Two London shopping centres are officially the best in the UK for Christmas shopping in 2024

Black Friday has just been and gone, and the most organised among us may already be prepping our Christmas shopping. But where will you choose to spend your cash this festive season? Will you brave the throngs of Oxford Street? Tour London’s many Christmas markets? Or stay at home and risk all your presents in the post?

Another way to get all your Christmas shopping done and dusted is to do it the old fashioned way: in a ginormous shopping centre. And luckily for us Londoners, two of the capital’s mega-malls have been named among the best in the UK for the 2024 festive season.

That’s according to online car retailer cinch, which compared and contrasted the UK’s 20 biggest shopping centres in a new study. The report examined each complex and ranked it according to things like size, parking availability and affordability, shopping and food options, and customer ratings.

Bluewater in Kent came top, but two London shopping centres made the top eight. Westfield Shepherd’s Bush and Westfield Stratford came seventh and eighth, respectively. Both complexes placed exactly in exactly the same positions as they did in cinch’s 2023 festive list.

Why did Shepherd’s Bush place higher than Stratford? One reason might be size: cinch says Westfield Shepherd’s Bush is the largest mall in the UK and covers a whopping 2.4 million square feet. Westfield Stratford is spread over 1.9 million square feet.

Christmas shopping in London with Time Out

There are, of course, plenty of other ways to do your shopping in London this Christmas. For atmospheric spending, see Time Out’s list of London’s best Christmas markets (and lights displays). Plus: this is the best UK supermarket for this year’s Christmas food shop.

Did you see that London’s best Christmas sandwich has been crowned for 2024?

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