In the centre of Rugby town, we have a shopping precinct called the clock towers, named after our beautiful clock tower which stands proud in the centre of town, and is a sort of a legend around rugby, everyone tends to meet there, either for shopping or when you go out in the evening, the taxi rank and all the bus stops are dotted around it also along with the hundreds of pigeons, whom all stop there waiting for the children to drop bits of their cakes or sweeties, or for a stray chip or bit of sandwich that gets dropped from the locals whom buy and have their lunch from the takeaway caravan type things that are based their.
There are three takeaway stands based around the bottom of the Clock tower, one being a jacket potatoes stand, one being a burger van and another being a sandwich van. I would defiantly recommend the spuds, they are delicious and although quite large in size, they still manage to be extremely competitive in process, a spud with butter and coleslaw is 1.40 which in my opinion is a bargain.
Anyway Inside the precinct we have a varied amount of shops, such as Thornton's, Wilkinson's, Argos, Poundland, Dunelm Mill, boots, Superdrug, New Look etc etc, all are the same standard in which you would get in other towns, so nothing out of the ordinary, but a good varied bunch for all shoppers. The precinct also tend to have some little market type stalls such as a lovely traditional sweet stand, a glass and crystal artist, jewellery stand and they also tend to vary these stands throughout the year, which is nice, especially at Christmas time, where they had a lovely stand with nick naks that were all personalised for e.g. stockings, hairbrushes, room signs, mirrors etc.
They also have a few eatery options for shoppers; they have a bb's, baker's oven, subway, all again at the same type of standard as you would imagine for these types of chain places.
There is also a café on the second floor of the precinct that although is very basic in décor, sort of a greasy spoon style café, it actually caters to all different tastes and is very nice, it seems to be a favourite haunt for the over 60's, probably because of all their specials on oap's and early bird specials etc. On a Wednesday they do a gorgeous shepherds pie and vegetables, with a mug of tea of coffee for a fiver, my Nan and granddad often go up there for a treat on a Wednesday bless them.
The precinct is very clean and has good access to all stores for both the disabled and double pushchairs etc, there are plenty of bins around and tends too be quite a nice place to shop.
There are always security guards around that are very friendly and helpful to all shoppers that need some assistance but also are very good at stopping the youth spoiling the precinct for all.
The only complaint I have about the precinct is the scarcity of toilets, there is one toilet on the bottom floor only accessible to the disabled and then all the rest along with the baby changing facilities are on the third floor, so it's a nightmare when your three year old shouts I need a poo poo in the middle of Wilkinson's when your arms are full of shopping and you have to grab them and do a sprint up to the elevators and then go up three floors and then do another sprint along the corridors to the toilet - complete nightmare. I can remember doing this when I was pregnant as well, and let's just say I got there only just in the nick of time!! And then had to lie down for a week to recover from my Linford Cristie style sprint Overall though, I think that this shopping centre is very sufficient for the locals, its not the sort of centre that I would obviously travel to for a great shopping experience. read more
