Long before the days of Liverpool ONE people in the city, and throughout the North West, would travel out of town for a unique retail fix.
Opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1972, Runcorn Shopping City in Cheshire was once the largest enclosed shopping centre in Europe. Runcorn was designated as a new town in 1964, and the plans were for Shopping City to be its centrepiece.
The town's planner, Arthur Ling, envisaged the shopping centre to be the "natural meeting place for the town's social and cultural life". As well as shopping, it was also to contain offices and other amenities such as a theatre, library, and central sports hall.
