Braehead
Encyclopedia
River Clyde
The River Clyde is a major river in Scotland. It is the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire....
in Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire
Renfrewshire is one of 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfrewshire, the others being Inverclyde to the west and East Renfrewshire to the east...
. It is particularly notable for its large shopping centre, arena
Braehead Arena
The Braehead Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Renfrewshire, Scotland, in the western part of the Glasgow conurbation. The arena was built in 1999, and is located within the Braehead Complex....
and leisure facilities.
Braehead power station
The power station was built after World War 2. It remained operational into the 1980s, being demolished in the 1980s/1990s.Renfrew Riverside redevelopment
Braehead forms part of the Renfrew Riverside redevelopment area, a part of the wider Clyde Waterfront RegenerationClyde Waterfront Regeneration
Clyde Waterfront is a 20km stretch of the River Clyde, Scotland, running east-west from Glasgow Green in the heart of Glasgow, to Dumbarton on the Firth of Clyde. With over 200 projects on both sides of the Clyde, this is one of Britain's largest urban renewal projects...
project. The Braehead area includes:
- an indoor shopping centre;
- ice skatingIce skatingIce skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and...
/ curlingCurlingCurling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...
facilities; - the Clydebuilt Scottish Maritime MuseumScottish Maritime MuseumThe Scottish Maritime Museum currently has collections located at two sites in the West of Scotland, both with strong maritime connections. The museums, located in Irvine and Dumbarton, each portray different areas of Scotland’s maritime heritage...
; - the Braehead ArenaBraehead ArenaThe Braehead Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Renfrewshire, Scotland, in the western part of the Glasgow conurbation. The arena was built in 1999, and is located within the Braehead Complex....
- along with extensive covered and open-air car parking); - an XscapeXscape (building)Xscape buildings are large, strikingly designed and unusually shaped buildings. Typically they contain a real snow indoor ski slope, leisure facilities and related shops...
adventure complex; - a small business park.
Braehead Shopping Centre
The shopping centre, which is owned by Capital Shopping CentresCapital Shopping Centres
Capital Shopping Centres Group plc is a United Kingdom-based Real Estate Investment Trust , largely focused on shopping centre management and development. Formerly named Liberty International plc, it changed its name to that of its major subsidiary in May 2010 after demerging its Capital & Counties...
, opened in late 1999. It comprises 98474 m² (1,059,965.3 sq ft) of retail and leisure floorspace. The centre has 110 shops in the main covered mall, and a further 10 in a retail park of larger stores. Additionally, Braehead is also home to Renfrew's IKEA
IKEA
IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...
store which opened in 2001 and sits near the King George V Dock
King George V Dock, Glasgow
King George V Dock is a dock for ocean-going vessels operated by the Clyde Port Authority in the Govan area of Glasgow in the west central Lowlands of Scotland...
. At 29,000 m2 it is the largest in both Scotland and the United Kingdom. Since opening, the centre has proved popular with consumers (indeed it has been blamed for a downturn in the fortunes of shops in nearby Paisley
Paisley
Paisley is the largest town in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland and serves as the administrative centre for the Renfrewshire council area...
, Govan
Govan
Govan is a district and former burgh now part of southwest City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick....
and Renfrew
Renfrew
-Local government:The town of Renfrew gave its name to a number of local government areas used at various times:*Renfrew a town to the west of Glasgow*Renfrewshire, the present unitary local council area in which Renfrew is situatated....
, town centre . The shopping centre currently sponsors local Scottish Premier League
Scottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League , also known as the SPL , is a professional league competition for association football clubs in Scotland...
side St Mirren F.C..
Sited within the same building as the shopping centre is the Braehead Arena
Braehead Arena
The Braehead Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Renfrewshire, Scotland, in the western part of the Glasgow conurbation. The arena was built in 1999, and is located within the Braehead Complex....
and other facilities such as an ice rink. In 2000 its curling
Curling
Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...
facilities hosted the World Championships, and in 2005 were used as training facilities when the Women's World Championships were being held in Paisley
Paisley
Paisley is the largest town in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland and serves as the administrative centre for the Renfrewshire council area...
.
On 7 October 2011, a father was stopped by security and questioned by police under anti-terror legislation after photographing his daughter at an ice-cream stall. This resulted in a social media backlash and statements from both Braehead's management and Strathclyde police force.
Further development
To the west of Braehead and adjacent to the town of Renfrew is the Renfrew Riverside area, where considerable residential development has recently taken place in recent years. Between the residential area and the Braehead Shopping Centre an XscapeXscape (building)
Xscape buildings are large, strikingly designed and unusually shaped buildings. Typically they contain a real snow indoor ski slope, leisure facilities and related shops...
complex, providing an indoor ski slope
Indoor ski slope
Indoor ski slopes are found in several countries, proving a climate controlled environment can be maintained in which snow can be manufactured using a snow cannon, enabling skiing and snowboarding to take place year-round.-Notable mentions:...
and other entertainments and leisure facilities opened in the Spring of 2006.
To the south of the shopping centre is a small development called Braehead Business Park, home to the global headquarters of Picsel Technologies
Picsel
Picsel UK Ltd is a software company that develops products for handheld devices such as mobile phones. Picsel produces Picsel Smart Office, and other Office suite software for viewing and editing documents on mobile devices...
, the Audi
Audi Centre of Excellence
The Audi Centre of Excellence is a 5-acre retail venue in Glasgow, Scotland, for Audi-brand products.To date, it is the largest in the world. The Centre includes space for sales and service, an outdoor off-road test track, cafés, a Nursery, a restaurant, a museum, an art gallery, and conference...
centre, Infiniti and Porsche.
Transport
It can be reached from Junctions 25a (westbound) and 26 (eastbound) of the M8 motorway, and has extensive public transport connections including its own bus station, managed by ArrivaArriva
Arriva plc is a multinational public transport company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Sunderland, United Kingdom. It has bus, coach, train, tram and waterbus operations in 12 countries across Europe, employs more than 47,500 people and services over 1.5 billion passenger journeys each...
. Buses run from many areas linking Braehead to Largs, Greenock, Paisley, Glasgow, Erskine and Johnstone. The Pride of the Clyde ferry service ran from Glasgow City Centre to Braehead's pier down the River Clyde regularly until October 2007.
Boundaries
Braehead was the subject of a boundary dispute between the GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Renfrew
Renfrew
-Local government:The town of Renfrew gave its name to a number of local government areas used at various times:*Renfrew a town to the west of Glasgow*Renfrewshire, the present unitary local council area in which Renfrew is situatated....
council areas, as originally the council boundary line divided the shopping centre in two. A Boundary Commission ruling eventually redrew the boundary to include all of the centre in Renfrew as this was the original ancient boundary, The boundary runs along the side of Old Renfrew Road and is represented by a chain link fence at this point.