The Lion Yard shopping centre is a covered

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

in the city centre of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, England. Construction work on the centre, which is bounded by St Andrew's Street,

Corn Exchange Street Corn Exchange Street is a street in central Cambridge, England.Corn Exchange S ...

, and

Petty Cury Petty Cury is a pedestrianised shopping street in central Cambridge, England.Petty Cury
,

, commenced in 1970 and the development contained a library,

multi-storey car park A multistorey car park (Commonwealth English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistorey, parking building, parking structure, parkade (Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck, or indoor parking, is a building designed fo ...

and

magistrates' court A magistrates' court is a lower court where, in several Jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions, all criminal proceedings start. Also some civil matters may be dealt with here, such as family proceedings. Courts * Magistrates' court (England and Wales) ...

. It predates and is significantly smaller than either the Grafton Centre or the Grand Arcade. The latter connects directly to Lion Yard. The Grafton Centre is situated just outside the city centre, however it has large shops such as

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain that operated in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, as well as franchised locations across Europe and the Asia Pacific. The company was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and gr ...

which the Lion Yard does not have, due to its confined location. For many years a central feature of the atrium was a white pillar with the statue of a large red lion on the top of it, safely out of easy reach. This recalled the Red Lion pub which had occupied the site until demolished in 1969. The lion statue was removed in 1999 and is now at the Cambridge University rugby club's ground on Grange Road. A red lion is an emblem of the University of Cambridge and the crest of its rugby club. Lion Yard was refurbished in the late 1990s/early 2000s. A covered shopping centre, the Grand Arcade mentioned above, adjoins Lion Yard on its south side; the two are interconnected. The main shopping mall is centred around an atrium which benefits from four entrances and exits. The retail element is concentrated on the ground floor; however, the Central Library can be accessed from the first floor of Lion Yard along with retailers Ellis Brigham, The North Face and New Look. The Centre consists of a three-storey office block (Lion House and St George House), an undercover external colonnade taking up one half of Petty Cury, external shops opposite

St Andrew the Great St Andrew the Great is a Church of England parish church in central Cambridge. Rebuilt in late Gothic style in 1843, it is a Grade II listed building. The church has a Conservative Evangelicalism in Britain, conservative evangelical tradition an ...

Church, many high street retailers internally along with housing the seventh busiest library in the UK.

References

External links

Lion Yard website

Lion Yard in the 1970s
{{Shopping centres in the East of England 1970 establishments in England Shopping centres in Cambridgeshire Shops in Cambridge