at a net initial yield above 9%, in what it called the UK's largest regional leisure scheme. Note the wording: below £60m, not £60m. Nobody has published the completed figure.

The owner has never been named

Quadrant is the asset manager, not the owner. Retail & Leisure International, in November 2023, says Quadrant has managed Star City "on behalf of a US-based global alternative asset manager since late 2016"; Completely Retail News put it the same way in August 2023. That capital partner has never been named by anyone. Whether it is Cerberus — itself a US alternative asset manager — rolling its position into a new structure, or an entirely different house, is not published, and we are not guessing.

This is not a new pattern. Quadrant runs the same structure at Gallagher Shopping Park in Wednesbury, a few miles west, where the capital behind it has been identified: Hana Securities and MDM Asset Management of South Korea. The difference is not the structure. It is that at Gallagher somebody eventually said who was writing the cheques, and at Star City nobody has.

The sale that may still be running

On 11 April 2023, Quadrant put Star City on the market at £65m, carried the same day by Completely Retail News, CoStar and Property Week. The timing was deliberate: Quadrant had just secured consents for a 4,000 sq ft drive-through restaurant, a 39,000 sq ft electric go-karting track and a 100,000 sq ft logistics unit, and CoStar's headline was "Quadrant Eyes Birmingham Star City Sale After Logistics Consent". John Maddison, a partner at Quadrant, was quoted saying the industrial development would bring much-needed employment space and contribute to the area's "continued and phenomenal" growth. The go-karting consent was promptly let to Capital Karts; the logistics consent has never been heard of again.

We could find no report of that sale completing, no buyer, and no withdrawal in the three and a half years since. Quadrant was still signing leases in November 2023, and the scheme still had five units on the market on 12 September 2026. Whether Star City sold, is still quietly being marketed, or was taken off the shelf is not published anywhere. The launch of a sale is news; the non-completion of one never is.

Mr Maddison is on the record about what the place was meant to be, though not in a form we can quote: two publications carried his sentence on the same day in August 2023 with different wording — one has "our aim with Star City was to create a truly unique entertainment and leisure complex for the Midlands", the other drops "with Star City". When two reports of one sentence disagree, neither is safe to print as verbatim.