Unique steel-framed shopping centre now open

The UK’s first shopping centre to include a nature reserve has officially opened to the public.

Rushden Lakes in Northamptonshire is said to be a new retail experience, offering big name brands and leisure facilities set beside stunning lakes and nature trails.

The shopping centre is the gateway to the Nene Wetlands nature reserve; one square mile of wild and man-made habitats, managed for wildlife and people by The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.

Rushden Lakes Centre Manager Paul Rich said: “There is simply no other shopping experience like this in the UK. This is a hugely innovative and exciting development and I’m delighted that we’re finally open.”

Owned by The Crown Estate, Rushden Lakes boasts 21,300m² of retail space as well as restaurants and a boat house offering water sports on the adjacent lakes.

Working on behalf of main contractor Winvic Construction, Caunton Engineering fabricated, supplied and erected some 2,000t of steel for the project.

The scheme’s retail units are all accommodated within three large steel-framed structures, known as Terrace A, B and C. The latter two buildings house the project’s three anchor stores, House of Fraser (HoF) in C and Marks & Spencer, and Primark in B.

Terrace C is the longest of the retail buildings at 196m, with the two-storey HoF store accounting for approximately one-third of the structure. This block is a portal-framed building with steel columns – typically 305UC sections – spaced at 7m centres and supporting rafters that create two 26m-wide spans with the aid of one line of internal valley columns.

Opposite C and on the other side of a large surface car park Terrace building A and B sit end-to-end pointing towards the scheme’s lakeside.

Terrace B is a 144m-long column and beam constructed building, gaining its stability from roof level bracing, working in conjunction with the concrete floor that acts as a diaphragm.

Terrace A is slightly longer measuring 157m, and this portal-framed structure houses 21 individual retail units.

Future phases of Rushden Lakes – expected to be open in early 2019 – will also deliver a 14-screen cinema from Cineworld, trampolining and additional retail and leisure units.