For more than three decades, the Broadwalk Shopping Centre has been a familiar spot for shoppers in Edgware.
For anyone who grew up in the area during the 1990s, it may bring back memories of Saturday shopping trips, buying music from Our Price, browsing greetings cards in Clinton Cards or heading into Toy Stack to see the latest toys and games.
The shopping centre opened in March 1990, and the site it occupies has a much longer history than many shoppers probably realise.
From railway land to a shopping centre
Before the Broadwalk arrived, part of the site had been occupied by Edgware’s former mainline railway station.
That station closed to passengers in 1939. The old station was later demolished, while the railway goods yard remained in use until 1964. Decades later, the land was transformed into the shopping centre familiar to generations of Edgware residents.
When the Broadwalk opened in 1990, it offered around 200,000 sq ft of shopping space, with roughly 40 shops and a huge surface car park capable of holding more than 1,000 vehicles. Its position next to Edgware Underground and bus stations also made it particularly easy to reach.
Sainsbury’s has been part of the centre since its opening and became one of its major anchor stores.
The shops people remember
For many local people, however, the building itself is probably less memorable than the shops that filled it.
Among the shops associated with the Broadwalk when it first opened were Clinton Cards and Toy Stack, the latter part of a toy chain that became a familiar high street name during the 1990s.
Another name many will remember is Top Shop/Top Man, which traded from Unit 10 at the Broadwalk. The store later became a Topshop outlet before eventually disappearing as Britain’s high street changed dramatically.
Old business directories also preserve a snapshot of several other names that once traded inside the centre.
They include Our Price, the music chain that sold CDs, cassettes and records; Adams Childrenswear; Evans; photographic shop Klick Photopoint; Lindys cafe; Boots and Specsavers. Clinton Cards was listed at Unit 29, while Our Price was based at Unit 7.
Other retailers associated with the centre over the years included Next, New Look, WHSmith, The Body Shop and HMV.
Marks & Spencer became another Broadwalk favourite
Marks & Spencer also became one of the centre’s best-known stores.
By 2009, Barnet Council described both M&S and Sainsbury’s as the Broadwalk’s anchor retailers, alongside stores including Boots, HMV, The Body Shop, New Look and Topshop.
Its eventual closure was keenly felt locally. Reviews written around the time show shoppers describing the loss of M&S as a major blow to the centre. The former store was later taken over by TK Maxx.
The changing names inside the Broadwalk tell their own story about British retail.
Our Price disappeared from the high street. Adams went into administration. Topshop and Topman vanished as physical chains. Clinton Cards dramatically reduced its estate, while traditional shopping centres across the country increasingly turned towards discount retailers, food, services and leisure.
More than just an Edgware shopping centre
Although physically located on the Barnet side of Edgware, the Broadwalk has always attracted shoppers from a much wider area.
Barnet’s economic work has noted that Edgware draws customers from neighbouring Harrow and Brent, helped by its transport links and its position close to the borough boundaries.
That will be familiar to generations of residents from places such as Canons Park, Stanmore, Burnt Oak, Queensbury and surrounding areas who have used Edgware as their local shopping centre.
More than 35 years after opening, the Broadwalk is still trading, with stores including Sainsbury’s, Boots, TK Maxx and a mixture of national chains and independent businesses.
But its future could look very different.
What happens to the Broadwalk next?
Plans for the biggest transformation of the site since the shopping centre opened have now moved well beyond the discussion stage.
Developer Ballymore bought the Broadwalk in 2020 and later joined forces with Places for London, Transport for London’s property company, to combine the shopping centre with neighbouring transport land.
Outline plans envisage the existing centre being replaced as part of a much larger redevelopment of Edgware town centre.
The approved masterplan allows for up to 3,365 new homes, including around 1,150 affordable homes, as well as 463 student accommodation spaces. Plans also include approximately 460,000 sq ft of new shops, cafés, restaurants and leisure space, a cinema, new public spaces, health facilities and a new transport interchange.
A new Deans Brook Nature Park would also open land behind the centre that has been inaccessible to the public for generations.
Barnet Council’s Strategic Planning Committee backed the outline application in July 2025. The scheme was subsequently referred to City Hall because of its size, but in April 2026 the Mayor of London declined to intervene, clearing another major planning hurdle.
That does not mean the Broadwalk will disappear overnight. Detailed designs and further approvals are still required for individual phases before much of the development can be built.
The previously published programme has suggested the first major phase could be delivered around 2031, with the wider development potentially continuing until around 2036.
Not everyone welcomes the plans
The proposals have also faced significant opposition.
Critics have raised concerns about the height and density of the development, buildings potentially reaching 29 storeys, reduced parking, years of construction work and proposals for the bus garage.
Supporters, meanwhile, argue that the scheme would bring thousands of homes, considerably more retail and leisure space, improved public areas and investment into a town centre that has changed relatively little since the Broadwalk opened.
Whatever eventually happens, the Broadwalk’s days in its current form now appear numbered.
For a shopping centre that opened in March 1990, that means Edgware could be approaching the end of one chapter that has lasted more than 35 years.
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Chris Mitchell is the founder and editor of Harrow Online, Harrow’s leading local news platform.
He launched Harrow Online in 2010 as a Facebook page sharing local news and information. Since then, it has grown into a trusted source for breaking news, crime, council decisions, planning, transport, business and community stories across the borough.
Harrow Online reaches hundreds of thousands of readers each month and has a social media audience of more than 200,000 followers.
For news tips, press releases or enquiries, contact Chris at info@harrowonline.org.
