Meadowhall (shopping centre)

Meadowhall is an indoor shopping centre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It lies 3 miles (5 km) north-east of Sheffield city centre, and 2 miles (3 km) from Rotherham town centre. It is the largest shopping centre in Yorkshire, and currently the twelfth-largest in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, plans for an extension are currently under consideration, for completion in the 2020s, which would make Meadowhall the 11th largest shopping centre in the United Kingdom.

Architecturally, the original construction of Meadowhall in the early 1990s was inspired by the Place d'Orléans shopping centre in Ottawa, Canada. The Meadowhall Retail Park is a separate development, owned by British Land, lying almost 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south of Meadowhall shopping centre in the Carbrook area of the city.

The shopping centre was built by Bovis on the site previously occupied by Hadfields' East Hecla steelworks.

The centre was opened on 4 September 1990. With a floor area of 139,355 m² (1,500,005 sq ft), it is the twelfth-largest (second-largest when first opened) shopping centre in the UK. It is similar in concept to the Merry Hill Shopping Centre at Brierley Hill in the West Midlands, which was completed just before Meadowhall.

With over 280 stores, Meadowhall has been widely blamed for the closure of shops in both Sheffield City Centre, and Rotherham town centre. Meadowhall is wholly owned by Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) and is managed by British Land. The centre attracted 19.8 million visitors in its first year of opening, and now attracts about 30 million visitors a year.

One of Meadowhall's largest stores of the past, Sainsbury's, closed in July 2005 and was replaced by new Next and Primark stores in the summer of 2007. There was a Namco Station arcade in The Oasis food court which closed in September 2007 after more than 15 years at the shopping centre. December 2005 saw Meadowhall become home to the fifth Apple Store in the UK, and in late 2007 it gained the third Puma Store in the UK, after London and Glasgow. The centre was also home to the only McCafé in Yorkshire, which has long since closed. The centre's Burger King, which was located on Market Street (now known as The Gallery) was replaced by a small franchise called ‘Burger Knight’ in October 2007. In May 2008, Meadowhall forcibly shut five stores in the Market Street area: Massarella’s Coffee, Greggs, Burger Knight, Crawshaws Butchers, and Pollards Tea & Coffee. These closures were part of a plan to facilitate larger retail spaces, despite recent refurbishments following the June 2007 floods.

In October 2012, NBIM announced that the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global had bought 50 per cent of the UK shopping centre Meadowhall for £348 million, or approximately 3.2 billion Norwegian kroner.

In 2014, the mall ‘Park Lane’ was refurbished in the style of a "boutique arcade". In 2017, Park Lane was modernised during the 2015–2017 £60 million refurbishment, and is now seen as the most upmarket area of Meadowhall, with stores such as Pretty Green, Flannels, Hugo Boss, White Stuff and Yo! Sushi.