Braehead

Braehead is a regeneration project in Renfrewshire, Scotland, comprising an indoor shopping mall, Curling facilities, the Clydebuilt maritime museum, and the Braehead Arena (along with extensive covered and open-air car parking).

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After opening in late 1999, the shopping centre proved hugely popular with consumers (indeed it has been blamed for a downturn in the fortunes of shops in nearby Paisley and Glasgow).

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It was the subject of a dispute between Glasgow City and Renfrewshire councils, as originally the council boundary line divided the shopping centre in two, but a Boundaries Commission ruling eventually redrew the boundary to include all of the centre in Renfrewshire, however development areas close to the King George V dock to the east of Braehead are in still in Glasgow to allow the Clydeport to remain in one authority. The boundary runs along the side of Old Renfrew Road / Kings Inch Road and is represented by a chain link fence at this point.

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As well as the covered shopping mall, there is also a much smaller strip mall comprising larger stores such as PC World and Halfords that cannot be accommodated within the main structure.

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It is also home to Glasgow's IKEA store which opened in 2001 and sits near the King George V dock. At 29,000 square metres it is the largest in both Scotland and the United Kingdom.

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A large Renfrew Riverside development is in construction to the West side of Braehead involving a large area of house building, as well as Xscape, an indoor snow centre.

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It can be reached from Junctions 25a (westbound) and 26 (eastbound) of the M8 motorway, and has extensive public transport connections including it's own bus station, managed by Arriva. Buses run from many areas linking Braehead to Largs, Greenock, Paisley, Glasgow, Erskine and Johnstone. A boat also runs from Glasgow City Centre to Braehead's pier down the River Clyde regularly, taking 30 minutes.

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In 2000 its curling facilities hosted the World Championships, and in 2005 were training facilities when the Womens world championships were bing held in Paisley.

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Renfrewshire: Renfrewshire (Siorrachd Rinn Fri? in Gaelic) is one of 32 unitary authority regions in Scotland. It borders onto North Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, City of Glasgow, Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire....

Scotland: :For other uses, see Scotland (disambiguation). See also British Isles (terminology)....

Shopping mall: :For the traditional meaning of the word mall, see mall....