Hugh Wilson and Lewis Womersley’s design for the Arndale was begun in 1972 and when it was completed in 1979 it was the largest covered town shopping centre in Europe, attracting 750,000 shoppers a week

The cost was £100m, a vast sum at the time. The centre was damaged in the IRA bombing of Manchester in 1996, after which 50,000m2 of retail space and 25,000m2 of office space had to be reconstructed.