More top names line up for 'Bond Street'Liverpool’s very own Bond Street, The Met Quarter, will bring more
designer labels to the city than the famous Triangle shopping centre brought
to Manchester.
The designer label line-up for the £75m Whitechapel development
was revealed last night and a host of upmarket shops will be opened alongside
flagship stores Armani, Hugo Boss and Flannels.
Names including All Saints, Hobbs, Aspecto, Mikey, Vidal Sassoon, Coast,
Whistles and Gieves & Hawkes have already signed up.
Developer Milligan is currently in talks with Mac, Caf?ouge, Bailey,
Molton Brown, Animal, Costa Coffee, Vicky Martin, Storm, Timberland and
Levi’s.
Many of the labels have never been available in the city before.
Six months before the mall opens its doors, development director Mark
Morgan revealed why the Met Quarter, being built inside the old Post Office,
will be a new and luxurious shopping experience.
He said: ‘This is the first time many of the labels have ever opened
stores in Liverpool.
‘Liverpool has very loyal shoppers; its people want to spend their
money in their home city and not have to travel to Manchester and Leeds,
but exclusive designer labels are not really available to them at the
moment. ‘Before we designed The Met Quarter, we carried out extensive
research with a number of focus groups, which included a diverse mix of
people, and we discovered there was a gap in the market.’
The mall, with plush soft furnishings and artistic seating areas, has
been designed with women in mind, as they will make up to 80% of the centre’s
clientele.
Original artworks including Europe’s longest sculpture will also
be on display. The sculpture designed by Turner Prize contender Mel Chantrey
is a metal construction which will stretch across 70 metres of the mall’s
ceiling. Nine metre lanterns and artwork by Liverpool University students
will be seen across the centre. The war memorial, which stood in the original
post office and was moved to Liverpool’s Conservative Centre, will
also be reinstated.
Mark Morgan continued: ‘The mall will be light, comfortable and
made to feel safe, which we think will especially appeal to women. ‘In
the architectural and construction industry, there is a high percentage
of men, so we took particular care to ask our female colleagues for their
opinion. ‘The attention to detail inside the building is second
to none. Because we are in such an iconic and beautiful building we had
to make sure the inside lived up to the outside.’ The floor will
be paved with granite, which Mr Morgan says is in keeping with the running
theme in Liverpool. The original face, built in 1894, has been spray-cleaned
and the extension to the building has been built with Jura limestone to
match the rest of the brick work.