Gdansk – Forum Shopping Centre

Since I last came to Gdansk a huge new shopping centre has opened up near to the city centre, and it’s rather substantial in size with two McDonald’s (that’s how a shopping centre size can be judged). I do quite like shopping centres, as it means free toilets and food courts, which are both useful things to have available.

I also have an exciting theory (well, it’s not exciting at all really, but I have to make things sound as interesting as I can) that a city’s economic situation can be measured to some degree by what is happening with their shopping centres. In Norwich, the Castle Mall seems to be looking ever emptier every time I go into it. There appear to be more closed up units than open units, and I do wonder whether the Castle Mall is actually going to be a viable shopping unit in a few years.

Anyway, I digress. In Gdansk, as in much of central and eastern Europe, they’re building shopping centres at some pace. And I rather like this new one, the Forum Gdansk, and it’s an impressive building in terms of its design and its size. Apparently there were some teething troubles and the opening launch got delayed, but all these little snagging issues (I use that word for Liam) seem to have been resolved.

The food court. One of my favourite places in any shopping centre. And, unlike many other centres around the world, they’ve actually got enough tables even for when I came here at a busy time (ie, not when I took the above photo).

Much of the shopping centre has three storeys of shops.

Big and airy….

Some sort of dance event being held outside of the centre.

The exterior area, and one of the centre’s two McDonald’s. The whole centre appears popular in terms of the number of people here, although since it’s just opened it might still have a novelty factor. The opening hours are long and it’s easily accessible from both the main railway station and the main street.