This place, for rail travellers the "gateway to Birmingham", has always struck me as a rather odd type of shopping centre: forced into a rather odd shape by being fitted around New Street Station, it veers wildly between up-to-the-minute and completely down-and-out.

The general feeling to the Pallasades is, to be honest, rather dreary and old-fashioned - there's almost no natural light, for one thing. It's not so gloomy as the old Bull Ring, but without that centre's sense of "lived-in-ness". To analogise: the Bull Ring was like an ancient pair of trainers; smelly, leaking, falling apart at the seams but extremely comfortable. The Pallasades is more in the mould of school football boots - handy for its task, but not worn with any great enthusiasm.

There is a varied selection of smaller shops, too. The Works remainder bookshop must be singled out - it stays open until 7pm on weekdays, which means it does excellent business with commuters. It's good value, and sells an interesting range of things beyond books - wrapping paper, paint, CDs etc. There's a tiny Supercigs newsagent trying gamely to stay in business against the WH Smith in the station. The inevitable mobile phone shops, some of which look more dodgy than others. One or two perfume shops. Claire's Accessories continuing its mission of world domination. You get the idea.

The main way out of the Pallasades is past Woolworths and Electronics Boutique (which is excellent), via a ramp down to the junction of Corporation Street and New Street. Be warned: this isn't a very nice experience. It's extremely crowded, especially at weekends (the presence here of a large McDonald's doesn't help), with few people showing much inclination to "keep left". You'll also have to watch your feet - dog mess isn't a problem, but ice cream, chewing gum and discarded chip papers are.

On the ramp, you'll also find people handing out "make £5000 while waiting for a bus!!!" cards, religious fundamentalists, leafletters, market researchers - and beggars, of which Brum has a distressing number. These range from energetic (and often very funny) Big Issue vendors through penny whistle players (some of whom only know - sort of - one tune) to people who have pretty much lost all hope and spend the day sitting listlessly on a filthy blanket outside McDonald's. For the most part, these people are not in any way aggressive, and you certainly won't feel threatened, but you probably will feel guilty. What you do has to be down to your conscience.

Customer help and advice is almost non-existent - there are no help desks, and you're clearly expected to know your way around. You're unlikely to see much of the security guards either... unless you take out a camera, something which shopping centres are ridiculously paranoid about - you'd think it was a Formula 1 garage! For heaven's sake, does it *matter* if someone takes a photo of Boots? (Whinge over!)