Whiteleys, London > Reviews (6)

Whiteley's

Whiteley's is a good sized shopping centre located in Bayswater in West London. The centre is actually on the Queensway strip and is handily in-between the Queensway and Bayswater underground stations!

The Womens Shops
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You will find a variety of womens clothing stores spread out over the three floors. These include Oasis, Accessorize, Zara, Karen Millen, Nine West and La Senza (and a few more!) The stores themselves are all a normal size, none of them being particular large. The Oasis store in particular (to me anyway!) seems to be a bit small in comparison to its other stores and appears to stock less of a range.

The Mens Shops
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Unfortunately men aren't as well catered for in the centre, but shops for men include the Gap (unisex) and Zara Men. There is also a mens store named 'Doucereux' which is a designer menswear store, although I've never had much luck shopping for my bloke in there…

General shops
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As well as the clothes stores you will also find mobile phone shops (including T-Mobile, Orange and Vodafone), jewellers such as Ernest Jones, an M&S, a Halifax bank, a couple of card shops, cosmetics stores, a book store, a hair salon and a Jessops photo developing store. The third floor also has a good sized Odeon cinema which is always nice for when you've had enough of shopping!

For the kids
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For the children there are also a couple of children's clothing stores such as H&M Kids and Gap Kids. The second floor is also home to 'Gymboree' a children's' play centre which holds classes for young children from babies up to the oldest available class, for 3+ years.

Restaurants
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The majority of the restaurants and cafes are located on the third floor and there is a good variety so you should be able to find something to suit everyone. You will find a Bella Italia, Café Rouge, a sushi bar, a Costa Coffee, a juice bar and a couple of more formal restaurant/diners with a good choice of menu.

Opening times
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One of the reasons why I like Whiteleys so much is because of its late opening times! The shopping centre itself is open from 8.30-midnight every day, including Sundays, although the majority of stores don't open until 10am and close around 8pm, although there are a good few which stay open until 10pm. (Most stores open 12-6pm Sundays).

The opening and closing times varies greatly from store to store.

Getting there
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The closest station is Bayswater station, which you can get to using either the district or circle line (green or yellow!), just turn left as soon as you get out of the station and Whiteleys is on the corner of the second turning on your left - you can't miss it! You can get to Queensway station on the central line, or jump on a bus, there is a bus stop just a couple of minutes away! (The website states buses 12, 23, 27, 36, 70 and 98 all stop closeby).

Parking is quite expensive, starting at £1.50 for an hour, going up to £7 for four hours and £50 for anything over 12 hours (eek!

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151 Queensway (W2)

The Verdict
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Whiteleys is a nice little shopping centre. The layout is good and spacious and you therefore are left without the feeling of being squashed in. There is good access for wheelchairs and pushchairs, with lifts and ramps as well as stairs. The overall look of the centre is good and not too commercial - there is for example a nice little iron winding staircase leading up to the first/second floor.

The centre has a good range of high street stores, restaurants and cafes, although probably not as many stores as I'd like to see! The Queensway strip however has more shops (you are on Queensway as soon as you leave Whiteleys) so if you're after a Boots, Tesco, Mk1 or more clothing stores, look no further…

Whilst the opening times are good (being late), as they vary from store to store it is difficult to time it right and if you are after a particular shop you will often need to phone ahead to make sure it is still open, which sort of defeats the object of a late night shopping centre.

Would I recommend you taking a trip specifically? Not really. The shops aren't anything special (there isn't even a Topshop!), they are quite small and the stock is limited, and to be honest I much prefer Lakeside. But if you are ever in the area, it's worth popping in to have a look round.