Checking out the Eden Centre

3:18pm Thursday 20th March 2008

EDEN finally opened its doors to the public last Thursday, but is it really a shoppers' paradise? We sent reporters Nicola Orchard and Francine Wolfisz - both self-confessed shopaholics - to give their verdict on the new £300million shopping centre.

Top of the shops

When you first enter the new Eden shopping complex, you can't help but feel the wow' factor.

This centre, in all its 675,000 square foot glory, is a huge improvement on the meagre shopping choice that Wycombe had to rely upon in the past. And, added to that, Eden looks good.

With its covered walkways the centre has an indoor-outdoor feel, so there's always fresh air circulating no matter how busy it gets.

There's also a great choice of shops, some of which are completely new to the area like Zara, LK Bennett, Gap, H&M, Jane Norman and Office.

Other names have moved into bigger premises, including River Island, New Look and Top Shop, allowing them to offer a much better range to shoppers. The new Marks and Spencer store is also well worth a look. Spread over two vast floors, it offers customers everything from food, homeware and technology to menswear and a well-stocked department for womenswear, including Autograph, Limited Collection and Per Una.

House of Fraser has also give Eden plenty of pulling power. With its attractive décor and shelves filled to the hilt with designer goods, House of Fraser has filled a huge need for Wycombe shoppers who would otherwise have travelled elsewhere to spend their cash.

Shopping aside, the addition of a stunning 12-screen cinema and 22-lane bowling alley has also breathed new life into the town centre.

Time to shop around?

With all the hype surrounding the opening of Eden, we were expecting a shopping centre to rival no other, one that was unique and offered shoppers something different.

What we got was a centre - while an improvement to Wycombe's shopping - that doesn't really offer anything more than The Harlequin in Watford, The Oracle in Reading, or Brent Cross.

The majority of the stores are the same old names you can find in those three shopping centres, and to be honest, the only real draw Eden has above The Harlequin and Brent Cross is a House of Fraser department store.

Eden does look shiny and new, but walk through it from Marks and Spencer down and you realise it is just tacked on to the end of the old Octagon centre, which serves only to make Octagon look even more tired and dated.

Something Eden seems to be lacking is an area of relaxation, somewhere to sit down and recharge your batteries.

Yes, there are coffee shops and restaurants, but they will be just as busy as the shops on a weekend. What would be nice is seats around some kind of water feature, or chill-out area.

Eden has tried to create a restaurant quarter', near the cinema and bowling alley. High Wycombe was never a culinary paradise, and the addition of La Tasca, Nandos and Wagamama has given diners more choice. But again, those names are nothing new, and can be found in most high streets across the country.

Comparing Eden with Reading, which has a wider selection of restaurants and bars along the riverside, and Watford, which, although lacking in restaurants in The Harlequin, has a wide selection of both independent and chain eateries throughout the rest of the town, we feel the discerning diners of Wycombe deserve better.

10am Girls' verdict

Eden has already delivered a great boost to Wycombe and promises plenty more in the future. But the centre lacks an area of relaxation for shoppers, some of the units still remain empty and diners expecting something different might be left disappointed. So we give it:

3 out of 5

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