tracy in pages from ceefax today bbc radio 4 teletext holidays jojo is blonde pages from ceefax bbc…read moreradio 4 sailing by shipping forecast jojo had little jojo is coming Pavilions Shopping Centre is one of the landmarks of Birmingham City Centre. I like its classic look that has been untouched for decades, which juxtaposes the adjacent contemporary style of the Bull Ring Shopping Centre. It reminds me that Birmingham is full of variety.

Pavilions Shopping Centre is one of the landmarks of Birmingham City Centre. I like its classic…read morelook that has been untouched for decades, which juxtaposes the adjacent contemporary style of the Bull Ring Shopping Centre. It reminds me that Birmingham is full of variety. And "variety" is the best way to describe the spacious food court on the top floor of the Pavilions. There is ample seating, even on busy weekends. And best of all, you have so many eateries to choose from with various cuisines ranging from traditional English, to Chinese and Mexican. They even have dessert options if you're just looking for a light snack with tea. The decor is reminiscent of the 60s era with plastic and pale seating and tables. However the staff members do their best to maintain the area. The food is fairly cheap and you have a fine selection.

Easily accessible, contains most popular shops as well as little boutiques that are unique to…read moreTouchwood. Some shops are over-priced but the quality of clothes, food, jewellery, healthcare products etc are generally very, very good. Never had a bad experience in Touchwood! A very nice, reputable place to shop. Includes a cinema and food court/restaurants such as pizza hut and Nando's on the top floor, the next floor has a sushi bar, book/clothes/jewellery shops as well as a door leading out to solihull library and escalators leading down to the ground floor which has a car park and toilets. There are helpful signs directing you to the toilets and other places which are easily understandable. Amazing place to shop.

The Bullring was built around a Church, St Martin's in the Bullring…read more It's named after Martin Lewis who is the patron Saint of shoppers, He used to show shoppers how to make great savings on their purchases in Medieval times. Ok so that might not be true. But with recent facts about Birmingham being confused by Fox News. The bullring opened in September 2003 (I know I was working there!) It's mainly a high street fashion shopping destination but there are lots of little food units to explore round the three floors. Built into what was a sloping hill each of the floors have street level exits which can cause lots of confusion on your first visit. But fear not. There are touch screen maps around the centre to help you explore. It's huge glass roofs help natural light flow through each of the floors and you can walk from here to Birmingham New Street Station without going outside if you follow the walkways. Mornings are usually quieter than the rest of the day so if you are in a rush get there for 10am on a week day!

I see this place as more of a necessity, I don't really like going here but you have to so you can…read moreget to the majority of the shops in Birmingham city centre. Don't get me wrong, the place in comparison to other shopping centres is almost beautiful, big open skylight, actually quite clean and toilets on almost every level. But half the time the escalators are broken, the last one being a total of nearly 4 months (and having to fight through H&M if you wanted to go down to the ground level). The elevators are ridiculously slow, and usually monopolized by the owners of tiny humans in prams... which is fair enough as they would struggle with the stairs. The morale of this story is - take the stairs. Other than that gripe its generally not a bad place, just really busy. You can cut through the bullring to quickly get to any other part of town and because the whole building is sheltered its convenient for shopping in the bad weather.

Merry Hill is a big shopping centre located in Brierley Hill, it is home to over 200 shops such as…read moreM&S, Debenhams, Topman, River Island etc.. Over recent years it has become less of the giants in shopping centres of the UK. There are plenty of places to eat from Burger king to Pizza hut, however there are quite a few smaller cafes to eat from and a Millies cookies! Parking is not a problem in the weekday, however on Saturdays and around Christmas you have to be there when they open. Other shops in Merry Hill include Disney Shop, Game, HMV, WHSmith and much more. However, Over recent years it has gone down hill slightly purely at the groups that hang around the bus station and the general crowdidness of it at times. I would recommend a trip to Birmingham to the Bullring which has better shops and better ambiance anyway.

Merry Hill - the perfect place to gather the bits & bobs everybody needs! No matter what you are…read morelooking for, you will find it here...even if you don't need anything you'll most probably leave with a shopping bag in you hand! :) A wide range of clothes, cosmetics, beauty salons, food stalls etc. are waiting to welcome you. On the weekends you can take a short break of shopping while watching small presentations of dancers, singers or musicians. Kids can have a great day in the indoor play area which is child minded. Free parking spaces make your arrival and departure as easy as possible.

I recently came back to Milton Keynes after living abroad. The centre has changed for the better…read more It's remodeled in parts but has kept its old look and feel. I want to praise the centre for its amazing mother and baby facilities. It's so clean. I love the breastfeeding rooms with the privacy curtains. I love the fact I can breastfeed my baby and my son can use to the touchscreen game while he waits for me. This is such a help for shopping with two children five and under...thank you!

The MK Centre has a shop for everyone. From clothing to restaurants, books to games, adult toys to…read morejewellers. You should dedicate your day to shopping, as there are so many to visit. I've noticed the premises is always kept clean and there's rarely any rowdy or offensive behaviour. The market has some bargains, you can find the odd great summer dress for £5. It's open every day except Mondays and Wednesdays. It gets crowded on weekends, but that's to be expected in any City shopping centre. You get the odd bird flying around, too. Also, I'm not sure what the fountain is now, there used to be a gorgeous fountain near Nandos and it's been covered over.

If you don't fancy heading to the centre of Birmingham for shopping heaven (why not?!) this…read moreshopping park has a number of flagship stores and eateries. Best of all the car parking is free, although as you can imagine finding a space at the weekends can be tricky so I would advise getting here early. Next, Boots (with a mini Waitrose inside), Topshop, Oasis and many more are here. If you are feeling hungry there is a Frankie and Benny's, Nandos, and Harvester and well as a few coffee places to try. All in all a worthwhile place to visit to stock up on the essentials.

As I'm currently the Duchess of the Fort, it would be rude not to review the place!…read more For me, this is quite local a I live just a couple of miles away. It's a typical out of town shopping centre with all of the high street familiars in one open space, so not at all an indie heaven, but useful if you need a Boots or M&S. It also has a BHS, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, and Carephone Warehouse, to name but a few. There's plenty of coffee, cake and food options including Starbucks, Costa Coffee, M&S Cafe and eateries such as Nandos, Harvester and Frankie & Bennies. There's plenty of free parking (it does get very busy around Christmas, and sometimes of a weekend) and it feels less claustrophobic than some shopping centres, being open air and built in a big loop. As far as these things go, it's decent enough, well maintained and with plenty of options.

The new food court at University Centre in the University of Birmingham serves the student populace…read moreand those lecturers brave enough to venture out from their offices at some point in the day. The food court is made up of two cafes, Cafe Go and Cafe Spice. Cafe Spice serves a range of hot food, including pasta, curry, and pizza, whilst Cafe Go serves more traditional cafe food such as sandwiches and baguettes. Although in the middle of campus and run by the university, it's difficult not to get the impression that many of the decisions about pricings were made by someone not exactly in touch with the students. For something that could've been a nice, affordable alternative to bringing food from home, for many students the prices (often around £3.50 for a Panini) make this more of a once in a while treat rather than a regular haunt. Additionally, at peak times the queues can easily take 20 minutes to get through, and after lunch there's often very little choice of meals remaining.

intu Derby has had various names over the years, it became intu Derby after the centre was bought…read moreout from Westfield in 2014, but before then it was known as The Eagle Centre. Located in Derby city centre, around half a mile from the train station it has 199 stores over two floors, with the upper level mainly being occupied by restaurants. The largest anchor stores over 3 levels are Marks and Spencer and Debenhams. The mall is modern in most areas, however, other parts could certainly be done with some improvement which seemed so poor, it looks like two different shopping centres in comparison. The mobile signal around the mall was terrible, It even got so bad I had to go into the Three store, who is my mobile operator who explained it is bad and they normally have a signal booster which wasn't working. Luckily the centre did have wi-fi but even that was pretty poor. The centre is the largest shopping centre in the East Midlands region in terms of area and is the 14th largest in the country (Just 227 meters squared larger than intu Milton Keynes & thecentre:mk) The security staff gave me a bad vibe, they seemed like they were wanting to cause trouble and didn't seem as friendly as elsewhere in the UK, which could be said about the mall staff as a whole, but it is still one of the better shopping centres in the area with some nice brands including the city's only Starbucks store, you can also find stores from Nando's, Carluccio's, Jack Jones, Hugo Boss, WHSmith and more, so it is one of the best places to shop in the city even if it does lack multiple brands which can be found at smaller malls in Nottingham and Leicester such as Currys PC World and Apple. 3*

Now, I'm not normally a fan of shopping centres, but I have to confess I was seriously impressed by…read morethe new (opened in October 2007) Westfield Centre. It's seriously large inside, with 175 stores anchored by a large M&S and Debenhams. But what I liked was the bright, light and seriously minimalist finish to everything, and apparently all to a very high standard. It was about as far from a crappy British shopping centre as I have ever seen. On the inside, it also steers clear of that horrible cheap and tacky atrium style of architecture. It looks as though someone has at least tried to put some thought into it all. The stores were - unsurprisingly - mostly the familiar set of High Street names, although there were also some clearly local outlets, too, although a few of these looked perilously close to discount stores. But, overall, I was impressed - and surprised, because Derby isn't that large a city. Only 4 stars? Well, for such a huge place, their signposting and mapping wasn't that great, even with the hi-tech touch-sensitive store and location finder. (Nice technology, shame about the map). They have the usual range of services (toilets, parking for 2,000 cars, etc) as well as a cinema. It's slap bang in the middle of the city, so it's hard to miss.