Grand Central, Birmingham
# Grand Central, Birmingham

Grand Central (formerly The Pallasades Shopping Centre, previously Birmingham Shopping Centre) is a shopping centre located above New Street railway station in Birmingham, England, that opened in 1971 as Birmingham Shopping Centre. In 1989, it was largely refurbished and reopened on 17 September 1990 as The Pallasades Shopping Centre. The centre underwent a mass redevelopment in 2014, opening on 24 September 2015 as Grand Central. It is currently owned by Hammerson and CPPIB, having been acquired from Birmingham City Council in January 2016 for £335m. When coupled with the Bullring (to which it is connected via a footbridge, branded as "LinkStreet") it forms the United Kingdom's largest city centre-based shopping centre, styled Bullring & Grand Central.

## History

The original centre was built in 1971 as part of the reconstruction of New Street Station below. It was known as the Birmingham Shopping Centre before being renamed The Pallasades.

## Redevelopment

As part of the New Street Station Gateway Plus redevelopment, Grand Central underwent a major overhaul, which included a six-year long programme of enabling works by a Birmingham demolition contractor, Colemans, formerly Coleman & Co. The mall has been redesigned with a Texlon ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) atrium roof as centrepiece, and it has over 60 stores across 500,000 square feet (46,000 $m^2)$ with John Lewis as the main tenant. Many of the shops, restaurants and cafés are new to the city including Cath Kidston, The White Company, Kiehls, Giraffe and Tapas Revolution. It reopened in September 2015 along with the modernised Birmingham New Street station.

The shopping centre's name is given to the adjacent tram stop that opened in May 2016.

John Lewis announced in 2020 that its store would not reopen after being closed during the COVID-19 restrictions.

Grand Central was selected as a filming location for the 2023 film Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

