The shopping centre formerly featured a series of fountains but these had to be put out of service due to health and safety reasons in late 2005.

On 12 February 2009, Swedish furniture retailer IKEA opened its 18th British store, on West Quay Road.

As well as the shopping centre, the development included a large office tower, rooftop car park and the Royal Oak pub.

The final sole occupant of East Street Shopping Centre was a SCRATCH outlet (a Southampton-based charity) until they relocated in 2012.

In November 2012, Arcadian Estates were granted permission by Southampton City Council to demolish East Street Shopping Centre as part of a £30 million redevelopment.

[4] The original redevelopment was for a new Morrisons foodstore and an open pedestrian thoroughfare re-linking St Mary's back to the city centre.

[5] However, in late 2014, De Stefano Property Group, the landowners of the demolished site, went into administration [6] and Morrisons announced in March 2015 they were closing loss making stores on the back of poor trading results.

Also off this atrium was the largest unit in the centre, originally occupied by The Reject Shop and then the Sega Park arcade from 1996 until closure.

[11] In January 2013, all traders inside the Bargate Centre were given notice to leave their premises by BNP Paribas Real Estate, who were attempting to sell the complex.

[15] On 26 September 2014, the Daily Echo newspaper reported on a developer's proposal to demolish the Bargate Centre building and replace it with a new street containing shops and flats.

However this proposal remained on hold due to an impasse between the developer and the American investment consortium who owned the complex at the time.

The Marlands Shopping Centre was constructed to a PostModern design, which was described at the time of opening by one critic as looking like "something made of Lego".

The centre was built on the site of Southampton's bus station (the city is now without such a facility), a popular rose garden and some terraced housing.

Some years after the original shopping centre opened, an additional development - initially known as Watermark WestQuay - was added housing a leisure complex including a cinema and several restaurants.

Southampton Central railway station is located in the north west of the city centre area, with the old Southern Terminus in the south east.

The station is on the South West Main Line, with it seeing frequent services to the local area as well as London and Manchester.