Face of a city

It hardly seems possible that the West Quay shopping mall in Southampton has been open for 15 years.
 
It was at the end of September 2000 that I was in the centre on its first day of business in my then role as business editor for the local newspaper, the Daily Echo.
 
But then, although it was opening day and the first day of business, I had had the privilege of looking round on at least a couple of occasions before the doors officially opened to let in Southampton’s eager shoppers, then anxious to see what the new centre had to offer the city.
 
Maybe, I felt some sort of affinity for the centre, because in part it was built on the site of the newspaper offices where I had been based for 30 years or more.
 
The main construction was on the site of a former cable manufacturing works and two 1960s office tower blocks, known as Arundel Towers, but provision of the vital link with the city centre saw the demolition of the newspaper’s print works, its offices, and distribution and transport centre.  So while the newspaper by that time was in operation in a brand new centre out of town, many of us still look back with affection on the days when the newspaper building was an icon in the city’s principal shopping street, Above Bar.
 
And of course, as the paper’s business editor I could claim past close association with both the old cable factory and many of the companies operating in the tower blocks, not to mention three of our favourite city centre pubs and bars.
 
But of course, the new shopping mall was something else — 150-odd new shops, some of them occupied by familiar names having moved from up till then the city’s main shopping thoroughfare, and an influx of fresh names to the city.
 
These days it is hard to imagine the city centre as it was before West Quay. Many of the original retail operations have changed, and currently major construction is underway to extend the complex with leisure facilities and up to 20 restaurants.
 
Yes, the city centre has changed beyond recognition from the time I first arrived in the city as a young reporter apprehensive about an interview for a job which was to lead to me spending the major part of my working life in and around those offices which were to disappear to make way for West Quay.
 

At least, I along with those who had the privilege to be part of the newspaper at that time, still look back with pride on that era which was so special to us.