Princesshay Shopping Centre opened in 2007 at Princesshay in Exeter city centre, redeveloping a 1950s post-war precinct built on the bomb-damaged area of medieval Exeter, with approximately 35,000 sqm of gross leasable area incorporating a mix of covered and open-air shopping streets as the principal modern retail destination for Exeter and Devon. The centre is owned by Legal & General and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Exeter’s commercial position reflects its dual role as the regional capital of Devon and the principal university and professional services city of the Southwest peninsula. The University of Exeter adds approximately 25,000 students to a resident population of approximately 130,000, creating a young-professional and academic consumer base with spending patterns that support the fashion, lifestyle, and dining tenant mix. Princesshay’s design recreates the medieval street pattern of pre-war Exeter with covered and open arcades, including the preserved medieval Guildhall and the Roman excavations visible in the development’s basement archaeology display. Marks & Spencer, H&M, and mainstream fashion anchors serve the Devon consumer base. The rooftop terrace restaurants overlook the 12th-century Exeter Cathedral, a heritage view unavailable to competing retail centres.
Exeter’s population of approximately 130,000 provides the immediate base. The Devon and East Cornwall catchment from Tiverton, Newton Abbot, and Plymouth extends the regional draw to approximately 600,000. Exeter St Davids provides Great Western Railway connections to London Paddington in approximately two hours. The M5 motorway junction and the A30 provide regional car access from across the Southwest.
Legal & General and CPPIB manage Princesshay as the Devon regional retail anchor. The cathedral view from the rooftop and the archaeological display within the development create heritage experiences embedded in the retail circuit that are genuinely unique in the UK retail landscape.
