The Gyle Shopping Centre in Edinburgh opened in October 1993. I remember it opened while I was on the French History trip with school. The Gyle is a 10 minute drive from the Airport. And about a 30 minute drive from town depending on the time of day in which you decide to travel there. We live ... Read review
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Advantages: Open 7 days Disadvantages: Not as many stores as other shopping centres
The Gyle Shopping Centre in Edinburgh opened in October 1993. I remember it opened while I was on the French History trip with school. The Gyle is a 10 minute drive from the Airport. And about a 30 minute drive from town depending on the time of day in which you decide to travel there. We live a 5 minute drive away and a 15 minute walk from the Gyle. The area round the Gyle is mostly businesses and there is the newish housing estate of Gogarloch ... ...the left handside of the Gyle is Safeway's. This was relocated here from St John's road when the Gyle opened. It was the only supermarket around for round about 7 years before Tesco opened in direct competition further into Corstorphine offering a closer supermarket for the locals. I find that Safeway is large and easily can get lost. At the opposite end is Marks and Spencer's. In the last 2 years a massive extension has been built on and Marks and ... more
The Gyle Shopping Centre in Edinburgh opened in October 1993. I remember it opened while I was on the French History trip with school. The Gyle is a 10 minute drive from the Airport. And about a 30 minute drive from town depending on the time of day in which you decide to travel there. We live a 5 minute drive away and a 15 minute walk from the Gyle. The area round the Gyle is mostly businesses and there is the newish housing estate of Gogarloch (our first home was here) and South Gyle.
The centre itself is mostly one level. There are 3 car park entrances and plenty spaces, including Parent and child spaces close to all the entrances and Disabled spaces which are even closer and plentiful. There are lots of other spaces spread out over a wide area. Very rarely can you get a space but I sometimes find in busy periods that I am better off parking far away and walking down to the centre.
There are 60 units for shops and these are used in a wide variety. At either end of the shopping centre is one big store. on the left handside of the Gyle is Safeway's. This was relocated here from St John's road when the Gyle opened. It was the only supermarket around for round about 7 years before Tesco opened in direct competition further into Corstorphine offering a closer supermarket for the locals. I find that Safeway is large and easily can get lost. At the opposite end is Marks and Spencer's. In the last 2 years a massive extension has been built on and Marks and Spencer's have upgraded their stores with a refit and better toilet facilities as well as 2 cafes. These do not sell hot food, but their cakes are delicious.
These 2 shops are both at the end of 2 long area's of shops. They sort of verge off at an angle which you do not notice. Other well known shops such as Next, River Island, WH Smith, Birthdays, Boots, The Disney Store, McKays, Virgin and Carphone Warehouse to name a few names are situated around the mall. The sizes of the shops all vary. For example Boots is a large store while Claires Accessories is a very small store. It just varies from store to store but in some of the smaller ones we find it easier to leave the buggy outside if we can.
The Centre itself is very light and airy as it has a glass roof which means there is natural light above you most of the time. This makes it better to see and the centre is kept very clean. Regularly see cleaners walking about the centre cleaning. There are litter bins spaced out at roughly every 4th shop and fit in well with the centre's decoration. The centre is non smoking and regular announcements make you aware off this. At all entrances you will find ashtrays and buckets for disposing of your ash and ends.
In the middle is a lovely big fountain area with Escalators and a lift. The lift is not very big but we have fitted 3 pushchairs in it. The lift used to take forever but recently seems to have been speeded up making it much faster and the queuing times shorter. The lift and escalators take you up to the food court. There are 5 counters including Burger King, baked potatoes, pizza, sandwiches, and a cake counter. The food court is fairly large and situated towards the back is a bar and cafe. Just before you reach this is the smoking area which wrongly has been put beside the baby changing room. Not a pleasant smell to smell while changing your baby. The changing room has 3 mats and is always kept clean. There is an area for breast feeding but most mums feed in the food court area which is a more pleasant surrounding. The changing room supplies wipes and nappy sacks and there is also a single toilet for any mum who may have an older child or a mum who needs the loo while in there. There is room for 1 pram but I tend to leave the buggy etc outside. A microwave is available for you to heat up babies food and also bottle warmers by Avent are available for you to heat a bottle. My only complaint I have is that there is nothing to help dry off the bottle after it has been in the warmers. Toilets are also situated upstairs and downstairs. They are kept well cleaned and stocked. The ladies has about 16 cubicles in each. They have hand driers and paper towels too.
The Gyle shops open about 9.30am Monday to Friday until 8pm and 9pm on a Thursday. Safeway and M&S have their own opening times. Saturday is 9am until 6pm and on a Sunday 10am until 6pm. Around Christmas time the opening times change to longer and some stores stay open until midnight.
In the middle is the Customer service desk. Here you can ask for advice or you can hire reigns or buggies for your time at the Gyle. This is a free service and handy if you forget your buggy. They are mothercare's Jive Buggy's but they are better than nothing. We always arrange to meet here if we get lost.
Quite often special events take place. Just a few weeks ago was a fashion show and other times various companies come in and do special things such as face painting to advertise an event or during holidays special programmes take place with free events to keep children occupied for a short while.
You can get a train from Waverley Station and walk to the Gyle. Or a LRT 2, 12, 18, 22 will take you to the Gyle in a short time. A Taxi rank is outside near the bus stops and is handy if you feel the need to get a taxi. Safeway also have a Petrol Filling Station which is reached on the way out the middle entrance.
The Gyle has a few other cafes such as Starbucks and Nargini's situated downstairs as well as the ones in M&S and in Safeway. Nargini's sell ice cream too so that goes down a treat with a nice cool drink on any day of the year. Children are well catered for with shops like ELC and The Disney Store. There is also Castle Gyle a drop off Crèche. We started using this in January. Children over the age of 2 are welcome to be dropped off for 2 hours. The most I have ever put Eilidh in is 90 minutes but she loves being able to play in their ball pool and the crèche is very like a nursery. There is also a Nursery just opposite the crèche which is a full day one and is part of the Edinburgh Nursery chain. There are various cashpoints at the front doors and in Safeway's and M&S too.
With it only being on one level for the shops I often feel that I get bored if I go here too often. As I used to live a 2 minute walk away from the Gyle I regularly went here and after 6 months of walking there most days I made an effort to go elsewhere. For a last minute present or a visit to a shop which doesn't mean having to traipse into town the Gyle is handy. But now that I have discovered McArthur Glen and the Almondvale which are just a 20 minute drive away, I find that I can go there for a wider range of shops and choices. I've found staff in most shops to be helpful and friendly and the Gyle Management team who run Customer services are friendly too. I find the Gyle best visited during the week but at lunchtimes due to it being close to the business parks and handy for the local schools and colleges, that it can get quite busy and at weekends I go to the Gyle in the mornings as the afternoons become very hectic.
Advantages: Lots of Parking, easy to find your way around, good opening hours Disadvantages: Not as many shops as other nearby shopping centres
I visited the Gyle shopping centre last week for the first time in about 6 years. I never thought much of it before; I always thought it was quite boring with very few shops that really weren't up to much. I felt that there were other shopping centres nearby that offered a better choice of shops. Well I'm pleased to say that I was pleasantly surprised when I walked in last week! It has changed so much for the better, so I thought I should write a ... ...what I have heard the Gyle does get very busy at weekends, however I visited on a Thursday night and it was really quite quiet, so I managed to really enjoy my shopping experience. >>>>Getting There<<<<
The Gyle is really easy to find by car, because as I've previously said it is located not far from the motorways and the airport. It is also well signposted so you won't get lost! I don't actually stay in Edinburgh so I'm not too sure about bus services ...
mrsm23 13.11.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Gyle Shopping Centre
Advantages: Very Clean, Easy to get around, Lots of Space Disadvantages: Too few shops,not on two levels,not that easy to get to
The Gyle Shopping Centre in Edinburgh which opened in October 1993 is one of 4 main shopping centres in Edinburgh. The others are Cameron Toll, St James Centre, Waverley Market(Princes Mall) and Ocean Terminal. There is also Westside Plaza but this isn't exactly what you call a main shopping centre and Straiton park,Craigleith(The Quarry) and Fort Kinnaird are all Retail parks.
The Gyle is a approx a 10 minute drive from Edinburgh International ... ...companies) .The area round the Gyle is mostly businesses and there is are many houses nearby within walking distance of the Centre and there are alos two train stations nearby(both about a 15 min walk or so) which are South Gyle and Edinburgh Park. Journey times from South Gyle to Edinburgh Waverley takes approx 9 minutes.
There are a numer of buses that go the there Gyle from the City Centre(CC) which include the 12 and the 22. The 12 takes a very ...
matty168 18.11.2007 (17.11.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Gyle Shopping Centre
Advantages: easy parking, no chance of getting lost Disadvantages: limited range of shops, uncomfortable seating, outdated decor
...least some time in the Gyle Shopping Centre, for no other reason than it's a convenient meeting place for my husband and I after we finish work. If I could choose, I'd spend absolutely no time there at all. In fact, the temptation to swap our meeting at the Gyle for a draughty bus shelter somewhere near the Edinburgh bypass occasionally seems tempting in comparison. But the Gyle has a roof, and on those grounds alone, I trudge there night after night, ... ...bus links to the city centre, although it does take quite a while to get there by bus, especially as most buses detour through the business park which is a maze of street furniture and harrassed commuters. Yup, that's all of them. Sorry Gyle - I hate you! ...
molelover 29.07.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Gyle Shopping Centre
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