- published: 20 Aug 2015
- views: 72540
Coordinates: 51°26′23″N 0°16′16″E / 51.439639°N 0.271239°E / 51.439639; 0.271239
Bluewater is an out of town shopping centre, located in Greenhithe, Kent, England and 17.8 miles (28.6 km) east south-east of London. Opened on 16 March 1999, it is owned by four major UK institutions, Prudential plc and PRUPIM (35%), Lend Lease Europe Ltd (30%), the Lend Lease Retail Partnership (25%) and Hermes (10%).
Situated on a 240-acre (97 ha) plot in a former chalk quarry, the centre has a sales floor area of 154,000 m2 (1,600,000 ft2) over two levels, making it the fourth-largest shopping centre in the UK (after the MetroCentre, Trafford Centre and Westfield Stratford City). Elsewhere in Europe only Istanbul's Cevahir Mall and Vienna's (Vösendorf) Shopping City Süd are bigger. The floor plan is a triangular shape with 330 stores, including 3 anchors, 40 cafés and restaurants, and a 13-screen cinema. The centre employs 7,000 people and serves over 27 million visitors a year. A main rival is the Lakeside Shopping Centre and retail park some nine miles (14 km) away in West Thurrock, Essex.