A diagram of the original BULL RING CENTRE. Opened -by the Duke of Edinburgh- in May 1964, the 24 million pound complex was Great Britain's first fully-enclosed shopping mall. It provided "coat-free shopping" to the West Midlands populace.
Drawing from John Laing Construction, Limited


Who came first? London's ELEPHANT & CASTLE CENTRE was dedicated in March 1965. The complex is often heralded as the first covered shopping mall in Europe...although Birmingham's BULL RING CENTRE opened for business almost one year before. The ELEPHANT & CASTLE complex was demolished in July 2021.
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