Exclusive First Look at Victoria Gate Leeds

So, this week has been a very exciting week so far and it’s only Tuesday.  Yesterday I was treated to an exclusive first look inside the Victoria Gate shopping centre. For those of you who woke up to snapchats of me wearing a hard hat and a hi-vis vest, I can only imagine how confusing that was but don’t say I don’t treat you from time to time. So, Victoria Gate opens its shiny new doors on Thursday at 10am but I have all of the highlights for you if you simply can’t wait. Read on to find out why it’s going to be the best thing since Nutella jars with your name on.

So why is VG Leeds so good? I mean Leeds already has lots of lovely shops so what, you may ask, is Victoria Gate offering? Victoria Gate is quite literally jam packed with some of my all time favourite brands including 23 new stores and 7 restaurants. You know when you have your dream dinner table with all of your favourite celebrities? Well, Victoria Gate is the shopping centre version. It has a gorgeous little Neom store with a sensory discovery bar, it has a Joules so we no longer have to shop online for their cute clothing offerings, it has an Aspinal of London so we no longer have to drive to Manchester to coo over their luxurious leather goods and it’s presence alone moves Leeds up the rankings to the third best place to shop in the UK. Pretty cool huh?

Most of the stores are completely new to Leeds (& Other Stories and Anthropologie I’m looking at you) but some have been picked up from other locations and carefully relocated in this new shiny setting. The White Company will be here and so will Pret not to mention Russell and Bromley. It also has a snazzy Casino and restaurants located on the upper level with bi-fold doors that open to give you stunning views of the impressive architecture. It has 800 parking spaces too which means less time walking, more time shopping.

The industrial exterior shell is very very impressive but it’s the curved store fronts and gold pendant lighting that immediately caught my eye. The best bit? It has a space for a pop up tenants which means there will always be something new to get excited about and the first one will be a Harvey Nichols Christmas pop up. * HURRAH* I think I’ll be spending a lot of time in Victoria Gate, in fact I’ll be at the Anthropolgie launch party on Thursday so give me a wave if you’re going!

These are just the main highlights, I mean, we haven’t even talked about the GINORMOUS John Lewis. I’m so happy that John Lewis has come to my city even if it is one of those shops that steals hours of your life and all of your pennies. I could literally spend hours in there. Do you know what I’m most excited about? Gift wrap. Yes, John Lewis do the best gift wrap in all the land not to mention stationery if you like that sort of thing. If you fancy a little look inside VG Leeds, my VLOG will be live this aft to give you a behind the scenes tour so make sure you are subscribed to my YouTube channel here.

Who’s started their Christmas shopping yet?