Peacock Place Shopping Centre

To be honest the Peacock Centre has never really attracted many nibbles with its colourful display of Laura Ashley iridescent fabrics and feathers in Northampton, now half the 20 units empty and only ‘Next’ a high street name of note still in there. It was always meant to be exclusive and cosy, pitched more towards the middle-​class punter, the ones who only buy brands and cotton in their own intimate spaces, a polyester clear zone! Once the centre lost Benetton in 2004 it was a long possession of names that followed, going bust or didn’t renew their leases, today just enough outlets in there to cover the rent. Its emptying out fast and if ‘Next’ go down the Peacock Centre goes down. There’s even a charity shop in there times are that grim.
The obvious reasons for the demise are those mid range brand stores are having their margins slashed in the recession and so going down fast or cutting the fat accordingly. No one gets fat in Northampton. I can think of at least ten brand stores that have closed down in the centre in the last two years, Principles, Dolcis, Officers Club and Jessops going in the last three months.
Who’s in there now?
Tie Rack
An Independent boutique
Next
Early Learning Centre
Charity shop
Laura Ashley
Rumour has it that the big names are reticent to go in there or renew their leases because of the uncertainty over Northampton’s iconic market square that backs on to one of the two entrances. This week the council has reduced the market to just half the original size and is leaving half empty for events and other attractions. Cynics say it’s all to do with the deliberate undermining of the popular traditional market and peppercorn rents so to get shoppers in the brand stores so the council can justify those higher business rates. Some are even saying there will be a huge expansion of the much bigger Grosvener Centre on to those recently cleared spaces Cutting down the market is very unpopular and the fact no one shops in the Peacock Centre suggests we need the market, the town’s shopper’s very low income right now. You really don’t see ‘Yummy Mummies’ pushing the kids around town anymore, the ruthless traffic wardens prowling the town trying to hit their quotas to avoid being fired long since driving them out to the more Chelsea Tractor friendly Milton Keynes, the type of people who would spend in the Peacock Centre but no longer do.
The plusses of the centre is they have some toilets on the ground floor and as the same council who are wrecking the market have closed ALL the public toilets in the town centre its a godsend to have these, the cleanest and the nicest in town. There’s a very small and intimate café in the centre for reasonably expensive snacks and coffees and good access to all the main shopping thoroughfares of Abington Street and the market square. But what there aren’t in the centre are any shops.

Even though this is a really small shopping centre it used to contain quite a few good shops and was worth a visit, but on my last trip to Northampton a few weeks ago I went in there and half of the shops are now empty. The best shop in there is probably Next but this is a really small branch and do not offer the same selection as most of the other branches.
There is a small Dorothy Perkins and a couple of other clothes shops and a Clinton Cards which is a good store, but other than that the choice is very limited and I would stick to the Grosvenor Centre where you get a much better selection.
There is a lovely café in here though which is open plan and serves really nice food and drinks at good prices, so it is worth popping in for something to eat as the main Grosvenor Centre doesn’t really have any small cafes like this.
This was once a nice small centre but it has gone downhill with the closure of shops. It lacks atmosphere and just looks drab and dreary and is not really worth bothering with much these days.

People moaning about the Grosvenor centre obviously haven’t been to Peacock Place. This really is everything that is poor about shopping centres. There is no ‘thru traffic’ (no car park, no bus station.) and hence there is insufficient trade to support any decent shops, for any reasonable length of time. As such, it is a white elephant. Tiny, with no reason to enter it, the best thing about Peacock Place is it’s name. Oh, and the fountains are quite nice.
In essence it’s a small, dark shopping arcade into which there is no reason to enter. As such, it has always suffered and presumably will continue to do so.
The entrance is on the old market square, which is very pleasant.

This is a very pretty, bright and well presented shopping centre. It is small but perfectly formed with some interesting shops. It is always clean and never seems to be too busy. The biggest shops are Next, Evans and Dorothy Perkins, but it also has some lovely little shops including Tie rack and a Radley boutique. It has a very nice café as well which is very popular. The toilets are very nice (and always clean!) and they have plenty of comfortable benches for having a rest! There are some empty units but it does have a lot of potential.

Peacock Place is a bit of an odd shopping centre. Situated in the middle of Northampton with entrances on the Market Square and Abington Street, it doesn’t seem to make the most of it’s town centre location. The only real noteworthy shop in there is Next and the rest of it seems really sparse and uninspiring. Unfortunately it suffers from being a neighbour to the Grovesnor Centre and the larger number of well known shops it holds. The only other benefit to Peacock Place is a café in which you are guaranteed to find a table even on the busiest of Saturdays.

a very nice, clean but quiet small shopping centre in the heart of town
contains small shopping units only, but only really has next & dorothy perkins to attract visitors
unfortunately contains too many empty units
toilets in the basement are probably the cleanest public toilets in the town centre

it really could do with more shops here its not a place i offen use

nice building i used to work here
is or was owned bye arab sheek
have met him once nice man
clean building but shops can be bit dear
used to be open shopping area in 80s

Lovely bright, clean shopping centre with a few nice shops in (mostly clothes shops such as Next) howver, could be made much more of in my opinion.