Eagles Meadow is a medium-sized shopping centre in central Wrexham. Previously this area has had a variety of uses over hundreds of years. Originally used as stables for local gentry it has been developed into a major shopping centre. The opening of Eagles Meadow was Thursday 30 October 2008 at 10am. There is a webcam pointed at the Eagles Meadow bridge hosted by local hyperlocal site Wrexham.com.
History
Used as local gentry's stables. During World War II, the area was used as a motorpool for elements of the U.S. Army's 83rd Infantry Division. After the US Army withdrew its forces in Europe after the war, the buildings and treated surface they had created were ideal as a Horse Repository. In the early 1970s the land was divided between a large urban car park and a small retail development which included a new Asda superstore. A bridge, known locally as the Asda fly-over, was constructed to carry the town's ring road between Smithfield Road and Salop Road. After these developments, the car park was used as the main weekly market in the town, which moved from St George's Crescent. Asda moved to a larger site in September 2000 and the weekly market eventually moved to a new location at the Waterworld car park. A number of proposals were put forward for re-development of this land. Firstly John Lewis signed up to anchor a retail based development, which included a number of other stores and a supermarket. This development fell through, and the landowner and largest stakeholder Wrexham County Borough Council decided to put the land up for sale by tender. A large number of tenders were received and in 2003 the winner was chosen as Wilson Bowden in partnership with architects Bernard Engle. The >£100m development includes two large department stores, cafes, bars, restaurants and over 40 other stores. It includes a number of landmark buildings and urban plazas, including a 'Spanish Steps' style area. A number of high rise city style apartments were constructed on the town centre side of the development. Construction began in early 2006 and opened to the public on 30 October 2008. Controversy surrounded the new build, as several shops already located in the town centre moved to Eagles Meadow and closed their shops in the town centre.
