please empty your brain below
Went there once some years back when I visited a friend. The whole atmosphere was depressing. I do wish architects would test their layouts and avoid creating wind tunnels.

Caroline | 04.07.22 - 12:55 a.m. | #

Im struck by so few clothes shops. That is where online shopping has really ripped the high street apart. Useless for last minute shopping for an outfit.

Wheels | 04.07.22 - 7:01 a.m. | #

Posh-brow and “shopping center” is a bit of an oxymoron and the combination leads to hideous things like the ludicrous wing of Westfield.

I consider it one of London’s fine features that the fancy shops are not inside shopping malls.

Dan | 04.07.22 - 7:09 a.m. | #

Duke of York Square is the poshest shopping centre I can think of. Brent Cross always used to be quite posh but that’s gone downhill in the last 10 years.

David | 04.07.22 - 7:34 a.m. | #

Why is Specsavers lowbrow?

Half a physicist | 04.07.22 - 7:49 a.m. | #

I would relegate Matalan to lowbrow, and promote Specsavers and possibly the Fragrance Shop to midbrow, both of which I would regard as on a par - in their respective fields - with Boots and Holland & Barrett.

That's based on their brand, not the Feltham branch specifically.

smeh | 04.07.22 - 7:50 a.m. | #

Also worth factoring in the number of closed shops in the assessment. Surprisingly large numbers in mainly highbrow Bluewater for e.g.

Paul Parkinson | 04.07.22 - 7:58 a.m. | #

I've switched Matalan and Specsavers, thanks.
I won't be switching anything else.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 04.07.22 - 8:12 a.m. | #

There is also a Tesco, Aldi and Lidl in walking distance to the main shopping centre.
The town also has a large bingo hall, Cineworld and a ten pin bowling alley

Hounslow Treaty Centre now has competition from the Blenheim centre across the High Street

John | 04.07.22 - 8:19 a.m. | #

Not sure I could differentiate between Greggs and Wenzels in the brow stakes, they seem the same - apart from the ubiquitousness of Greggs.

Steve | 04.07.22 - 8:29 a.m. | #

Chain retailers are very data driven in their choice of locations. A recent report from property agent Savills mapped the area with the lowest cost housing in each London Borough, comparing the area average with the Borough average. In Hounslow, it's Feltham Central.

Rod | 04.07.22 - 9:22 a.m. | #

I think I would have put the bookmakers in Nobrow/pariah category - with the tattoos, vapes, and nails. Everything else in the Lowbrow provides a useful service to people and doesn't exploit them (so much)

Mike | 04.07.22 - 9:35 a.m. | #

I note the centre isn't trying that hard to attract custom. It suggests you visit by South West Trains. They're so long gone that the weblink takes you somewhere random offering Amtrak tickets. As for the buses listed, well at least one of the operators was sold by 2009.

Strangely I've noticed most shopping centre websites are launched with excitement, then someone discovers that they need to keep all the info up to date and they simply don't.

ap | 04.07.22 - 9:54 a.m. | #

The Travelodge is useful (speaking as an ex-Londoner) to stay at before early-morning flights from Heathrow, and usually very reasonably priced.

From.one such visit, I recall once being surprised at how many pints were being consumed in the Spoons at an early breakfast time, and even more surprised to see coppers lead a handcuffed shoplifter out of Asda well before 9am.

All a bit depressing

Dominic H | 04.07.22 - 10:06 a.m. | #

I think the wind tunnel effect in this and so many other shopping precincts is the effect of parcels of land being separately (re-) developed, with each property company/architect out to maximise the exploitable floor area by building to the very edge of the footprint. Two curtain-walled high-rises facing each other create a funnel and potentially a dead space between them, but developers don’t care as long as the internal space is the maximum possible on the site.

Labourer | 04.07.22 - 11:54 a.m. | #

i would pitch for the mall in walthamstow being worse.. but the market sort of makes up for that. I'd love a wenzels though, not been the same since Percy ingle went.

Wenzels are certainly further up to food chain than greggs, Greggs really is a sandwich shop now not a bakery doing loafs etc.

Alistair Twin | 04.07.22 - 12:51 p.m. | #

I don't know where you think the shopping centre in Brentford is. The place is just a building site at The moment!

Tones | 04.07.22 - 1:59 p.m. | #

The railway station is right next to the shopping centre in Feltham and the recent closure of the level crossing has meant an excellent bridge with ramps has been built to help the public reach the shops. People who have obviously never visited Feltham should not comment on the facilities available to the local residents.

Tones | 04.07.22 - 2:09 p.m. | #

What makes Boots Midbrow and Superdrug Lowbrow? In my local shopping centre we also have a Savers which I would categorise as the Lowbrow alternative to Boots and Superdrug for many items. Savers certainly lives up to its name compared to the other two.

JohnC | 04.07.22 - 3:27 p.m. | #

Nando's and Wenzel's are midbrow? And what makes CeX lowbrow?

Bob | 04.07.22 - 5:12 p.m. | #

I think it looked even worse prior to the 2006 makeover. This promo video for one of the lesser Oasis singles was shot there (and around the nearby West Middlesex Hospital) in 1997.

MartinL | 04.07.22 - 5:27 p.m. | #

Of all the topics you told us you hadn't blogged about yesterday - trust you to then write about the only one I didn't feel I'd missed out on!

Having said that, you still managed to make it interesting!
I was living in Hounslow Town Centre when the Treaty Centre was built - must have been late 80s/early 90s.

Cornish Cockney | 04.07.22 - 8:41 p.m. | #

But..but..what about the Freddie Mercury memorial? ;-)

Marmaduke Jinks | 04.07.22 - 10:41 p.m. | #

It's not in the shopping centre, it's on the opposite side of the road. And it doesn't sell anything.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 04.07.22 - 10:43 p.m. | #

My grandparents used to live in Feltham, and I did too until about 11 years ago.
It used to be a lot worse. The old wind tunnel shopping centre with all the empty shops was horrible.
I can remember the old Cricketer’s pub that was where Wetherspoons is now. I worked in Wetherspoons when it opened in 1995 and again in 1999 into 2000.

As an aside, Freddie Mercury’s memorial was originally in the new shopping centre grounds but was moved to its newer location a few years ago.

Rob Healy | Homepage | 05.07.22 - 7:32 p.m. | #











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