| AdminHistory | As part of the Master Plan, and the Lothian Regional Development plan, which together set the shape and structure of Livingston New Town and its place within the Lothians, a regional shopping centre was envisaged as a way to boost employment. This regional shopping centre was to be part of Livingston's town centre, and was to be carefully planned and developed in separate phases.
Initial plans for the town centre changed dramatically during the early planning of the 1960s. Early proposals had included the damning of the River Almond to create two artificial lochs, the location of a district hospital in the town centre; and the town centre itself was to be located either side of the River Almond and linked by a series of bridges and with pedestrian and vehicle traffic totally separated.
These plans were redesigned given the depth of glacial silt near to the river (which would have resulted in much deeper and more expensive foundations), the costs and the decision by the Scottish Development Department that the Corporation could not fund the development of the Shopping Centre. This meant that the site was moved to the south of the river, and was planned instead as self-contained site, to suit the purposes of a private developer.
The shopping centre project was sent out to tender in 1972. Ravenseft Properties won the bid with a plan that would create one of the largest indoor centres in the UK. The shopping centre was also to include Scotland's largest superstore. Almondvale Shopping Centre was opened in the autumn of 1977, with 320,000 sq ft of retail space available. This was subsequently known as Phase I.
As early as 1979 plans were explored to expand the shopping centre in Almondvale Phase II, but difficulties in funding, and proposed rival 'mega' shopping centres in Bathgate and at Gyle in the suburbs of Edinburgh, delayed the expansion of the shopping centre until the 1990s. Ravenseft, renamed Land Securities, and owners of Phase I, agreed to fund Phase II developments by AMEC and the Safeway group. Phase II was opened on the 17th August 1996 and contained three department stores and an additional 41 shop units. The Centre continued to develop after the dissolution of the Corporation. Phase III was completed in 2008. As of 2012 retail space at The Centre is now over 1 million sq ft and dominates Livingston's town centre. |
| ScopeandContent | 6 subseries comprising papers relating to the commercial aspects of the shopping centre:
1. Papers relating to Phase I of Almondvale Shopping Centre, 1970-1989.
2. Papers relating to the development of the 1985 brief for Phase II of Almondvale Shopping Centre, 1974-1992
3. Papers relating to the relationship between Land Securities and the LDC, 1972-1992.
4. Papers relating to the management of the Almondvale Centre, 1973-1991.
5. Papers relating to the management of the site of the former Woolco store, 1969-1990.
6. Papers relating to the development of the town centre, 1981-1995. |