ABSTRACT
Brent Cross Shopping Centre and Wood Green Shopping City are both a product of the expansion and large scale investment that occurred in London during the 1970s. Prior to the building of Brent Cross Shopping Centre, there were no major shopping malls in London. Wood Green Shopping City was built to replace the dilapidated High Street shops in Wood Green. These centres epitomised the modernist philosophy of planned urban development: local and regional shopping needs were to be met by building self-contained complexes rather than by the gradual growth and development of urban areas that had previously occurred. While Brent Cross was a privately financed commercial development, the development of Wood Green required significant public involvement from the Greater London Council and the local authority, the London Borough of Haringey. This chapter begins by documenting the history and development of the two centres, highlighting their planning and development. This is followed by a description of the locality of the two shopping centres and a discussion of questions of local identity, urban regeneration and crime in Brent Cross and Wood Green.
