The Story Behind St Anns Shopping Centre in Harrow

St Anns

St Anns was the first of the two big shopping malls in Harrow. St Anns is centrally located facing the Harrow-on-the-hill railway station, which is a few paces from the bus garage where bus converge and ran out across the region to as far away as Heathrow airport. The new shopping centre was opened in 197 by Princess Diana. The centre is named after pedestrianized St Anns Road. Its features included major stores, and the novelty of a food court.

After I carefully inserted apostrophes in St Anns, I discovered it was named without the apostrophe, following the style of the name of the street. I was amused to see that AI headed its information with the apostrophe, followed by the information that the name did not have an apostrophe.

Before the building of St Anns shopping centre, the site contained two schools, one of which was Heathfield School, where I went to school before I graduated to a girls' Grammar school. The Heathfield school had excellent teachers, but the building and empty playground were not memorable, no great loss, and Harrow gained a central site for the new shopping centre. The school did not disappear. It moved to Pinner.

After the success of St Anns, along came another covered shopping mall, St George's, with added decoration, inside and out.

St George's

A decade later along came St George's shopping mall, not a rival but an addition to an excursion to Harrow, a few feet away on the end of the pedestrian precinct which has St Ann's in the middle of the long side of the oblong. 

St George's covered shopping mall has a smart striped exterior, orange and green colours, and curves. 

Inside are reliefs of St George around the ceiling, and a glass dome above escalators. Curved black matalwork is another attractive feature. In addition to the shops it added entertainment to attract visitors, a cinema. 

The malls are decorated seasonally for festivals such as Christmas and Diwali. \The pedestrian has a statue of the designer's daughter, which got vandalised and stolen. Pop-ups in the pedestrian area are food stall, such as warning food in winter, summer fruit and vegetables and fairground rides in school holidays. Later additions have included seating. 

Useful Websites

https://www.stgeorgesshopping.co.uk/

 The complete history of St Anns Shopping Centre in Harrow - Harrow Online