The Shires is a shopping centre in Leicester, England. It shares its name with a smaller centre in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. It was opened in 1991 to supplement the ageing and run-down Haymarket Centre. It was built on a central location within the city centre on Eastgates and High Street. Frontages of buildings that were demolished were retained and new external construction was in a mock-olde style. An extension opened in 1994, with a frontage onto Church Gate. The Shires contains over 80 shops, with a range of both large and smaller units, including branches of the department stores Rackhams and Debenhams. There are also two café areas, and a roof-top car park.
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Highcross Leicester
A further extension, known as "Shires West" during the planning and early construction phases, is currently being built, which will nearly double the retail space available. This extension will be between the existing centre and the inner ring-road. The extension will include a John Lewis department store, of which there is not a branch in Leicester at the moment, and a Cinema de Lux, the only mainstream cinema in the city centre. There will also be two new public squares, a restaurant quarter, residential apartments, a bus interchange and a further 2000-space car park on the opposite side of the ring road, linked by a footbridge, which is partially to replace one of the earlier Shires car parks that was demolished to make way for the new extension. In July 2006 it was announced that the construction of the newly extended Shires and the refurbishment of the existing centre is to be completed in September 2008.
Naming controversies
In 2006, it was announced that the entire centre would be renamed the "Highcross Quarter", relating to a Highcross that used to stand in what is now Highcross Street. This received a mixed reaction, with criticism directed in particular at the use of the word "quarter" as opposed to "centre". [1] In July 2007, it was announced that the new name for the centre had changed, so that it would now be Highcross Leicester. [2] In the following week, the Leicester Mercury reported that the latest name change had been the result of a year-long dispute with a local coven of witches, who pointed out that Highcross Quarter is the name of a sacred period in the wiccan calendar, and registered several internet domain names relating to the name. The centre's developers, Hammersons, refused to comment on the dispute, and claimed that the name change was to "give it a stronger identity for customers and raise the profile not only of the development but also the city." [3]
The Shires Fire
On 7 September 2007 a fire on the extension roof saw over 50 firefighters fighting the blaze. the fire started by polystyrene tiles left on the roof.
