Shopping Centres Report Record-Breaking Trading

Despite reports of a seasonal slowdown, some shopping centres have reported record-breaking trading in the last weekend before Christmas, with many beating last year's figures. Annie Walker, director of London's Regent Street Association, which includes some of the capital's flagship stores, said Saturday was a "stunning" day, with the world-famous Hamleys toy store reporting the best Saturday before Christmas for five years. At the mammoth Brent Cross shopping centre, commercial director Tom Nathan said around 75,000 had come to shop in north London, ahead of last year's figures for the same day.

Birmingham's £530m Bullring mall was enjoying "booming" pre-Christmas trade and is thought to have attracted more than a million shoppers in the past week. A spokeswoman for the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent said the mall had seen one of its busiest weekends of the year, with car parks half full more than an hour before the shops opened for business. It is estimated that over the Christmas period, six million people will have visited the centre spending in excess of £200m.