Red Rose Centre

This place used to be known as the Sainsburys Centre until Sainsburys buggered off and left the place to be renamed the Red Rose Centre. That was okay because at least the library was still there. Then the library ‘temporarily’ closed in 2009 and its bookshelves have been gathering dust ever since.
With the only proper supermarket in the town centre long gone and the prospect of the library ever re-​opening growing smaller everyday all that’s left to prop up this now tired old thoroughfare is the admittedly very good Wilkinsons, a new Greggs and hairdressers, a charity shop and a couple of other outlets which change from time to time.
The presence of the multi-​storey car park is a bonus and there are some great views from the top floor. However, if you try and take advantage of them, you’ll find yourself shooed away by wardens who presume you want to jump or hotwire someone’s car.
For ages the Red Rose Centre (for some reason that cries out to be said in a Geordie accent) had its own security guard too, although he did very little other than chat with the people dressed as penguins collecting for charity and walk up and down.

Should you not know central Sutton Coldfield particularly well, then from time to time the large logo displaying the name of this centre may have caught your eye and had you wondering what’s there. The truth is, not an awful lot.
The name — with that rather grand-​sounding ‘centre’ — really just denotes a shared area overseen by a single stakeholder which exists independently of stores nearby. This is not the equivalent of The Mall on the other side of Lower Parade, rather a small collection of stores paying rent to the same body, nominally brought together thanks to a roof.
Tenants include a newsagent/​tobacconist, a large charity shop (British Heart Foundation), a barber, an independent craft shop, a large branch of Wilkinsons and a budget-​priced frozen food vendor. Here you’ll also find what may quite possibly be the world’s largest branch of Greggs. The centre, in addition, is home to Sutton Coldfield’s main library — Greggs has plenty of seating so there is no need to hide a sausage roll behind The Da Vinci Code.
After a dingy corridor, the library also marks the point at which you’ll see daylight again. It’s this that may recommend the centre, the outdoors seating here making for a spacious respite from crowds. Sutton can suddenly spike in footfall without warning thanks to surrounding schools and colleges. If you felt less kind, though, you’d say the centre’s real purpose was providing largely-​covered access to a multi-​storey car park, plus cover from the rain if the bus shelters were busy.