Middleton Grange is a shopping centre

Shopping mall

A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...

 in Hartlepool

Hartlepool

Hartlepool is a town and port in North East England.It was founded in the 7th century AD, around the Northumbrian monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew during the Middle Ages and developed a harbour which served as the official port of the County Palatine of Durham. A railway link from...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It was built in 1969 and it was opened by Princess Anne

Anne, Princess Royal

Princess Anne, Princess Royal , is the only daughter of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...

 on 27th May 1970. The site of the shopping centre was originally terraced streets until most of them were bombed during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

The original architecture of the building is the 1960s brutalist style. It was originally an outdoor shopping centre but it was converted to an indoor shopping centre in 1992. It was built and owned by Hartlepool Borough Council until it was privatised in the 1990s. In 2011 it was announced that the bosses at Middleton Grange are planning a rebrand, a facelift and a major push to bring in more business with a £2 million investment which see the 1960s mosaic tile effect outside the shopping centre replaced and modernised, the sea blue colour scheme inside will be replaced with a battleship grey colour scheme, the signs will be replaced with new signs and BHS announced they will be opening a new two floor 35000 sq ft (3,251.6 m²) department store with a cafe in the old Woolworths store in September 2011. There are a lot of empty units due to stores closing down in the 2007 recession as there is only an 80% occupancy rate of Middleton Grange, with the new BHS store opening this will increase the occupancy rate to 86%. The majority of the empty units are located in the East Mall, Upper West Mall and Market Walk areas. The longest serving retail outlet since the opening is Marks & Spencer

Marks & Spencer

Marks and Spencer plc is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products...

, following the closure of Woolworths in 2009. The five anchor tenants are Marks & Spencer

Marks & Spencer

Marks and Spencer plc is a British retailer headquartered in the City of Westminster, London, with over 700 stores in the United Kingdom and over 300 stores spread across more than 40 countries. It specialises in the selling of clothing and luxury food products...

, BHS

BHS

BHS may refer to:* Baggage handling system, a type of conveyor system installed in airports* Barbershop Harmony Society, the first of several organizations to promote and preserve barbershop music as an art form* Beck Hopelessness Scale, a psychological test...

 (from September 2011), Wilkinson

Wilkinson

-Places:In the United States:* Wilkinson, Indiana, a town in Hancock County* Wilkinson, Wisconsin, a town in Rusk County* Wilkinson County, Georgia* Wilkinson County, Mississippi* Wilkinson Heights, South Carolina* Wilkinson Station, North Carolina...

, Primark

Primark

Primark is a clothing retailer, operating over 223 stores in Ireland , the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Belgium...

 and Co-operative

The Co-operative Group

The Co-operative Group Ltd. is a United Kingdom consumer cooperative with a diverse range of business interests. It is co-operatively run and owned by its members. It is the largest organisation of this type in the world, with over 5.5 million members, who all have a say in how the business is...

 home store, however the Co-operative home store will close in October 2011 leaving this large unit empty. That particular unit and the Primark unit were previously a supermarket housing Fine Fare

Fine Fare

Fine Fare was the name of a chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. It was famous for its Yellow Pack budget own-label range.-History:The company started as a single supermarket in Brighton in 1956. It was one of a series of convenience store chains established in the 1950s, the others being...

, then Gateway and finally Asda

Asda

Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...

until they closed and moved to new premises on Hartlepool Marina in 1995.

Middleton Grange was originally built to replace the old town centre located around Lynn Street. Most of the shops and the market closed and moved to the shopping centre when it was completed. Most of Lynn Street was demolished in 1975 for construction of a new housing estate which some of Lynn Street still remains and is now called Lynn Street North.