The Hyperreality of The Trafford Centre Introduction Manchester has long been thought of as an industrial city, a bit hard, a bit rough with a bit of swagger. "The thing about Manchester is...it all comes from here" From Noel Gallagher, pointing to his heart. BBC2 September 1998. However, the emergence of consumer culture has had a profound effect on the city, it has become a bit sanitized, a bit shiny, a bit fake. The biggest example of this cliché would be the Trafford Centre in Greater Manchester. The Trafford centre can only be described as a ‘Temple of consumerism’. Even in the age of continued austerity, the need consume is pushed to the forefront of political and economic decisions. Jayne notes "less based on the production of goods and more on the production and consumption of culture" and goes onto see that these new consumption practices are commonly seen …show more content…
This is a complex that has over 200 stores, 60 restaurants and cafes, a multi-screen cinema and a range of other leisure pursuits. The average spend is now topping an eye watering £150 to each visitor, as they by for the weekend. The structure is a steel portal system which cantilevers over the lower shopping street. Much of the facade hangs off the steel frame and you can see a false street scene above hiding the structure, with fake openings and other niches in place, to give you the sense of upper living areas. Some with flower pots and other domestic scaled items. The streets are decorated in colours that would not look out of place in Italy that combine with marble(ish) floors, engravings, statues and decorative railings to remind the visitor of palaces and churches of the 18th century. The whole experience was likened to Las Vegas, or even Disney Land, nothing is real. Luke Butcher describes the building being ‘Simulacrum, meaning likeness or similarity, a poor replicated interior that lacked the quality of the