Westfields shopping centre - recommend it?

[YesSirICanBoogie]

I'm down in London for a few days and I was considering a visit to the Westfields shopping centre. Is it worth a trip? Is the Blooming Marvellous branch there still open? Their website has been down for weeks so I'm wondering if they've gone bust.

They (BM) have gone into administration but I believe some of the shops are still trading.

There are lots of baby stores there. If you're bringing your child as well, they have family rooms that I find very relaxing for little ones, meaning the day can go on a bit longer coz they've exercised a bit. Its worth a trip.

Someone recently on another thread said that they had been into the Blooming Marvellous Westfield shop recently. Their phone no is on the Westfield website so you can ask them.

How old are your DCs? If they are toddlers then you can take them to this gaff:

poncy gym

for an extremely poncy class in a brand new baby gym thing, with lots of equipment. It is normally fabulously expensive but I think you can get a free trial class. Might help them run off their energy before you SHOP.

BTW I thought it was absolutely vile but then I don't much like big shopping centres so gawd knows why I went. It doesn't have a John Lewis even!

It has some very upmarket shops there.
Lunch cost us a fortune in teh food court - £40 for three of us (we had vietnamese which was good ... but not that good).

Its not worth a trip in the sight-seeing sense. Its just a collection of chain stores in a big, light building. If I was in London for just a few days I would go to one of the high streets that are uniquely London, not a faceless shopping centre.

Having said that I was there yesterday and BM was open.

It's just shops. I'm probably blase because I live round the corner so I don't see it as a big attraction.

BUT if you like shops, it's a nice change from Oxford Street!

For lunch, I'd recommend the vegetarian cafe Tidbits which is on the outside edge of Westfield, opposite Waitrose. It's a buffet, the food tastes way better than it looks, and they're really child friendly. They have a family area at the back with books, crayons and a giant blackboard. The staff are really attentive to the children, bring them a free babyccino, and when we were there the kids got free toys (small, wooden) too.